Instead of knowing what AV you use, I'd like to know what is the entire setup you have running on your system, what all softwares do you use to keep yourself protected?
ESET Smart Security
SpywareBlaster
MalwareBytes Anti-Malware
Firefox + Adblock
All free tools:
Operating Sys: Win XP home
Antivirus: Avast 6.0.1125 Home Page, Download at Filehippo
Other Antimalaware apps:
System Backup Apps:
- Acronis. Not free, but you can find a deal sometimes. Home Page.
- Most here like Macrium Reflect, there is a Free and a PAID version.
System virtualization apps:
- Sandboxie at Filehippo.
- PowerShadow. Info and download HERE and HERE. Was free, may still be.
My favorite of all, but only works for W 2K, W XP, and W 2003. They said they will release a version for Vista and W 7, but have not done it yet. Any changes to your system are gone when you restart.
Good mention of the system imaging software login123. I forgot all about that, and the handful of times Macrium Reflect has literally saved my Windows installation over the past 1 1/2 years.
I do tend to change software quite a bit as I like to test things out. So at the moment, on this XP machine I have
Vipre AV (won in a competition)
Malwarebytes Free
OA Premium (I'm a tester for it)
Sandboxie paid
FD-ISR an instant restore program now no longer available, for recovering from system screw ups.
On Win7 laptop I have
MSE
Prevx (won in competition)
Malwarebytes
Sandboxie paid (one license is for life and all machines you have in house)
Win 7 firewall
Win7 image + a Macrium one as well.
Well, thanks, Andavari. Big advantage for members is yours and DennisD's expertise using Macrium. I got Acronis for $10 during a promotion, so still use it, not expert at it, though.
...
Win7 image + a Macrium one as well.
Good news...Macrium for win 7. Does it work smoothly?
Not had to use it yet 'in anger' yet Login. Hope I never have to
Good mention of the system imaging software login123.
I forgot all about that, and the handful of times Macrium Reflect has literally saved my Windows installation over the past 1 1/2 years.
Andavari, have you ever had to use Macrium for a "full image" restore. If so, just wondering how smoothly that went?
Andavari, have you ever had to use Macrium for a "full image" restore. If so, just wondering how smoothly that went?
I use the free edition and I've did about 5 total restores using it so far, and every time it restored my system flawlessly. Of course I always verify an image after it creates it, and also have it verify during the restore operation. I also religiously follow DennisD's advice of testing out the Macrium Rescue CD to make sure it works!!!!!
Good news...Macrium for win 7. Does it work smoothly?
Macrium works perfectly on my Win7 Ultimate + SP1
It takes 150 Seconds each night to make an Incremental Image file of my entire Primary HDD,
or 240 seconds for the occasional FULL image of the entire Primary, which holds 17 GB in System Reserved:\ + C:\ + D:\ + H:\
After finding where the wife tidied away the Boot CD,
it takes perhaps 5 minutes to restore the Entire HDD.
Restoration has never faltered for me.
Twice in the last few months Windows updates sneaked through without permission and trashed Windows.
The first time I was not doing nightly backups and and I lost a few days of new desktop links to applications in H:\ and several new applications in H:\
The boot CD allowed me to create an image of my trashed C:\ as evidence of what the update did to me, and then restored C:\
Then using my restore earlier version of C:\ :-
I used Macrium to mount as P:\ the image file of trashed C:\
I used the Portable Sync utility BestSync to compare C:\ with P:\,
and then synchronise/update all the newer P:\ desktop links to the older/current C:\.
I was surprised at how easy life had become.
Incidentally mounting and dismounting a Macrium image is very much easier and faster than with Acronis,
and Every time I used Acronis to mount an image it never wanted to unmount it,
and when it did unmount the System Event log would then complain about FTDisk errors.
Thanks, Alan.
Win 7 64bit:
MBAM free
Spyware Blaster
MSE
Win 7 firewall
I use Security Essentials and browse with firefox. I don't really do anything that would catch me a virus anyway.
I do have a back up of a clean Windows 7 install that I did with the built in back up, but I don't really know how good it is.(its got only office 07 installed on it, no drivers, or other software). I figure if it works than great, if not than oh well.
I haven't played with the image back ups much. What I generally do is just drag a copy of my "My documents" folder over to an external drive every now and then. I think the reason I don't like the idea of an image back up is that if I was going to do a system restore I want to download all the newest drivers, software, ect. without starting out with old versions installed, thus quickly cluttering up a "new" install.
I did clean installs on my windows 7 machine about 5 times because of a driver bug I was having when it was first released.(something where icons wouldn't show on my desktop when I put them there, files, folders, nothing would show). When I did those reinstalls it maybe took me 3 hours to do the reinstall, update, and then drag over my files.
Avast! Free Antivirus
Windows Firewall (XP SP2)
I do not use any third party on-demand scanners
When I get Win7 soon, ill have
MSE
Online Armor Free
Avast, Spybot, Mbam, SpywareBlaster, MS Firewall, MS Defender, Returnil 2008 (when apprehensive). (Vista UAC is off.)
When I did those reinstalls it maybe took me 3 hours to do the reinstall, update, and then drag over my files.
I'll never go that route again if it can be avoided. With my Macrium Reflect backups it restores my system in about 30-40 minutes, of course with a few updates to do afterwords such as antivirus definitions. I try not to let my main backup image get anymore than one month old, while I do have two other if all else fails backups on DVD+R discs.
Kerio Personal Firewall, System Safety Monitor (HIPS), Virtual Box running XP or Linux (Sandbox protection for safe browsing and testing software) with snapshot mode to provide instant roll back, A/V: MBAM, McAfee Stinger, AVG (install, scan, uninstall).
Richard S.
I try not to let my main backup image get anymore than one month old, while I do have two other if all else fails backups on DVD+R discs.
After doing a Macrium Reflect restore just 9 weeks ago (all went well as expected - other than having to perform the odd SW updates as you did), I now do the Macrium Reflect backup every Sunday...peace of mind........I just love Macrium Reflect.
Here's what I use:
Avast! Anti-Virus - Main Defense against Viruses.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Secondary Protection. Run this about every 2 weeks or so.
Superantispyware - Main Anti-spyware solution I use. It's very dependable and finds things that Malwarebytes might miss (along with Avast).
Spybot Search and Destroy - Secondary. I usually just update the database for protection against spyware. I scan it too ab out the same time as SAS
Comodo Firewall - Just the firewall, I don't use the other features. Works fine.
Have not had virus issues since I was about 18 or so. Bi-weekly maintenance takes care of that (I am overdue for that now as we speak lol).