Geek joke: why do you need 2 gigaherz and dual cores? Because you need 1.5 gigherz and a full core to run your background antivirus protection program. The rest is for your apps!

It’s also funny buying a new, supposedly updated computer. The first thing you have to do out of the box is plug it in, connect to the internet, and let it update itself. Also of course on MS boxes you never get Flash or Quicktime pre-installed, and now Qicktime nags you into taking the entire iTunes program.

Thank heavens Dell is now selling units (the Vostro line) without “bloatware,” preinstalled junk programs. I heard Best Buy’s Geek Squad offers to delete bloatware off their computers, to free up hard disk space and improve performance. Buying a computer with bloatware is like buying a dog that comes with fleas and worms. Disgusting.

Wait until they start walking around. It’s not going to be “Terminator,” it’s going to be “Taming of the Shrew.”

I upgraded to XP for a mere (ha!) $120. I’ve heard too many stories about Vista and am not ready to take the plunge.

As for AVG, I am favorably impressed thus far. I have a love/hate relationship with McAfee, having not been overly impressed by their customer service. Having said that, I did try to download the installer to the old box, but for some unfathomable reason I couldn’t get it to install. So… AVG. Today I got a warning message from the AVG taskbar icon, and the warning was I hadn’t upgraded, but that’s been the extent of it thus far. Generally, I’m pleased and impressed.

The new computer is great – much faster and hasn’t hiccuped yet. Congrats on the laptop – hope it works out well for you.

Kevin

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10.....amp;st=cse

(I assume you, too, are “stuck” with Vista since Microsoft refuses to issue any more licenses for XP for new computers, despite MIS people railing against the resource hoggery of Vista, even in it’s stripped form.)

That article referred me to this interesting blog, “Ask the Admin”:

http://www.asktheadmin.com

The owner of that blog was kind enough to answer my question “what free antivirus do you recommend?” and he guide me to AVG, same as you just found, because it is good and has a low operating overhead (doesn’t slow your computer down as much, I guess). Curiously enough, the free version of this commercial product is hard or impossible to find on the main AVG website, but if you Google for “free AVG” you get directed to the proper website:

http://free.avg.com/download-a.....ee-edition

Unlike some other free antivirus programs, it doesn’t pop up ads or otherwise annoy you BUT it does offer, twice, during installation to install a Yahoo search bar, so perhaps they get some revenue from Yahoo.

I also searched at CNET.com and read good reviews on Avast:

http://www.download.com/Avast-.....d=10888427

and Avira:

http://www.download.com/Avira-.....d=10877501

Once upon a time (within the last year?), the NY Times reviewed anti-virus software and came to the conclusion that you could build your own “free” suite of products that matched the performance of the “big names” and their real suites, and listed those products, but I don’t have enough patience to deal with the NY Times clunky search engine to find that article for you (I tried and gave up).

Accordingly, I don’t know if AVG has any “gaps” – their download website makes you feel like you will be exposed if you don’t buy the commercial product, while the review website makes the free product sound pretty complete.

In terms of ultimate protection, I’ve heard the new McAfee 8.5 suite is superb, but it came with a trial version on my new Dell, and it annoyed the heck out of me (kept interrupting programs that were legitimate) that I decided to kick it out right away and try AVG, and have been pleased – so pleased that I turned off the Panda antivirus that I paid for, for my home computer, and installed AVG instead. As a result, the home computer seems to run faster.

I think the real problem with antivirus programs isn’t which program catches the most viruses, it’s which programs don’t slow our machines down as much, or don’t annoy us as much.

Anyway, if your upgrade to a new Vista machine, coupled with cleaning up your old XP machine, causes you to learn more about the “essentials” of antivirus protection + which programs are leaner, please share with us, I think more of us are in the same boat these days – trying to run “leaner, cheaper” machines with less “antivirus program” bloat.