I haven't had a problem with its detection rate, but AVG has been getting worse in terms of resource usage and common sense lately from what I've seen. They had that plug-in a while back that was slowing down the entire internet because everyone who had the latest version of AVG was scanning every page linked to by a page they were viewing or something stupid like that, for example, and I heard they had another plug-in related idiocy with a recent version too. But previous versions of AVG were great.

By "testing" do you mean experimentally exposing software independent of one another to a battery of malware, or "testing" as in "just installed it and gonna see what happens as I browse casually?"

>>2552
unfortunately, simple installing and seeing what happens. To effectively test them I'd need my own little network of several computers with a known up-to-date virus collection. Frankly, I just can't field that many machines, and only so many virtual machines in-between right now. That is something I am looking into, however; How does one know how good an antivirus is?

As my primary source, I've gone with About.com's Mary Landsman, who uses AV-test.org.
http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/tp/aatpavwin.htm
http://www.av-test.org/certifications?order=product_asc&lang=en

I'm doing computer repair on the side, so really I am just familiarizing myself with the ins and outs of various AVs. I actually haven't had a virus in a long time. It seems noscript and adblock+ with a good bit of common sense is fairly effective.

also:
http://www.oldversion.com
Newer is not always better.

Does MSE have a scanner or is it just a virus shield?

Also what do you think about Zone Alarm as a firewall?

>>2564

MSE is both.

www.irfanview.com - very simple image viewer, supports plugins for music and videos too
www.visipics.info - for when you want to make sure you saved that reaction image once and only once
www.videolan.org/vlc/ - decent video player, although some prefer www.mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/
www.notepad-plus-plus.org/ - Decent text editor if you're into programming

>>2569
If you watch soft subbed mkv files at all, you owe it to yourself to get KMPlayer: http://kmplayer.en.softonic.com/download

>>2553
Thinking about it a little more, I decided there is something I can do, if only to amuse myself really.

I'm setting up a virtual network of machines that will be linked to each other, with at least one link to the internet (maybe all will have net connections for the AV update. Trying to figure that out). The idea is that one computer can surf and play without any protection, while linked to each of the other computers, all of which will be running a different operating system and AV. With the "snapshot" feature of VirtualBox, I can hotswap different AVs into the various operating systems to gauge their effectiveness against patient0.

The 4 computers are: patient0, The Blonde, The Burnette, and the Redhead. patient0 and The Blonde are running Windows XP sp2, I'm trying to get XP Pro on the Burnette, and hopefully Windows 7 on the Redhead. Although I am considering switching up Vista for the Blonde; I'm running into many home users who didn't have the sense to upgrade these days.

But Fang, how effective is this actually?
For all this, my personal testing really won't amount to much more than seeing how the various AVs feel on a system. Listen: there are people who do this AV stuff for a living; who run Viruses through large, non-simulated closed networks against various AVs to determine their various strengths. I'm just one guy doing part-time repair. And while I can get viruses by running shit unsecured, There's no guarantee that I will get whatever particular virus is infecting whatever particular system. We're tech savvy users; browsing the chans for years, I'd assume we all have various AVs and Firewalls along with blocking software like Firefox with adblock and Noscript. But even running vanilla IE, there's still a question of whether I would actually get a virus, because I just don't think like your average computer user.

For kicks, there's a test virus here: http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

But this in now way simulates real world situations

>>2572
According to AV-Test.org,

PCTools
http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/
http://www.av-test.org/reports/2010q3/avtest_report_pctools_103581.pdf

is apparently the best AV out there currently, next to Avira, of all things. I can test the others but again, I don't know that tests would be all that conclusive.

and wouldn't you know it

gotta do an in-depth scan now

feel like I'm only talking to myself here but

Avast! and AVG now both require registration for continued free protection. I believe the registration is free, however it's one more service dealie to sign up for.

Apparently my computer is filled with registry errors, so I need some sort of free registry booster

>>2600
CCleaner
http://www.piriform.com/
registry "boosters" are a misleading term. Your registry is kind of like a database of everything on your computer, and thus it can't be "boosted", only cleaned. CCleaner will do that, plus it's free with no registration whatsoever. I also highly recommend Defraggler, and Recuva is very nifty as well.

In other news, a friend of mine just informed me that his Avast! is asking him to pay for it with registration. We'll see how that turns out at the end of my trial but just letting you all know.

http://www.online-armor.com/ - their free one is alright. it's something at the very least. i recommend it for my 'friends' who call me to clean their shit on a regular basis. most of them won't pay for anything, and they aren't 'friend' enough for me to give them anything.
http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/ - peerguardian- p2p protection.
http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html - revo uninstaller- i've used this before on machines with trojans that locked up the normal routes for uninstall in windows. not something that's normally needed, but i figured i'd throw it out here as it is free.

quick fyi- i don't know anything other than what i have gleaned from years of being a user. please don't yell at me if these programs are shit, like i said, i don't know anything.

>>2889
actually the only one you posted of questionable nature is Online Armor.

First-line defense programs like Online Armor, MSE, Avast! and similar are caught in a tricky situation: they need to make money.

There are various questions to be put to free Virus protection: how effective is it, how good as it at catching new outbreaks, and how long will the company be around? Generally, MSE, Avast!, AVG, and Avira are recommended because they've been around for a time and they tend to place on whatever virus-testing website you're looking at.

It's not to say that Online Armor is bad per se but there is the possibility that something could get through. Best practices for home use are currently some kind of Front-Line AV, Adblocking and Script Disabling software in your web browser, with Malwarebytes, Spybot, or things like Revo Uninstaller (which is a Piriform product, same people who did CCleaner and Defraggler) as 2nd-line defense/removal.


And remember, never run 2 active virus scanners at the same time!

What's a good free youtube to mp3 program?

>>2971
http://www.listentoyoutube.com/index.php

This works for me but its a bit slow.

I have achieved something many think ludicrus, I am sucesfully running
McAfee
McAfee firewall
Symantic
Spybot
Windows firewall
MSE
MBAM
and windows firewall

My last virus, malware, or spyware was 3 years ago, just befor I set this up.
Some people call me paranoid (including me) but my track record speaks for itself.
Whats more I don't browse safely, I download tonnes of crap without trusting who its from, and I deliberately go to sites where frends have gotten viruses so that my Antivirus can catch the virus and tell me what it is so I can help them remove it from their comp.

Mind you it does make installing new games a hassle as i have to forward them through 3 firewalls, and my boot time is atrocious as I have multiple system scans happening, but once its going it's all good.

I've asked in the /tek/ general thread, but I might as well ask here:

Anybody know a good free video cleaner?

apt-get

old thread, for reference: https://plus4chan.org/boards/tek/res/659.html

hey askal thank you for those links

especially this!
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/pc-wizard.html

Just the thing I needed for my class just now!

Are there any image tagging programs that aren't as retardedly complicated as Picasa?

>>3180
Not really. The only other taggers I'm aware of are MORE comlicated than Picasa. Specifically Expression Media, ACDSee Photo Manager and Adobe Bridge.

There's iPhoto, I guess, but it's a Mac program. My suggestion is that you ust learn to use Picasa.

bumping this so I won't forget the NOD32 key site.

If you need to free up HD space WinDirStat is a great way to quickly identify large files or groups of similar files.
http://windirstat.info/

Soluto can identify programs that take a long time to load at boot.
http://www.soluto.com/

AutoHotKey is great for simple macros.
http://www.autohotkey.com/

Unlocker can free up files from processes.
http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/

>>3040
You do realize that anti-virus software is like anti-venom, right?
The problem is that new viruses and things are coming out, all the time. And unlike natural viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc, these viral programs are distinctly keyed to attack your computer.

You're doing the equivalent of eating tainted food because you have pepto bismal. One of these days you're going to get infected, and you'll be a first infector. Your antiviral software's ability to cope with these new viruses is bottlenecked by some programmer's ability to take individual viruses, isolate them, and form immunities to them.

More than likely you're running nasties in the background and aren't even aware of them. Sometimes, safety by obscurity is your only defense. Especially in a time sensitive environment like waiting for antiviral updates.

I need an alternative from Microsoft Security Essentials, it doesn't work. Whenever I try to turn it on it cancels. My computer was recently fixed after a bad malware/trojan attack and now MSE seems to not work. I have tried reinstalling it and getting the same.

>>3538
Also when I click on a site from google search, like malware bytes, i get redirected to weird basic sites.

>>3539
Update, I deleted firefox and chrome and ran a registry cleaner, seems to not do the redirecting thing anymore and I am tanking up both browsers the best I can.

I'm using avast for now and am not gonna try reinstalling mse for the time being.

Is there any freeware comic creator that is actually good?

>>3543
Nope

Liiiiiiiiive!

http://metaseq.net/english/
http://www.blender.org/

Free 3D modeling softwares.

anyone else running the windows 8 previews?

>>4295
downloaded it for a virtual machine, haven't been arsed to actually install it. All the screen shots saying "Windows Build 7601.etc" (Windows 7 is build 7600) don't instil a lot of faith.

Suppose I should make a post about this

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/release-preview

Windows 8 is available from Microsoft for free trial in a Virtual Machine. My personal favorite, so easy you won't believe it Virtual Machine Manager is VirtualBox:

https://www.virtualbox.org/

What is a Virtual Machine? Imagine you could run a fake computer inside a real computer the way you could run a game. It's very good for testing questionable files, and, increasingly, for testing and development for upcoming systems. Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, and I think there's even an Android version floating around that should all be free to try when run in a VM. (Don't quote me on that though).

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

OS on a stick!

http://distrowatch.com/