My roomate isn't using an antivirus program on a new pc

[Seedersandleechers]

(HP) be bought at least 4 months ago. He's running Win7. Should I encourage him not to risk it? I've always had a mac and never have used an antivirus program; so I'm wondering if MS has included antivirus within their software or if my roomate is insane. He uses netflix, FB, HP, Hulu, music sites, etc. Please advise DU so I don't have to worry so much.

[hobbit709]

1. Hope he has backup disk ready.

People like that I charge double.

[sylveste]

2. tell him

to download microsoft security essentials, it's free, it works,and it will take about two minutes of his time.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. +1 best advice possible (without spending $$$) nt

[wandy]

8. +1 MSE is best way to go.

Hear this so much in so many places I have a canned response..........

Keep in mind that you can't run mulitipal malware protections at one time.
Also keep in mind that I am a retired IBMer. Their were times that multipal sware words sprang from my lips every time Microsoft was mentioned.
Microsoft Security Essentials is about the best malware protection that can be had. And it's FREE.
Start here.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
They give instructions anyone can follow.
Make sure the URL points to Microsoft before you download anything.
If you don't want to remove you're current malware protection their is also a standalone utility here.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/malware-removal.aspx
Make sure the URL points to Microsoft before you download anything.
Follow the instructions.

[Mnpaul]

11. I just fixed two machines running MSSE

One had 760 infections, the other over 500. I wouldn't put too much trust in MSSE. I don't know the whole story on how they got there but I'm not seeing the great product you describe

[sylveste]

12. i'm guessing

they invited them in,if you're getting that many infections i don't think anything is gonna help. i've had no issues with mse, although i'm sure i could still infect my pc if i chose to.

[hobbit709]

13. If someone clicks on an infected link or attachment, it is now 5 minutes too late.

I had one come in where I stopped the scan at 2247. I just used a Linux Live disk to copy all the data and reinstalled the system and applications. It was easier and faster.

[Mnpaul]

14. I didn't even bother scanning in Windows

I went straight for the Hiren's boot cd. I started Mini XP, set up an internet connection and ran Avira with up to date definitions. I then ran Super Antispyware and Malwarebytes off the cd. Once they finished I restarted Windows and installed Avast and ran a boot time scan to finish it off. I didn't have to reinstall anything.

[hobbit709]

15. I had already spent over two hours at the point I quit.

sometimes with that much crap you don't really know if every trace is removed even with the scans. Not even counting that critical Windows files may have been corrupted.
A friend of mine decided to remove all traces of a real nasty he had picked up the hard way-he finally got it completely clean and working right-TWO MONTHS later.
Format C: does wonders for virus removal.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

16. "Format C: does wonders for virus removal"

Truer words have seldom been spoken.

[Mnpaul]

17. Formatting C: may also leave traces behind

Especially if you have multiple partitions as most modern computers do. Not all rootkits are removed by just formatting the C: drive. You have to format the whole drive including the restore partition and restore it to factory conditions with factory restore discs.

[wandy]

19. Quick question. Were they getting/allowing updates?

[Mnpaul]

21. I'm guessing that they were

Once I removed the trojans, the program updated. They had the fake anti-virus trojan. I had to delete all the wireless connections and create new ones to get it going again. All the wireless connections were changed to "local only" instead of "local and internet".

[wandy]

20. Just thought of another possability.........

You can set the default action for all allerts to Quarantine. Now the problem is rendered 'harmless' 'haha' but still will be found by a different malware defence. More is involved than just the file name renaming from .exe to .xex. That will keep it from running however the malware 'signature' will still be in the PSP of the .xex. So.... others will flag it.

[Jazzgirl]

4. +2

Your roommate is definitely not gonna be very happy.....I suspect pretty darn soon without protection.

[Seedersandleechers]

5. Thank you so much

I just e-mailed him the link for the free download.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

[ElboRuum]

6. Your computer comes with no immune system.

Running script blocker add-ons for the browser certainly can mitigate risk, but all it takes is one bad click.

Moreover, you won't even know you have a virus (unless you get one that starts slowing down your system or redirecting you to places you don't want to go) unless you have an AV scanner.

My experience since I got Firefox with a script blocker add-on is that I haven't seen a virus in years. Nevertheless, I have Avast, just to have an additional layer of protection.

[Seedersandleechers]

9. It's not my computer,

It's my roomates. I have a macbook and have never had a virus.

[ElboRuum]

22. Well, you are still susceptible...

You might own that Macbook for some time to come and not have a problem. The fact is that Apple isn't immune, but it's also not much of a target. There simply isn't enough Mac user base to make virus/worm creation worthwhile (most attacks these days are more than the nuisances of yore, now the idea is personal data collection for identity theft). Windows is a much larger user base, so any malware/virus created will have the greatest chance of being fruitful for the malware creator. There are, however, some types of malware which do target Macs and you would be wise to at least be aware of them.

Additionally, there are still the vectors of infection which are difficult to impossible to trap because they are not viruses/worms/malware per se. Phishing attacks and Trojan horses are prevalent methods and require complicity on the part of the user.

I'll say this, if I had a Mac, even with the infection rate as low as it is, I'd find some form of AV scanner, because without some methodology of scanning your hard disk for possible viruses and malware, any malware you do get will likely go undetected, and depending on what the payload is, there is potential for harm there.

[Mnpaul]

18. I like Avast as well

It lets you know with a friendly female voice(or male voice if you wish) that your definitions have been updated every day. The sandbox feature is handy if you have a suspicious program. I also use spybot to create and lockdown the hosts file and Tea Timer notifies you of any attempt to change system files. I suspect this is what Microsoft copied when they created MSSE. Stick with the original version. Version 2.0 still has some bugs to work out.

[ElboRuum]

23. I got rid of Spybot...

The on-demand scan and TeaTimer features are quite useful, but they tended to slow down my already seriously out of date machine to unacceptable levels. I find that with a good script blocker (Firefox) and Malwarebytes, on-demand malware scanning is a bit over the top, especially if you have an on demand virus scanner running as well. On-demand scanners intercept every open and save event that occurs on the file system except for exclusively opened system files (like the Windows pagefile and event logs) at a very low level, performs a scan on the data, then permits you to proceed with whatever the file was opened for provided the check passes. With more scanners, multiple programs are performing checks on that data, and in a lot of cases, redundant checks. They try to make this as unintrusive as possible, but if you have multiple malware solutions on your machine, slowdown can be very noticeable, especially on older machines.

All of that disk I/O time will slow down the system, even if your processor and memory usage is showing reasonable levels on the Task Manager.

[Mnpaul]

26. I have been using Spybot for years

and never had any problems with it slowing down anything. Maybe you had it "paranoid mode" I just opened 20 files at once and Tea Timer used no more than 2% of the CPU resources. They all opened within a second. It isn't slowing anything down.

[ElboRuum]

27. And you won't see it as a consequence of CPU utilization...

The default Task Manager options don't show I/O activity. The disk I/O activity is the biggest bottleneck in any computer, and to see this activity you have to enable those columns in Task Manager or use Perfmon. Older drives in older machines running off E/IDE/ATAPI or early SATA (like mine) get bogged down very quickly when multiple processes attempt to access the drive simultaneously even though the TM might only show a few percent utilization for the CPU for these processes.

[Mnpaul]

28. Like I said before

Spybot has multiple setings. You don't have to run it and the highest setting and running IDE or sata drives in a multi-tasking enviroment never did make much sense too me. I only use sata for a large backup drive. I have always run SCSI drives for the operating system and running programs. A multi-tasking HD for multi-tasking enviroment is the only thing that makes sense. I never had most of the problems Windows owners had due to that fact.

[ElboRuum]

29. Yes it does.

I was running it pretty much bare minimum for a while, but still had to disable the on-demand to keep the PC usable.

[hunter]

7. I recently cleaned up my kid's computer... ugh.

It's crazy not to use Microsoft Security Essentials or other good anti-virus software.

It's also crazy to use Internet Explorer at its default security settings 'cause that's what all the malware makers are aiming at.

Better to install and use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc...

[Seedersandleechers]

10. Roomate is running win7

"It's also crazy to use Internet Explorer at its default security settings 'cause that's what all the malware makers are aiming at."


Thanks for the suggestions though I doubt he will change browsers.

[ElboRuum]

24. The second I switched to Firefox...

...and installed NoScript, virus hits on my scanner ceased almost entirely.

Internet Exploder in any version is just asking for trouble. Don't use it unless you have no choice (workplace software compliance policy) and do so cautiously if you indeed must.

[ElboRuum]

25. Was there a lot of "free software" installed?

Most of the time I have to ungunk a computer, it's due to some free piece of trashware that installs malware along with it.

[Seedersandleechers]

30. No there wasn't any software installed.

I think he's making a mistake but he's bull headed.