Anti virus etc to replace out of date mcafee security suite

Can anyone recommend free security downloads to replace my macafee security suite. On one of your pages I read that the ones recommended are better and less resourse hungry. So far I've downloaded avast antivirus and comodo firewall pro as recommended, but I'm not sure what else, if anything is needed. For instance on my Macafee suite I also have a 'privacy service' and a 'spamkiller' - are these also included in the free downloads mentioned or do I need some others? Also, if they are included can I safely uninstall the rest of my Macafee security suite now?

Thanks in anticipation.

 

Excellent picks on this page.

http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

 

Thanks for this - I've installed all relevant ones. My Macafee security suite has something called 'Privacy Service' on it, (this apparently blocks pop ups web bugs ads and cookies)presumably this will have been covered by one or more of the downloads I've installed?

 

On my pc I now have - Windows Defender: Spybot search and destroy: Spamfighter: Comodo firewall pro: Avast anti virus:Crap Cleaner: A squared free. I have a feeling this might be overkill just to get my computer secure and maybe even slowing things down. My initial motivation was to replace my expired Macafee security suite, but the spybot and crap cleaner are the left overs from a thread I was part of a while ago which successfully helped me to remove malware. Any views??

Thanks again

 

Re: Replacement for macafee security suite

A lot of those are not providing real-time protection and therefore wont be slowing you down.

My suggestion is to run 1 Firewall, 1 real-time AntiVirus and 1 real-time AntiSpyware.

Avast is good for your AntiVirus
Comodo is good for your firewall

Defender is realtime spy protection but its not very good!

Im unsure of the others as I dont use them so if someone confirms you have realtime spyware protection other than Defender, I would get rid of Defender.

CCleaner and Asquared only run when you want them too so they are sweet and wont be slowing you down. Id keep both as they are both excellent, in fact I have them both myself

 

Re: Replacement for macafee security suite

Recommend that you read the instructions in the how to protect yourself from malware for advice from the experts here.

I believe their ideal setup includes real-time protection against spyware and viruses, as well as a couple on-demand scanners to back them up (because no single app is ever 100% effective)

The apps recommended here are fairly lightweight. The real-time scanners are going to be the ones that affect your system performance. They are running all the time, consuming resources. Since you should only have 1 for viruses, and one for spyware, the effect shouldn't be too bad. The on-demand scanners will only consume resources (besides disk space) while in use.

If you want to take steps to boost your system's performance, I would recommend that you follow the instructions in the Basic computer maintenance everyone should do thread, as this will show you how to manage startup applications, and then the instructions in the Disable Unneeded Services In Windows XP thread, as this will show you how to disable useless Windows services that also tie up resources. Between the two, you should notice a significant improvement in your system performance.

 

Thanks all for advice.

I've deleted windows defender as my realtime spyware protector and replaced with Comodo Boclean. So as well as this I now have Avast antivirus, Comodo firewall, Spybot search and destroy: Spamfighter. Is this lot enough i.e. will pop ups be stopped and is the computer safe. Also should I maybe uninstall spybot because I think it's similar to Comodo Boclean - I don't want to clog the computer up with unnecessary stuff.

 

As far as popups go, Vista should have that built-in (I know XP Pro does, as I get VERY few pop ups). I've used GuardBar in the past with XP (don't know if it works with Vista) and it did a good job. Using a different browser like FireFox or PhaseOut can help alot also, as many alternative browsers have pop up stoppers built-in..... For antivirus; Avast! is a good choice, personally, I like Avira's AntiVir..... but Avast is probably just as good. BOClean is good realtime protection for spyware, as is SpywareTerminator (Vista?), SpyCatcher Express from Tenebril (Vista?), and Webroot's SpySweeper (works with Vista, but it's not free).....

hd2k

 

Firefox browser and AdBlock Pro add-on is my setup. I get no popups at all.