Running my PC without an antivirus?

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mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
18,042
10,224
136
-I don't care for AV - but if I have to reload my games ,with no game saves, I'd be pissed so good or bad I pay for McAfee every year.
-sits in the back ground updates every DAY, plays nice with every thing I do, only software I pay for except for 4-10 games a year so good av vs a $60.00 x[4-10]games so no big investment.
also the fire wall seems to work so worth the price for me.
-and if something go's bad I have a recourse.[rant]
-free av is like free hooker and not using a condom to save a few $.02.

Did anyone else try to read this as bullet points? Perhaps to make it more difficult to read you could go for mirror writing, or write around the borders of the text box?

Your free hooker analogy makes no sense unless you equate free AV as no AV. More than one maker of AV software uses the same anti-virus engine in the free version as they do in the paid version. It makes perfect sense for them as they get a far wider testing userbase for the AV component of their products as well as a larger number of users submitting virus samples.

What else does commercial security software give us?

- "Identity protection", aka nothing to do with identity protection as the average person knows it, but "website verification" doesn't sound very sexy in marketing terms, and the average person might spot that modern browsers have been doing this for years on secure sites.

- "Computer performance enhancement", as if every MS OS after XP hasn't provided auto defrag for HDDs, and as if browsers can't manage their own Internet caches 95% of the time, and when was the last time that someone actually encountered a problem directly caused by temp files?

- Firewall. Two words: Windows Firewall.

- "Safe Search", aka. "we get to see everything you're searching for, we sell that marketing data and we get paid for advertising impressions, yay!", in exchange for a website blacklist of dubious value given that an awful lot of infections come from unscrupulous advertising sources, and a legitimate-yet-hacked site is normally a very short-term situation.
 
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Aug 30, 2013
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i bought bitdefender 2013 for 3 pcs and i used it with windows 7 and windows xp. bitdefender 2013 for me was slow and used lots of resources so i undeleted it and reinstalled windows security essentials. i then requested a refund from amazon because bitdefender was no good and was buggy.

You bought it for how much? Did you get the refund?
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
18,042
10,224
136
I saw BitDefender on a customer's computer (in the last year or two) saying that everything was fine and secure, then I checked when it had last received anti-virus definition updates... six months before (and yes, the computer was being used daily on an always-on Internet connection).
 

nemesismk2

Diamond Member
Sep 29, 2001
4,810
5
76
www.ultimatehardware.net
I saw BitDefender on a customer's computer (in the last year or two) saying that everything was fine and secure, then I checked when it had last received anti-virus definition updates... six months before (and yes, the computer was being used daily on an always-on Internet connection).

I guess maybe i was unlucky because everything installed ok, added latest updates and did a full scan (which was slow) which showed nothing wrong.
 

Berryracer

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2006
2,779
1
81
Did anyone else try to read this as bullet points? Perhaps to make it more difficult to read you could go for mirror writing, or write around the borders of the text box?

Your free hooker analogy makes no sense unless you equate free AV as no AV. More than one maker of AV software uses the same anti-virus engine in the free version as they do in the paid version. It makes perfect sense for them as they get a far wider testing userbase for the AV component of their products as well as a larger number of users submitting virus samples.

What else does commercial security software give us?

- "Identity protection", aka nothing to do with identity protection as the average person knows it, but "website verification" doesn't sound very sexy in marketing terms, and the average person might spot that modern browsers have been doing this for years on secure sites.

- "Computer performance enhancement", as if every MS OS after XP hasn't provided auto defrag for HDDs, and as if browsers can't manage their own Internet caches 95% of the time, and when was the last time that someone actually encountered a problem directly caused by temp files?

- Firewall. Two words: Windows Firewall.

- "Safe Search", aka. "we get to see everything you're searching for, we sell that marketing data and we get paid for advertising impressions, yay!", in exchange for a website blacklist of dubious value given that an awful lot of infections come from unscrupulous advertising sources, and a legitimate-yet-hacked site is normally a very short-term situation.

ditto bro! that guy is comparing McAfee (the worst paid AV in the planet) to the other AVs and even free ones. Well let me tell you this buddy (to the guy u quoted) avast FREE and AVG kick McAfee's ass big time when it comes to detection rates and they're FREE. so you keep paying for your McAfee and feed them with your dough $$$$

The only good paid AV I have tried out of the big ones like Kaspersky and Bitdefender and Norton is NOD32 FTW. Very light yet very good in catching and cleaning viruses
 

Matt1970

Lifer
Mar 19, 2007
12,320
3
0
ditto bro! that guy is comparing McAfee (the worst paid AV in the planet) to the other AVs and even free ones. Well let me tell you this buddy (to the guy u quoted) avast FREE and AVG kick McAfee's ass big time when it comes to detection rates and they're FREE. so you keep paying for your McAfee and feed them with your dough $$$$

The only good paid AV I have tried out of the big ones like Kaspersky and Bitdefender and Norton is NOD32 FTW. Very light yet very good in catching and cleaning viruses

Now now, McAfee is bound to work good on someone's computer here and there.
 

John Connor

Lifer
Nov 30, 2012
22,840
617
121
i bought bitdefender 2013 for 3 pcs and i used it with windows 7 and windows xp. bitdefender 2013 for me was slow and used lots of resources so i undeleted it and reinstalled windows security essentials. i then requested a refund from amazon because bitdefender was no good and was buggy.


No problems here. I'm using the free version on a computer. I found it to be pretty aggressive. I had some pirateware that look like Trojans and it quarantined them. Those were flase positives as they were keygens.
 
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pcslookout

Lifer
Mar 18, 2007
11,944
150
106
No problems here. I'm using the free version on a computer. I found it to be pretty aggressive. I had some pirateware that look like Trojans and it quarantined them. Those were flase positives as they were keygens.

Oh wow admitting to using pirate software and keygens!
 

bruceb

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
8,874
111
106
A lot of us might have done that in the past. Personally, I won't, as most of the software is reasonably priced (except MS Office and the Adobe products, both of which are very high). Also I don't trust the programs with keygens or cracks. Most times, they are safe, but some will infect. Not worth the risk.
 

John Connor

Lifer
Nov 30, 2012
22,840
617
121
Well, I shouldn't say this but I will download games before I buy them and check them out. My recent play was BF3 and I'm buying it off eBay now. A lot of games you get from TPB won't let you play multiplayer unless you join cracked servers and I don't want that. And so what? Thousands do it. LOL!





This is but a warning. You are trying to justify pirating. You can't do it here.

1) Talking about piracy is OK

2) Telling people how to pirate or how to get around copy protection is not OK.

3) One can talk about having pirated and it's impact on their opinions about issues or the affect it had on your life or things in this sort of line of discussion. You can't talk about what you pirated (unless there is a specific reason that it was necessary other than bragging) and you can't talk about ongoing pirating activities.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director
 
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Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,546
238
106
Well, I shouldn't say this but I will download games before I buy them and check them out. My recent play was BF3 and I'm buying it off eBay now. A lot of games you get from TPB won't let you play multiplayer unless you join cracked servers and I don't want that. And so what? Thousands do it. LOL!

Receipts please, lol.
 

Berryracer

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2006
2,779
1
81
A lot of us might have done that in the past. Personally, I won't, as most of the software is reasonably priced (except MS Office and the Adobe products, both of which are very high). Also I don't trust the programs with keygens or cracks. Most times, they are safe, but some will infect. Not worth the risk.


when I was part of the n00k!3 clan at 3dfiles.com, we used to have a motto that says never pay for s0ftwar3 but now my motto has changed and says "never use cracks" i don't trust any cracks or pirated software. I now prefer to pay and support teh developers who spend a lot of time and hardwork on a product and if everyone cracked their software, then they have no motive to improve and upgrade the product.

I even pay for MS Office, never the full price I always get it for a special price (I got Office 2010 Professional Plus for 10 bucks through a company discount program)

Adobe on the other hand doesn't deserve to be paid because they drill a whole in your pocket and secondly you buy a product after 2 months its already outdated a new number or letter will be added to a newer product, Photoshop CS 6, Photoshop CC, Photoshop KMS (Kiss my ***) LLOL
 

smakme7757

Golden Member
Nov 20, 2010
1,487
1
81
Adobe is fine as long as you disable the Javascript engine and the browser addon. Foxit is nice software though. The tabbed interface is super useful, unfortunately i need adobe for some rights-protected content Foxit can't open.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
18,042
10,224
136
SumatraPDF is nice. Its updating system is simpler/better than Foxit's and Adobe's IMO.

One thing about Adobe Reader that I would like to figure out is why on some customers' computers they will get a notification that there's an upgrade from 10 to 11 available, but on the vast majority of computers, once a user has all the updates for 10 (or any previous version), Adobe Reader neglects to mention the whole new version.

Foxit Reader's development has a real tendency to rework the UI every major version number, which I don't think is very user friendly (particularly for people who are less au fait with computers).
 

smakme7757

Golden Member
Nov 20, 2010
1,487
1
81
SumatraPDF is nice. Its updating system is simpler/better than Foxit's and Adobe's IMO.

One thing about Adobe Reader that I would like to figure out is why on some customers' computers they will get a notification that there's an upgrade from 10 to 11 available, but on the vast majority of computers, once a user has all the updates for 10 (or any previous version), Adobe Reader neglects to mention the whole new version.

Foxit Reader's development has a real tendency to rework the UI every major version number, which I don't think is very user friendly (particularly for people who are less au fait with computers).
Foxit had a big GUI reworking with its latest release. I find it too cluttered, but again the tabbed GUI is really nice.

I would say for 95% of people Foxit Phantom PDF Standard is the perfect product. It's what i had been using for the last few years. I never really had any problems with it.

The only reason i own Adobe Acrobat is because i picked it up for educational pricing which wasn't too stiff - about 80% off the regular price. Fellow students were using cracked versions, but i decided to skip a Saturday night out and actually buy the software .

I had been using both side by side for a while and must admit that Adobe is easier on the eyes. However I would never be able to justify the price of the full retail version of Acrobat.

As for a standalone reader i would 100% go with Foxit Reader.

I havn't tried SumatraPDF.
 

MrColin

Platinum Member
May 21, 2003
2,403
3
81
heuristic scanning and signature based virus scanning are best done while the OS isn't even loaded. Think liveCD or dual boot.
 
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