Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I'm running the free version of Bitdefender on my home machines and have not seen an impact. Bull guard has bit defender under the hood.
Paid antivirus
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Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
^ Yes. However Bit Defender wraps that same scan engine and definition pack up in a much slower, clumsier, less friendly package. I tried Bit Defender a while back and rated it about "C+" or "B-"; good enough to use if it's already there and paid for, but not good enough to sell and recommend as a #1 choice. (Compare with, for example, Norton, Mcafee, Trend, CA, Kaspersky, or Sophos - all products I am likely to advise people to uninstall and, if there is any paid subscription left, simply discard, 'coz they are usually more trouble than they are worth.
(To be fair, Bit Defender may have improved since then; it was a while ago I used it last.)
(To be fair, Bit Defender may have improved since then; it was a while ago I used it last.)
time
Storage? I am Storage!
I think this sums it up. Differences in detection and false positive rates aren't as significant as how much of a PITA these things are to live with.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
This is fascinating and actually kind of apropos: Why does notepad.exe need to connect to the internet?
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Holy Crap! Who in their right mind prints from Notepad? I never knew Notepad was an attack vector. I use Metapad as the default text editor, but Notepad is still in my system.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
People who type things in plaintext and want to print them out? Notepad is one of those things that's ridiculously hard to remove from a functioning Windows computer since it's something that the system file checker will put back if the binary in your Windows directory is different from the cached version, too.
ddrueding
Fixture
Interesting. I use Notepad more than all of Office and Google Apps combined. Great target for copy/paste procedures because it strips all formatting. Loads very fast so no waiting. Every computer has it so I can launch it very quickly.
I've printed from it many time when I just want basic text and something simple. Much like ddrueding pointed out, I want the other crap stripped from my text and this is an easy way to do it.
I also enjoy this utility. However, my go-to text editor has been EditPad lite for quite so time. It's been very clean and fast with opening huge text files when rare occasions are needed.
I use it for this reason also (stripping formatting).
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fb
Storage is cool
I've used UltraEdit on my computer for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty happy with it.
But when it comes to antivirus, have anyone tried Forticlient, we have a Fortigate firewall at work so I got the client to set up the VPN client. But now it contains antivirus and parental control. We'll see how it works out.
But when it comes to antivirus, have anyone tried Forticlient, we have a Fortigate firewall at work so I got the client to set up the VPN client. But now it contains antivirus and parental control. We'll see how it works out.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Th reason expressed surprise at printing from Notepad is how crappy yhe printout is - large text in courier font. I too use Notepad's equivalent to strip off formatting, but paste back in Word or Excel, format it and print it out. I've used Metapad for years; I think someone here had written about it once. It's fast, can open large files, has limited search / replace functions, etc. I continue to use it in Win 7.
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
I've used EditPlus for many years and as a programmers text editor it is very, very hard to fault. I only discovered Metapad a few months ago and for small tasks it's almost perfect. I use them side-by-side now.
Stereodude
Not really a
Notepad++ here.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks Merc, but I've been using Paste (unformatted) text in Word for donkey's years. I don't use Metapad to strip formatting so I can paste it in Word; I do that directly in Word. I use Metapad to strip formatting if I need to paste the text in an email (Yahoo) etc.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I've tried to do pilot setups of Forticlient a few times but something-or-other always pulls me away from it. I know Forticlient has had a free AV option for at least four or five years now. Last time I tried to configure it at a client site, the system where I installed it was hosed in less than two weeks and I just dropped the idea.
I installed the 32-bit Windows 8.1 release candidate on an Athlon 64 3400+ (754) with 2GB of RAM. Abit KV8-MAx 3 for those interested. MSE, now labelled Windows Defender, was an absolute hog. Installing the .NET 3.5/3.0/2.0 Framework saw the Antimalware Service (Defender) use between 60% and 70% of the CPU - whilst the files were being unpacked and installed. Turning off Defender gave an immediate and noticeable impact on the installation process.
I installed Avast with custom install, choosing only file, web and script shields + software updater and this seemed to have a minor impact on performance. No where near Defender.
FWIW.
I installed Avast with custom install, choosing only file, web and script shields + software updater and this seemed to have a minor impact on performance. No where near Defender.
FWIW.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks Liam. So should one get off MSE and use Avast? I know that's what Merc has been saying all along in this thread, but wanted to know if the effort should be made.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
Defender was probably scanning those files while they were being unpacked and installed. Was Avast doing the same thing?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Avast, even with all its shields running, plus all the extra crap it does (webrep, software update checker et al) is a lighter-weight product than MSE, which is what I've been saying for about a year now.
fb
Storage is cool
Thanks, I've learned a lot in this thread. I'll lay low with Fortinets antivirus for now.
Undoubtedly. But it is one of the things that slows the entire system down. I will try to replicate the unpack/install routine with Avast!
Rebuilt the system, and disabled Defender. Installed Avast. The system is more responsive whilst ATi drivers/.NET framework was installing. The Avast service was active whilst unpacking/installing. My thoughts are that Avast is much easier on system resources than Defender/MSE.
Other thoughts. A single core CPU no longer "cuts" it, especially AGP. With a decent AGP card, I can play back 720p video with MPC-HT and hardware acceleration quite acceptably. CPU on a 3400+ was 60~70%. The killer is Flash/HTML5. I ran through Flash/HTML5 tests on Youtube, and could not get acceptable frame rates on 480p, let alone 720p. CPU was 100%. HTML5 was better than Flash, but still dropped frames. My investigations lead me to believe that the Flash hardware acceleration is spotty, and only supports relatively new GPU's. For shits and giggles, I may grab a PCI-E Socket 754 board from ebay and see if something like a 4850 makes a difference to Flash compared to an X1950 Pro. Not sure I want to drop $65 ~ $70 on a one-off though.
It's been an interesting exercise, but if someone with only a passing interest was to ask me if there was any use for a single core machine, I'd have to say no. It surprised me that I could play 720p video quite acceptable on old hardware, but the web/Flash/HTML5 limitation is just too great.
Other thoughts. A single core CPU no longer "cuts" it, especially AGP. With a decent AGP card, I can play back 720p video with MPC-HT and hardware acceleration quite acceptably. CPU on a 3400+ was 60~70%. The killer is Flash/HTML5. I ran through Flash/HTML5 tests on Youtube, and could not get acceptable frame rates on 480p, let alone 720p. CPU was 100%. HTML5 was better than Flash, but still dropped frames. My investigations lead me to believe that the Flash hardware acceleration is spotty, and only supports relatively new GPU's. For shits and giggles, I may grab a PCI-E Socket 754 board from ebay and see if something like a 4850 makes a difference to Flash compared to an X1950 Pro. Not sure I want to drop $65 ~ $70 on a one-off though.
It's been an interesting exercise, but if someone with only a passing interest was to ask me if there was any use for a single core machine, I'd have to say no. It surprised me that I could play 720p video quite acceptable on old hardware, but the web/Flash/HTML5 limitation is just too great.
time
Storage? I am Storage!
Excellent info, thanks Bill.
Stereodude
Not really a
So which of the Avast products are you recommending Merc? Antivirus Pro? Avira Free has pretty much wore out its welcome. I'd pay to get rid of it at this point, and frankly I'd rather pay someone else.
Do they have any Multi PC deals? I'm probably going to dump the AV protection from my HTPC since it doesn't really get online or download anything aside from updates to AnyDVD HD, and Windows Updates, but that still leaves me with a few desktops and laptops to cover.
Do they have any Multi PC deals? I'm probably going to dump the AV protection from my HTPC since it doesn't really get online or download anything aside from updates to AnyDVD HD, and Windows Updates, but that still leaves me with a few desktops and laptops to cover.
Stereodude
Not really a
I'm not sure how prudent that is, but I suppose it's an option.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I don't bother with it on any of my systems but my main laptop and Surface Pro. I use Avast, but specifically the free version. The paid version is dildos.
What does that mean, good or bad, and why?
Stereodude
Not really a
Okay, someone is going to have to help me out with this one.
At least I'm not the only one unclear about that statement. :spiderman:
I'm not a big downloader of questionable content and anything in suspect goes on a temporary vm which has a snapshot taken and AV to scan it.
I find any av product wasted more time and money in dealing with it than it's capable of saving me from. I've seen too many systems from other people which have AV on them that are still loaded with virus and malware that it's evident the user is mostly the problem. It's a crap shoot that the prudence is better spent being suspect of content than to chance it with your AV software.
Stereodude
Not really a
Which Real-time shields do you install? I don't really see any pieces beyond the File Shield being particularly useful.
fb
Storage is cool
Anyone been in contact with Pandas Cloud AV products?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I leave all but the mail shield on. The Mail shield can't scan secured connections, so for anyone using a local email client to communicate with any common SMTP server, it's going to be pretty worthless.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Not their Cloud product. I've seen their regular AV product on a few (normally infected) customer's boxes. Panda never impressed me. They also often dodge participating in performance reviews by sites like AV comparatives or VBulletin. Normally, when you don't want to show your product next to others, it's because you have nothing to brag about.
fb
Storage is cool
We had Panda Cloud Office Protection at work until yesterday but now we have ESET Endpoint Antivirus. But to be fair the cloud version seems to be better than their "normal" products to me, but I'm not really an expert on antivirus software.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm curious as to what could even possibly make a "cloud" security product better than a local one.
Of course, one thing that's probably true for almost all of us is that we only really get to see the things that are broken or awful or screwed up somehow. Which is why so many of us are willing to say that Norton and Mcafee are awful but perhaps don't have much experience with competent middle-of-the-pack products like F-prot or Panda AV.
Of course, one thing that's probably true for almost all of us is that we only really get to see the things that are broken or awful or screwed up somehow. Which is why so many of us are willing to say that Norton and Mcafee are awful but perhaps don't have much experience with competent middle-of-the-pack products like F-prot or Panda AV.
I struggle with the same problem of understanding the benefits to a cloud security product. I see benefits from the company's side. They now make it harder to steal their product because a cloud connection is needed to use it. On the consumer side I see a possibility for increased risk by disabling the networking but I don't have a complete understanding of what portion of the cloud is used to help protect a consumer's system. I feel like the use of the word cloud here is just trendy and marketing. Any major (or minor) AV product has been using the client/server model of updates for quite some time now.
I'm sure it goes without saying that for those large companies like Norton and McAfee that the larger they are and the more systems that use their products the larger target they become for hackers, virus-writers, malware developers, etc. If I were looking for easier ways to affect the masses with my maleware, virus, etc, why not target the platforms with the higher acceptance of AV products to get the biggest impact for their destructive work? I'm not suggesting these companies can be excused from this but I can see this as a challenge for them.