Anti-virus

[mcarter101010]

I happily rid myself of Comcast recently. I was previously using Norton's which came for free with that ISP. ( Some may say it was not free of trouble.) Anyway, 2 questions:

1. Is there an anti-virus that comes with Sonic?

2. If not, what do you recommend?

Thanks.

[dane]

For Windows 7, I'd recommend MS Security Essentials:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... s-download

Windows 8 includes AV by default, in the form of Windwos Defender.

If you prefer a third-party solution, Avast is very well rated, and free. https://www.avast.com/index

[darrylo]

For a thorough one-time cleaning, check out the free Tron (this goes to an announcement, scroll down for download links). However, note that it will remove any program considered to be bloatware, so be aware of that, in case you actually happen to be using them. The current version also appears to have a bug where taskbar shortcuts are deleted.

From the description:

Stages of Tron:

1. Prep: rkill, ProcessKiller, TDSSKiller, registry backup, WMI repair, sysrestore clean, oldest VSS set purge
2. Tempclean: TempFileCleanup[1] , CCLeaner, BleachBit, backup & clear event logs, Windows Update cache cleanup, Internet Explorer cleanup
3. De-bloat: remove OEM bloatware; customizable list is in \resources\stage_3_de-bloat\oem\programs_to_target.txt; Metro debloat (Win8/8.1/2012 only)
4. Disinfect: RogueKiller, Vipre Rescue Scanner, Sophos Virus Removal Tool, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, DISM image check (Win8/2012 only), sfc /scannow
5. Patch: Updates 7-Zip, Java, and Adobe Flash/Reader and disables nag/update screens (uses some of our PDQ packs[2] ); then installs any pending Windows updates
6. Optimize: chkdsk (if necessary), Defrag %SystemDrive% (usually C:); skipped if system drive is an SSD
7. Wrap-up: Email job completion report (if configured; specify SMTP settings in \resources\stage_6_wrap-up\email_report\SwithMailSettings.xml
8. Manual stuff: Contains additional optional tools that can't currently be automated (ComboFix, AdwCleaner, aswMBR, autoruns, etc.)

Saves a log to C:\Logs\tron.log (configurable).

[mcarter101010]

Thanks for the feedback. I decided to try a 30 day trial of Panda Pro. It has to be better than Constant Guard.