Well, as recommended by the newsletter, I tried MSE out. I originally had AVG free 64 bit on the laptop and it wasnt giving me any trouble but I had noticed, of late, that AVG wasnt finding new viruses within a 2 week period even though I had gone to the trouble of sending in samples. They repeatedly told me it wasnt an infection then after 2 weeks with the virus sitting in a dir on my laptop and me scanning it after every update, it finally deleted it. So, to say I was disappointed with AVG was an understatement!
Anyway, I tried out MSE on the laptop as a result and today have removed it, some 2 months later simply because it and Bonjour service would conspire to grind my laptop to a dead stop that required holding the power button in to get going again. Eg, dead power off and start again. Not fun! I am using Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I dont like Apple products on my computer. They seem to be sloppy CPU hogs when working but I had decided to turn a blind eye towards Bonjour and see how it went and it was going OK under AVG. Sure the system was slowed down somewhat but I was still deciding if it was something other than Bonjour when I changed to MSE from AVG.
The worst part about this whole disappointing MSE affair is that it, too, didnt really pick up new viruses for weeks at a time. When I finally sent in samples, the only thing over AVG that it had was that they would listen to and add the viruses to their definitions and get rid of that virus within 24 hours of being reported. In the meantime, out of almost 50 different virus programs, it was surprising to find one I had never tried was the ONLY one to find one new virus I had stored on my computer while at other times it didnt and even, once only, lowly and useless Symantec actually was one of the first to be able to find it. AVG and MSE never figured at all within 2 weeks unless I reported the virus and then only MSE did anything about it.
How do I find these new viruses you are asking about now, right? I am one of the “front line” or “in the trenches” workers that most I.T. people think of as the I.T. world “sh** kickers”. I go to businesses and homes and put out spot fires amongst other work, those fires being simple hardware faults or viruses. Sure I set up servers and so on but you get money in the door whatever way it comes and that is one of the ways. So, I am always facing brand new viruses I didnt know existed, identifying them, copying them to my computer for later and sending them off to anti virus companies. I am only one out of probably millions of people worldwide who do the same sort of thing.
My verdict about MSE – if you want to use it, be aware it isnt all that good at keeping up with the latest and newest viruses, doesnt detect them when used to directly scan a new virus no matter how you set the program (not that there is really much you can set on it) and it doesnt get on with Bonjour, conspiring with it to grind your computer down to a non-responsive brick! AVG, at least, never did grind my computer down like that, even when actively scanning. MSE does it in concert with Bonjour when just supposedly sitting there doing nothing while the laptop isnt in use. So do yourself a favour and get rid of Bonjour if you MUST use MSE or do yourself an even better favour and get rid of both of them and install another antivirus of your choice. Otherwise, be ready to pull the power plug in order to restart your computer!
Greg.
