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Great post Paul a lot of info in there.
I use Virgins security comes with the XL broadband packege.
not had a prob with it

CCleaner is commonest program for cleaning, few hiccups in the past but generally good these days.

Opera is THE browser except when IE compatibility needed, in which case IE is the only real option.

AVG has never let me down except when all the other AV programs also failed. Updates to failures have usually happened within 48 hours, except for one Trojan that was easily contained by Zonealarm.

For defragging I suggest Defraggler much faster than Windows defrag. There are better out there but it is a nice friendly program that seems to do the job.

A good registry cleaner has been Eusing, however I suspect there may be a compatibility issue in the current release so I wouldn't use it unless you know someone that has had no problems with a similar setup to yours. The registry cleaner built into CCleaner is worth using.

I also use a registry defreg program (called "Free Registry Defrag") which gives me some fringe benefits. However this could be considered overkill and taking an unnecessary risk for little benefit.

Windows firewall is crap, Microsoft's policy lets alsorts through it, Zonealarm hasn't failed me apart from some earlier versions where their tech guys gave up on some problems I raised with them concerning Ping replies. All other problems I have had with Zonealarm have been my own stupid fault, trying to be too clever. Sadly, any (internal) firewall is going to be slower than Microsoft's.

From a programmer that has written multi-tasking operating systems and disk operating systems in assembly language ....

Defragmenting is worth doing to improve boot-up times, this is not particularly to do with NTFS, but more to do with the STUPID quantity of files that Windows throws around unnecessarily.

Defragmenting also helps the cache systems built into hard drives, if you are hammering the hard drives the cache systems do have limits and need a helping hand.

I still laugh at XP's claim that it is/was the fastest booting Windows to date - wrong, in its pure vanilla freshly installed form possibly true, as soon as you add decent drivers and necessary security it is appalling.

I disable all auto-updates, if you are using a wireless network to access the Internet, the excessive load of numerous updates just after network connections have been made, seems to leave them unstable. I have seen many drop-outs about 10 to 15 minutes after boot, this has stopped entirely when changed to manual updates (for AVG, Spybot, Zonealarm, Java and Windows) even if I do them very shortly after boot.

are all these defraggers free???

Strongly agree with the turning automatic updates off, Microsoft simply "cannot" be trusted when it comes to updates unfortunately. This is the same with a lot of software vendors, but Microsoft seem to get it wrong more than most.

Strongly disagree. When I got my PC it had a month's trial copy of Norton on it and it didn't find a thing wrong. When the trial ran out I put AVG Free on and it immediately found about a dozen infected files. Norton is a complete con imo. We use AVG at work too and we've not had a single virus get into our network for years.

On a personal note, I've dumped both IE and Firefox and gone over to Google Chrome. This is good for removing rubbish from your PC btw: http://www.ccleaner.com/features

Whatever you do... avoid McAfee like the plague!!!


Thats if you dont want your computer running 2mph

The sad demise of McAfee, IMHO they were market leader for yonks, just got too cocky I suppose, you can't run on reputation indefinitely, you have to come up with the goods.

yes it is built into your PC.

Defraggler is free ...

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

That probbly says more about the quality of AVG, than anyone could ever say. Of course it depends entirely on what sort of network you are talking about, but if its a general internet access network, with multiple users using it, AVG will be finding viruses.

If you had 12 viruses on your computer, within 30 days of buying it, it also says a lot about yourself. You must be doing something severely wrong/have no idea about avoiding viruses to get that many.

ESET/Nod32 and Kaspersky are lightyears ahead of all other AV software in just about every aspect.

I have not used Chrome as yet, basically because I am sick of Google trying their hand at everything lol. I will do one day, but for me im still using IE, though I tend to find for all people moans about it, Opera answers everything (personally, I don't like or agree with W3C compliance however).

I don't get why people use freebies, just pay £30 and get ESET Smart Security, and if you really don't want to pay it, just get it for free, be careful though, cos the warez versions may contain viruses!! AVG used to be amazing, but it has lost a lot of respect in recent years, and it seems a lot of people tend to go for Avast nowadays. As for Norton, would never touch that with a bargepole as long as I live. I noticed in the newest release, they were raving how it was lighter load on your system etc... well, most decent AV software does not and never really has taken over your PC like Norton and McAffee do lol.

Wooo NOD all the way

I use Eset Nod virus killer, and CCleaner.

I think your computer is only as dirty as the type of sites you visit!

Ever since ive updates my AVG Antivirus to number 9 my PC has been running like a bag shite.. Ive uninstalled this know and im using NOD and it flies like a concorde.. My new recommendation is know NOD!!!

I am a NOD32 proud user.