Replies

You’re using the same AV as myself, there’s nothing at all wrong with AVG 2013 Free. Don’t let the “free” in the name fool you, it’s highly configurable & likely meets the needs of most users.

Whatever you do, stay away from Trend Micro’s products, not only are they huge resource pigs, the labeling is false advertising. Their packages says Internet Security, which normally includes a Firewall. The one that I got, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2012 for $9.99 at Newegg w/$40 discount key (a Kingston G3 4GB Flash drive was included), does NOT contain a Firewall at all. Not to mention that the notebook (the one that I setup for my wife) was slow as molasses.

After three months, I removed it, & replaced it with the latest MSE beta (I get these through MS Connect) & the laptop fires up & runs like a champ again, that was proof alone that Trend Micro was the culprit. MSE is fine running with XP, as I also have MBAM Pro installed.

The bundled 4GB Flash drive was the only good thing that I got in the deal. And the software is not transferable to another computer, not that I want to reinstall it anyway.

Trend Micro’s software should be free.

Cat

Avast Internet Security has been rather buggy the last two times that I purchased it. It made Windows 7 run slow & a component of the Firewall didn’t play well with Windows 8 (CP). I bought it then to have the Secure Browser feature, to allow me to shop/bank & protect me from keyloggers/other malicious software.

Had to download & install the Free version, then enter the key to get Avast IS 7 to install. It wouldn’t install straight from the downloaded one at purchase. Still, the Firewall was buggy, & I uninstalled & got refunded for the product. One other thing, their Boot Time scan quarantined a couple of system files & I wasn’t notified, so I reinstalled from a backup image that I had taken prior to installing the product. I always Backup prior to making major changes.

However, Avast Pro AV 7 works well with Windows XP through Windows 8, grab a 30 day trial of it & see.

Like Medico, I’m using AVG 2013 Free on Windows 8, which gives far more protection that it seems on the surface, there’s lots of configuration options in it’s control panel, plus a Full Rootkit scan option on the “Computer” panel. Configurable email options also.

I’m running that with MBAM Pro & SuperAntiSpyware Pro (both Lifetime) for maximum protection. These licenses were bought long ago, so I seen no need to waste them.

My normal security is ESET Smart Security 5, but it never has fully played well with Windows 8 CP, RP, Enterprise or Pro. I believe it’s a Firewall component, as I tried out ESET NOD32 AV 6 (Beta & RC), it ran fine. Hopefully this will be fixed, as I have other computers on Smart Security & have another program bought, just need to activate it when the current version ends in February. I’ve been told that licensed users of Smart Security can also download & run just the AV with the key.

As far as Avast goes, it was my main source of security for years when I was running XP, after I bought this PC with Windows 7 pre-installed, I switched to MSE (due to Avast’s Boot Time scan not being available for 64 bit users at the time). Except for a couple of brief times, haven’t looked back.

Like everything else, software changes with the times. In my opinion, Avast is better suited for XP users, as that was the OS where it performed the best.

Cat

Recently, I had the chance to grab ATI 2013 Home @Newegg for $9.99, as well as Disk Director for the same price, but passed on the offers. Seems that the software has a lower rating than previous versions.

I still use ATI 2010 on my IBM ThinkPad, one of the things that I like about it, is the pre-boot feature, there is a screen to press F11, & backup/restore can be accessed much faster than with a CD. Which is my preference. Seems that backups completes faster outside of the Windows environment, probably due to no other resources being ran. And restores are more successful.

Had the new version had more than a two egg rating (three eggs for 2012), I would have grabbed it. Seems that 64 bit users has the most issues with the app.

Cat

Very true statement. Each of those desktops & laptops has a purpose, & it’s unlikely that one can be replaced by the other.

There are still many valid uses for the desktop, I’ve never been in a medical office & the staff were using laptops. Oftentimes the actual specialist is using a tablet/laptop, but the rest are on desktops. It’s the same for many governmental agencies, walk into them & what do you see? Desktops. Banks/other lending institutions, once again the desktop.

Most portables that I’ve seen are owned consumer users, & most of these has at least one desktop in the home. I will always have one, for the benefit of massive storage/being able to run a multitude of different OS’s, this one desktop that I have runs 13 versions of Windows, 3 versions of Linux & numerous virtual machines. I’ve yet to see a notebook do that & probably won’t.

Cat

This seems like fairly normal activity to me, as bbearren has described above. Of course, the more CPU that one has, the less the impact, & a SSD will lessen those times, as any updates are applied faster. On my i5 powered notebook which Windows 7 Pro resides on, I have a usable browser inside of 15 seconds, but there are things still updating, so I wait 30 seconds before browsing.

On my desktop that’s now running Windows 8, it’s about the same as yours, for close to a minute (longer w/Win 7), the CPU stays at or near 100%. This PC has a low grade AMD Athlon 3250e dual core CPU, running at 1.5GHz. I run Process Lasso (free version) to help to balance things out. It really helps with freezing/app hanging when multi tasking, & there’s also a Pro version, which I originally got at Giveaway of the Day.

http://bitsum.com/prolasso.php

It’s worth trying, & consumes a tiny amount of resources. Also, it’s easily removable if not wanted/desired. On my notebook which has a i5 that runs at 2.66GHz, I found it to be less useful, & uninstalled it. Having a usable browser in less than 15 seconds, on a SATA2 MB at that, is plenty good enough for me.

Cat

Once the promo ends, the only way to get Media Center would be to buy the Pro Pack. Newegg currently has it for $69.99 (normal price $99.99), it’s my guess that it’s not a hot seller at this time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416563

Also, Windows 8 Pro 64 bit w/o Media Center costs $139.99. So far, there’s only one reviewer of the product.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416552

That’s already a total of $210, one can upgrade 5 computers for this cost (slightly more w/taxes), & they install just as full versions does. The really cool thing is, if this upgrade is done through either a Win 8 CP or RP install, one doesn’t have to give up anything, whatever version of Windows that you’re running, you can keep. But the key is to run the Upgrade Assistant directly from 8 RP (or CP). At the end, you’ll be given the option to create an ISO to make a DVD or bootable Flash drive with.

I selected DVD, it made the ISO, then I sent a copy of that to a Data partition for safekeeping & another to a spare Flash drive. Then used the Windows 7 USB DVD download tool to make a bootable Flash drive with. Not all computers can boot from a Flash drive, but most recent models can. Here is where this tool can be grabbed from for free. Scroll down the page, the link for download is in orange, install that to the OS to create the Flash media with. It’s a simple, 4 step process.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

The end result: The very same as the Newegg links above, after the free Media Center key is claimed, my cost was $42.69.

Cat

acbeaton, if your issue hasn’t been resolved, I hope that it is soon.

Honestly, like you stated, my experience being similar (a trouble free upgrade), I don’t see why the Media Center supplied doesn’t work. It *may* have something to do with the ones who are handling the process.

Digital River was/is a dependable vendor for MS Win 7 & many other services, Arvato Digital Services were the ones who processed Windows 8 promos, after taking a second, closer look at the Media Center key email, Catalysis Corporation processed the delivery of the Media Center keys.

With two 3rd parties involved in this Windows 8 promo, it’s a wonder that more users aren’t having issues. It’s my guess that MS went with the lower cost bidder to deliver these products. They should have stuck with Digital River on this, I’ve bought several software packages through them, with no negative issues.

For those who may not know, this free key must be claimed & used by 01/31/13, so those who waits until the last minute to upgrade via this promo may not receive the key in time. It’s best to purchase at the latest, after support for Win 8 CP/RP expires on 01/15/13, or risk being left out.

Cat

I don’t believe that the desktop will disappear, there has been exaggerated claims of this, but I don’t buy it.

Businesses will always need the desktop, so will heavy duty gamers. Desktop sales are down, but one reason for it is that they’re lasting longer, another is the economy. It costs much less to install a new OS on a decent running desktop, as I did Friday.

Portables are more popular & essential than ever, but the desktop will always be the workhorse.

Cat

Mine activated fine, I ran the Upgrade Assistant from RP & purchased from there. No COA was asked for prior to purchase, nor during the install that I done with the media created. I used the Win 7 USB DVD Download Tool to install with, & formatted the RP partition (as instructed). It took two attempts to install, but it got done, & I didn’t have to give up my OEM OS, which by chance is on a separate HDD.

It took 20 hours for my Media Center key to arrive (submitted twice), all is installed & running fine. Classic Shell was among the first addons that I installed, upon boot, it goes to desktop.

8 Pro is happily dual booting with a TechNet supplied Windows 7 Ultimate OS. It was only after searching forums & seeing that 8 Pro could be installed from CP/RP w/o giving up anything that I committed to purchase.

So far, so good. Actually for most intents & purposes, Windows 8 has been my “go to” OS since 02/29, when CP was released.

Cat

Have you looked up your particular CPU on the Intel site for detailed specs? There, it’ll show everything, including how much RAM it can run. That’s what I done before upgrading my notebook to 8GB RAM.

http://ark.intel.com/

You can also use the Crucial System Scanner, but I suspect that the Intel specs will be correct. Download & run it.

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

Cat

It took me around 20 hours after submitting my request before I received my key. Being that I had a lot to do anyway, updating, installing Office 2010 & other apps, it was no big deal.

Probably when the rush is over, the keys will be sent out faster. I’ve also noticed that Digital River isn’t managing Windows 8 distribution, as with 7, that may play a part in the issue.

Cat

Sorry for the late response, but Clint is correct. The OS was apparently looking for a faster drive, as it did run faster than normal, for a 5400 rpm HDD with 8MB cache.

I’ve since removed that HDD & OS from my notebook & will run 7 Pro alone on there.

Windows 8 Pro has been installed on my desktop, which gets the most benefit from the OS.

Many Thanks for all answers provided.

Cat

XP will be fine, & many options for security will be available well beyond 2014. As well as new apps to run on the OS. It’s been 2 years since the end of support for Windows 2000, there’s still free & paid choices for W2K SP4. But the upcoming ESET NOD32 & Smart Security 6 won’t be one of them. Other apps are now dropping support for the OS.

But XP’s a different horse. According to who’s doing the counting, anywhere from 30% to almost 50% of the world’s computers are still powered by the OS. I find 50% to be a bit high, but wouldn’t be surprised that 35 to 40% of usage is still taking place.

If one plans to run XP long term, then precautions must be taken. Keep up to date images monthly, after Update Tuesday, to have as recent a updated image as possible, & keep a couple of the older ones. Keep all apps updated, especially plugins like Flash, Silverlight & Java (remove the older Java before installing the new, Oracle recommends this). Running older apps are a security risk, this includes browsers. For this reason, I use IE8 only for updating & sites that requires IE, it’s a 3+ year old browser. There’s at least 3 alternatives that’s updated regularly in Firefox, Chrome & Opera. May be others, but these are the top three worthy ones.

To answer the question about what computer security in 2014 will look like is sort of premature, but one can expect more & more cloud type apps, most are lighter on resources & gives good protection. I expect this trend to continue, with more security apps incorporating cloud components into their security.

I spoke of ESET’s next offering earlier. This gives a peek at what future security could hold. The latest ESET NOD32 & Smart Security 6 RC offers something unique, theft protection. Notebooks & other portables are highly targeted for theft. What ESET does to hopefully catch the thief, is creates a guest account, that the thief can log onto the computer with no password. Note that this account has no admin access & cannot get to the owner’s documents & other files.

What it does do, is allow the thief to use the computer as normal, logging all activities, including sites visited, including purchases & email checking, in hopes of identifying the thief. It also secretly takes snapshots of the unauthorized user with the notebook’s webcam, if so equipped. Also has a tracking system, keeps records of IP addresses used, all of which will lead to the eventual discovery of who is using the computer, as well as it’s location. This information is turned over to law enforcement at both the local & federal levels, to match the user’s profile with possible convicted criminals in their systems.

Needless to say, this is a welcome feature of security. Anyone wishing to try out ESET’s latest offerings, good until 10/15/2012, check it out here. Very powerful security. Note that there are still some unresolved issues with Windows 8 RC, but it does work well on Windows 7, Vista & XP.

http://www.eset.com/us/beta/v6/

Cat

I’m having this issue between Windows 7 & 8 RP myself, it’s not fiction, or a novel, it’s FACT! I bought a USB 3.0 enclosure to install my original HDD in. Assembled everything, same issue as with 2 other USB 3.0 devices (on Win 7), the device is trying to kick in (a constant thumping sound), but won’t work.

Just clean installed Windows 8 RP last night, the device works perfectly! No, it’s not MS’s place to furnish drivers, but they do with other crap (like outdated video/wi-fi drivers), so why not release other drivers, so that our Renesas USB 3.0 controller will properly work? The Renesas USB eXtensible host controller -0096 is a perfect fit. Note the capital “X” in the word, sounds like some Apple engineers are at MS, this is a Steve Jobs sig. Whoever, whatever, it works.

This driver needs to be released for Windows 7 & Vista also.

Cat

I’m with Ted on this one, developers are now paying extra money ($500?) for whatever software it is that they use to develop apps (Visual Studio?). I recall reading this a couple or so months ago, but forgot the exact details.

As long as there’s demand, these developers will come up with what we want or need. I’m not saying that all choices will continue to remain free of charge, some probably won’t. After all, they deserve a slice of the pie too, hence the toolbars they bundle in.

If there was something that I really liked or needed, I would pay a few bucks for it, but I hope that things stay as they are for long as possible. But as far as choices goes, there probably will remain them, free or paid.

Cat