Upgrade AV from MSE for Win 7

ussfletcher

Platinum Member
Apr 16, 2005
2,569
2
81
That website's testing methodology is fundamentally flawed, I wouldn't trust it. For instance, if you look at the testing methodology for the linked chart you will see that the "Windows 7 out of the box" baseline is literally that. Its an unpatched Windows 7 x64 machine with several patched 3rd party programs installed. However they do not compare it with Microsoft Security Essentials because that is not installed by default.

Source: http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/avc_factsheet2014_05.pdf

In any case, install the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) and whatever anti-virus you care to and you will present a much, much smaller attack surface.
 

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
5,660
198
106
I will throw in my standard suggestions...

Nothing wrong with using free versions of course but Fry's has a variety of AV products available for free after rebate with free shipping. I have never had a problem with Fry's rebates.
http://www.frys.com/ads/page8

Then there is also the option of using VirtualBox and one of the many Linux distros to do all your web browsing and email in a virtual machine.

And finally, check out the information on Mechbgon's site if you haven't already.
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/security2.html

-KeithP
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,305
10,804
136
Free I prefer Avast.

Paid I would go with Bit-Defender or (believe it or not) Norton.

Sandboxie is also a great program.
 

KillerBee

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2010
1,753
82
91
I just uninstalled Avast and went back to MSE it feels lil lighter.

Avast just slowed everything down too much when booting off an old HD
it's livable on an SSD though.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,305
10,804
136
MSE is lighter then Avast however its also quite a bit less effective.

Unfortunately all real-time scanners cause some slow-down especially the free ones.
 

John Connor

Lifer
Nov 30, 2012
22,840
617
121
I had Panda Cloud and it mucked up on two computers with its update. On the Netbook I installed ClamAV which seems not to work in Windows 7 very well in my test, but works in XP. My laptop has Bitdefender Free and I don't have anything on the desktop since I mostly game on it. Just Comodo's firewall. I use Sandboxie whenever possible and scan my downloads with Malwarebytes and Clamwin. Add a dash of Herdprotect too.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
18,027
10,203
136
Unfortunately all real-time scanners cause some slow-down especially the free ones.

Do you realise that where the "free ones" are made by a company that sells security software, the anti-virus engine is the same in the free one and the paid-for version?
 

HOSED

Senior member
Dec 30, 2013
658
1
0
Thanks for all the though provoking posts. Keith P's link to mechbgon was outstanding, I thought I had a decent grasp on security until I read through it.
~~ mikeymikec I was trying to spur a discussion and a reason to dump Panda Cloud since I could not find much in the way of comparison testing. It was interesting when I when to install Crystal Disk info on 1 of my systems, open candy was detected by AVG during the install but on another system Panda found nothing.
 

KillerBee

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2010
1,753
82
91
Then there is also the option of using VirtualBox and one of the many Linux distros to do all your web browsing and email in a virtual machine.

And finally, check out the information on Mechbgon's site if you haven't already.
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/security2.html

-KeithP


yes always feel safer opening the questionable email attachments on a linux OS

wow - that page is packed with good info
thanks
 
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mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
18,027
10,203
136
~~ mikeymikec I was trying to spur a discussion and a reason to dump Panda Cloud since I could not find much in the way of comparison testing. It was interesting when I when to install Crystal Disk info on 1 of my systems, open candy was detected by AVG during the install but on another system Panda found nothing.

Several years ago (maybe, at least), there used to be regular amounts of AV effectiveness research done by many different organisations/researchers, and generally speaking my conclusion remained the same for a long time - one researcher picks say 1000 threats and pits them against 10 security products, finds that x does the best and y does the worst, then another researcher comes along and picks 1000 other threats and finds the opposite results.

For some reason all of that stopped and we only seem to have two researching organisations doing the work with some very flawed testing methodologies (e.g. av-test.org (IIRC), attaches a scoring system which makes some products look infinitely better than others despite the results not really jiving with those scores, as well as using terms like 'zero day' in incorrect ways), and the apparent agenda for both of them seems to be "we need to make MSE look bad" (perhaps because MSE is in the unique position of being the only free product in the market which doesn't attempt to coerce its users to upgrade).

I've seen plenty of situations where I've replaced product x with y, then y immediately finds a tonne of crap, and sometimes replacing y with z or x does the same thing on other systems. I personally find it laughable that av-comparatives or av-test.org come out with figures like "100% detection!" consistently for say a product like Kaspersky, partly because my own experiences (removing malware from a lot of customers' computers) aren't compatible with that idea, but also, if security software was anything like 95% accurate/secure, then I wouldn't be going out and removing malware anywhere near as often as I do.

IMO, pretty much any semi-respectable anti-virus product is probably 60-75% accurate in malware detection (assuming that everything is ideal, ie. it's downloading updates normally and automatically, the system it is on is working properly, Windows is downloading its updates, etc). Computer security is mostly the end user's job, AV should be treated as a net to save stupid users, but don't expect it to be under you if you take a foolhardy leap.

Btw, you don't have to install CrystalDiskInfo on a computer, if you've got the folder that it's been installed to before, you can copy that folder to another computer without having to run the crapware-laden install program.

@ KillerBee

If the attachment is questionable, why are you opening it?
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
18,027
10,203
136
I just have to know exactly what USPS failed to deliver to my front door and conveniently emailed me a label to print out to go claim it

Seriously though...

I advise customers these days that if they receive any e-mails from any organisation with any links or attachments that they're not explicitly expecting (ie. person from organisation says they're going to e-mail something through), to err on the side of caution and enquire whether its legitimate first (or sidestep it, so in the case of receiving an e-mail claiming to be from the correct bank/online clothes shop saying there's a problem with your account, go to the website yourself instead of clicking on the link and check your account, or ring the company).

Even the most innocuous e-mails (like regular ones UK users will receive from say BT to say their most recent bill is available to download online) should be avoided IMO, as I predicted that a spammer would use that technique rather than the standard scare/tempt/coercion tactics, and sure enough they are.

I'm not saying you need this advice, just your idea of having an alternate 'not vulnerable' OS to handle e-mails seems massively over the top.
 
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