Do I have antivirus software?

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Teach a computer class at a local senior center.

One frequent question is: “How do I know if I have an anti-virus software program on my computer?”

The only answer I can give is to go to Start>All Programs and look for McAfee or Norton’s.

Is there a better way for them to check?

Would like to pass on any suggestions to my students.

Thanks in Advance,

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Richard,

Another way is the FREE Belarc Advisor.

42737-belarcadv

HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thank you both. Will work up a lesson for my classes to pass on the important information.

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…. The only answer I can give is to go to Start>All Programs and look for McAfee or Norton’s….

Please be careful in dropping the names of specific products. The last thing anyone wants is more than one AV app running in realtime on the same PC. Most PCs do not have very good outcomes if more than one AV app is running at the same time (there are exceptions but why complicate things for typical end users).

I know I have found four AV apps running at once with evidence of the remnants of several others on a single machine that had zero antivirus protection because of the conflicts between multiple AV apps running.

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Good point about the multi-AV programs.
I just want to make sure these students have “a” good AV installed and running.
Kind of hard to know what, if any, they have installed by just talking to them in class.

Want to give them the tools to check for their selves to be safe.

Thanks for the input.

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…. I just want to make sure these students have “a” good AV installed and running….

While too complicated for most elderly people it may prove of benefit to you:

http://www.oyyas.com/types-of-computer-viruses.php

Test your AV app and PC on how well it protects here
http://www.amtso.org/feature-settings-check-for-desktop-solutions/

Antivirus app testing labs (see which one is best for you):
https://www.icsalabs.com/
http://www.virusbtn.com/index
http://www.westcoastlabs.com/checkmark/vendorList/?techGroupID=27
http://www.av-test.org/
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

http://www.virustotal.com/ Virustotal is a service that analyzes suspicious files and URLs and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines. Submit a file or URL.
http://www.threatexpert.com/submit.aspx Submit a file and receive a report in email.

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The easiest way is post #2. Don’t forget that if any of your students have Windows XP (it’s not impossible, and in fact quite likely), it’s called Security Center and they’ll find it in Control Panel.

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The easiest way is post #2. …

Maybe, but any of the Windows OS are notorious for not reporting (detecting) an legitimate and working 3rd party AV app. AVG doesn’t show up on any of my XP or Win7 systems.

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Had my first class on the above subject today. Main content was on post #2 response. The senior center computer showed Norton’s installed, but Turned OFF. This as a medical facility with their own IT department, so I did not change anything. Will discuss with facility director to see what action, if any, they will take. They probably has a robust firewall and I believe the PC USB ports have been disabled.

Anyway, the student are all going to check their own computers at home. Job Done.

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Just open Add/Remove Programms or intalll or uninstall programs from control panel. It will tell everything installed on your system 🙂

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Well you could also show them where it would show on the taskbar near the clock. Make sure to include the hidden taskbar item’s arrow.

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One way is in Action Center, under Security…

Windows 10 calls it Security and Maintenance.

In the search box, enter security and maintenance and then select Security and Maintenance

One odd thing I’ve noticed with Win 10, well, two but only one relates here, is that occasionally the “notifications” will pop out and tell me that I have NO antivirus protection, so I go look at Security and Maintenance and find my AV is running, it shows active on the task bar as well. Just some silly glitch I guess. The other thing I find amusing is, that my printer goes into hibernation, where it spends most of its time actually, but when I print anything from a web page, while it is waking, the “notifications” pops out and tells me printer is not able to print. Which is completely untrue, it fires up and prints everything just fine, it is Win 10 that is impatient. :^)

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Interesting, I do a similar thing in several places (a Computer Basics class, so goes into bits/bytes, how computers work etc…not just for Windows, per se). I have quite a few powerpoint slidesets to do these courses. It’s really hard to know what anyone wants out of these classes, isn’t it?

K

Teach a computer class at a local senior center.

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It is interesting deciding what to teach. I have about a dozen or more different printed topics to select from in my briefcase. (Yes, my 40+ year old briefcase is getting recycled). Depending on who shows up and if they have been there before determines my selection.

I enjoy the satisfaction when they get IT.

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Sometimes, I suspect that what I am teaching goes over some peoples heads. Others not so much. Just hard to teach a set of people with a variety of knowledge.

It is interesting deciding what to teach. I have about a dozen or more different printed topics to select from in my briefcase. (Yes, my 40+ year old briefcase is getting recycled). Depending on who shows up and if they have been there before determines my selection.

I enjoy the satisfaction when they get IT.

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There is a specific tool used to scan for security software, Security Check by screen317: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/securitycheck/

Results of screen317’s Security Check version 1.013 — 11/28/15
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 x64 (UAC is disabled!)
Internet Explorer 11
“““““““Antivirus/Firewall Check:“““““““[/u]
Windows Firewall Enabled!
avast! Antivirus
Antivirus up to date!
““““`Anti-malware/Other Utilities Check:““““`[/u]
WinPatrol
MVPS Hosts File
SpywareBlaster 5.2
Secunia PSI (3.0.0.10004)
HostsMan 4.5.102
Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.261 Flash Player out of Date!
Mozilla Firefox (42.0)
““““Process Check: objlist.exe by Laurent““““[/u]
WinPatrol winpatrol.exe
Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit mbae-svc.exe
Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit mbae64.exe
Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit mbae.exe
AVAST Software Avast AvastSvc.exe
AVAST Software Avast AvastUI.exe
Ruiware WinPatrol WinPatrol.exe
““““““““`System Health check““““““““`[/u]
Total Fragmentation on Drive C: 9%
““““““““““End of Log“““““““““““[/u]

It’s not 100% accurate (Flash Player 18.0.0.261 above is the latest ESR version) and doesn’t detect everything (it missed hpHosts and a couple of other less well known security software) but it’s about as good as it gets and is used by many malware fora.

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I get this rather interesting report.

“““““““Antivirus/Firewall Check:“““““““[/u]
Windows Firewall Enabled!
Windows Firewall Disabled!
Panda Antivirus Pro 2015
Windows Defender

It also loaded the report in Notepad++, which I generally leave running.

cheers, Paul

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Sometimes, I suspect that what I am teaching goes over some peoples heads. Others not so much. Just hard to teach a set of people with a variety of knowledge. I have about 600 slides under Powerpoint in a variety of topics.

My briefcase is my laptop, although I still have the other one too .

It is interesting deciding what to teach. I have about a dozen or more different printed topics to select from in my briefcase. (Yes, my 40+ year old briefcase is getting recycled). Depending on who shows up and if they have been there before determines my selection.

I enjoy the satisfaction when they get IT.

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The Action Center is where I’d go first. Now that Windows has a generalized “system status” screen this question is easier to answer. The Action Center has also been around for a while and thus third party AV programs have had the time needed to support it directly.

If there were any questions about the accuracy of Action Center then I’d go on a hunt for known AV programs. There aren’t so many that it is impossible to do, it’s just messier than the Action Center approach.

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