Microsoft’s free antivirus program changes game

Boston Globe ^ | October 1, 2009 | Hiawatha Bray

[ConservativeStatement]

You paid for your antivirus software? Why?

Good free options have been available for years, mainly from no-name companies. Nervous consumers figure they’re better off buying major brands, like Norton security software from Symantec Corp. Well, here’s a major brand for you: Microsoft Corp.

[ShadowAce]

[Loud Mime]

Is this like the Taliban selling anthrax vaccines?

[yarddog]

To read later.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I just switched to VIPRE and it seems to be the best, I have used.

[newfreep]

Calm down Loud Mouth. I downloaded MSE and it seems to be working just fine.

Waaaay to many MAC-heads are sounding like Taliban these daze.

[hoagy62]

I have AVG Free (by recommendation of a Freeper). Should I be dumping that for the Microsoft AV?

[arthurus]

I have been using AVG for a couple of years now and have not had any virus since I started using it. Previously I had McAfee for 4 years and had occasional viruses. I think I will stay with a demonstrated effective product. And it is free.

[Izzy Dunne]

Is this like the Taliban selling anthrax vaccines?

Or ObamaCo selling tax software...

[musicman]

bookmark

[reegs]

I have noticed that while AVG is scanning, my PC seems to come to a crawl.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I’d stick with AVG-—it ROCKS!

[TangoLimaSierra]

I’d certainly wait for Service Pack 1 before using anything MS.

[DocRock]

anti-virus bookmark

[ConservativeStatement]

I don’t know but there is a related comment or two following yours.

[Dr. Sivana]

A column written by Hiawatha Bray. I met him in Chicago years ago. A great character, and certainly no liberal. And yes, that is his real name.

[Justa]

"I have noticed that while AVG is scanning, my PC seems to come to a crawl."

I used AVG and noticed the same thing. I switched to Avast! and problem solved. Been using the Avast! free version for over a year now and I am very satisfied.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Of course, no antimalware product is perfect, especially not against the latest attack programs. George Ledin, a computer science professor at Sonoma State University in California, pointed out that dozens of new malware programs appear daily, and it takes a long time to tag these new threats so the software can defeat them. “By the time they put it in the catalog, it is months old,’’ Ledin said. As a result, thousands of computers with the latest antivirus software are compromised anyway.

If they need this, I guess Win7 will still be a high-vulnerability sys to viri. That's a shame, hope springs eternal . . .

Still, it's a step up. And at least now Microsoft is paying some of the cost of the egregious vulnerability of the OS it sells. That still leaves the societal cost of the botnets of Windows machines, tho.

[techcor]

bump

[Rebelbase]

Does anyone have a link to 100% pure and unadulterated free AVG? Every link I come across has a “free” version using trail pay which requires you to buy some other company’s product.