total amateur

[gav223]

Hi I bought a computer about twelve months ago from a private seller who personally built it. At the time I did not know anything about computers and to this day still don't know much. Within the first four months I had to take it to a computer shop to have it sorted out due to viruses. Recently a friend reinstalled windows 98 for me due to other problems I was getting. The reason i'm posting this is that i'm looking for some advice with regards to anti virus software and other software that will help me use my computer more succesfully. I've looked on ebay and i'm interested in buying a cd someone is selling that repairs any problems you may have he's selling it for 9.99. Could anyone tell me if this cd is actually worth it. I've been using avg and adaware, they have been free to install so my way of thinking is that they can't be very good. Could anyone also tell me wether these free software packages actualy work just as good as the ones you pay for. I'm totally confused because some people are telling me they do.
Thanks for your time.

 

[NeoNemesis]

1. Make sure that you have all the updates for your computer by going to www.windowsupdate.com and that you have updates for your antivirus programs such as AVG and adaware.

2. Download Spybot search and destroy. This will get rid of some of the spyware that adaware doesn't detect. This will also need to updated once you download this.

3. Download Spyware blaster. This will prevent spyware and adware from even getting in your computer in the first place. This program is great. Since I've downloaded it I haven't had any troubles and spybot and adaware haven't detected anything.

all the programs I just said are available free for download and you can get all of them at www.majorgeeks.com and just do a search there on the right hand side. Run these things like every week or so.

As for whether or not those programs off of ebay work or not. I would not buy a program like that off of ebay. For one, most of them contain spyware and viruses themselves, so they are no good.

By the way, just because a program is free doesn't mean it isn't good. All these programs are free and they are excellent. They all catch things that my Norton Antivirus 2004 doesn't. Don't doubt freeware .

As for buying other Antivirus software such as AVG. Don't because if two antivirus programs are running at the same time it can be deadly. This doesn't apply for spyware blaster though. You can run spyware blaster and another antivirus client such as AVG at the same time and it won't do anything.

I hope this helps a little bit.

 

[Vnet]

you are using adware which is good all you need is mcafee security or just anti-virus v8.0 . I recomend it. it does not take any cpu % at all .

 

[killians45]

I very seriously doubt this 9.99 cd will fix EVERYTHING. To many variables in the way a system is setup to offer that. What is this program called...

 

[Blind_Arrow]

dont worry, i've been of this type as well when I had purchased the pc for the first time, you'll get to know things urself once u start getting interest in it.

get a decent software (anti virus), spend some money like say 40$+ getting McAfee or Norton, as I'm using both, and both are good, but on the pc which I use to force viruses/trojans has got McAfee (as this software is under test) and its showing unbelievable results.

 

[Senseis]

I wouldn't waiste my money on that disk what ever it is, rule of thumb most software like can only make assumsion on what your set is support to be, but everyones setup and settings are different and also have different software installed and this also effect your registry, so therefore those software you're talking about can only make assumsiom or best guesses, just like Norton Utlity. It should only be used as last resort if you have too, but then you can also mess other things up; it has happen to me.

 

[gav223]

Thanks all for your help, much appreciated.
The two cd's I was talking about were
ANTIVIRUS - The Black CD - NORTON CANT DO THIS!!
and PC FIX IT DISC Repair-Clean-AntiVirus-Spam-Popup-Spy.