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Microsoft Security Essentials verdict...

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hypernova:

--- Quote from: saint on September 15, 2011, 07:33:18 pm ---Actually Hitman is specifically designed to work in conjunction with another AV. Interesting bit of work. Running MSE was a bit of an experiment. If it worked really solidly it would be an easy thing to setup on machines I have some responsibility for but don't want to have to support regularly (friends/family). Unfortunately I can't recommend it at this time. My computer is still acting flaky so I'm going to do a format/reload. Been running Windows 7 on it for about 6 months, it's been rock solid until this.

--- End quote ---

I got hit with one of those rootkit/bootkits about a month ago that kept hijacking search results (but it didn't hijack 100% of the time, only about 25-33% of the time).  I did alot of stuff, and fought with it off and on for two days.  I kept getting closer and closer.  I finally got rid of all of it.  Don't ask me how.  I used a half dozen different things.  I was very close to reformatting.  Annoying bastard...

drventure:
I've used Eset's NOD32 for quite some time now, It's not free, but it's reasonable, and it seems to do a good job catching nasty bits while not dogging my machines down (I do software dev from home, so that's important).

Never had to pave a machine while I've been running it (and it has quarantined a few nasties over time).

Gray_Area:
I've been using MSE for at least a year, and only just a couple weeks ago got something REALLY scary. I wasn't even visiting a porn site. I was looking at a map, clicked a link, then a blank page with a 'click if the page hasn't loaded' link top-left, which I didn't even have time to click, and then....suddenly my task bar was set to default options....!.....and all my bookmarks disappeared. Turned out almost all my files were 'hidden'. I restarted, and I got a BSOD half-way through boot. I ended up having to re-install. After that, MSE found something called Orsam!rts . Nearly all instances were linked to Wolfmame.

Howard_Casto:
Oh another thing that I forgot to mention....

Run the 64 bit version of your favorite web browser.  It's lack of functionality is actually a pretty good virus stopper. 

90% of your malware comes from exploits in flash, embedded videos, and javascript that flat out won't load properly on the 64 bit versions. 

MonMotha:
Oh yeah, disable flash (use an add-on that will selectively allow you to re-enable it if you absolutely must have it - note that Youtube is generally usable with HTML5 video, now), don't install any PDF plugins for your browser (instead open it in a separate window after confirming that you actually want it in the first place), remove the stupid Java plugin that you don't need, etc.

In general, don't let Adobe touch your web browser :)

I don't have ANY of those installed, and I don't really miss them, especially now that Youtube is usable so I can watch the silly cat videos people insist I absolutely must watch.  No need to run a 64-bit browser (are any other than IE popularly distributed for Windows?), but it doesn't really hurt, and it probably would break some actual browser bug exploits that haven't been specially tweaked for the 64-bit version.

If you could possibly manage to keep all those plug-ins and crap up to date, it might not be a big deal, but many of those vendors are not known for quick response to security problems, and the fact that each and every one of them has some convoluted update process that may or not be partially automatic makes that almost impossible.  Even IE is pretty decent, these days, but the popular plug-ins are awful.  That's probably why Microsoft is apparently trying to get rid of them for Windows 8's Tablet oriented usages.

All the major browsers are pretty good about warning you if you're intentionally initiating an action that could be an infection vector, such as installing plugins, running executables, etc., barring unpatched security issues of course.  Flash, Adobe Reader, Java, etc....not so much.

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