MSE was disabled by a virus attack

With each OS and SP release, MS attempts to improve security. It may be that your experiences will be different in W7 if you choose to run 2 real time scanners. I can't recall MS ever recommending this and know a lot of smart people that won't recommend it.

I look forward to your experiment.

As I understand it, and if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, but as I understood, AVG (the free version) is not a "realtime" AV. Meaning that you have to scan for viruses after they're embedded into your OS. I've never had, nor do I want, the paid version. The one install that I did have (the free one) was preinstalled on a notebook that I purchased on eBay last year. I promptly removed it and replaced it with Avast (the free one), it does offer "realtime" protection. And prior to MSE being released, it was my default AV for all of my Windows OS's.

As long as it is a standalone scanner, you can use whatever you wish with MSE. I do, I use Malwarebytes & SAS.

With XP, I could understand running two, I did (but again, I don't advise it), but Windows 7 is quite different from XP. The security is much better, and MSE will meet your needs without creating a burden on the system. I do recommend a backup standalone scanner, such as Malwarebytes, all you need to do is update it, then do a short or long scan. The same with SAS, update it & scan. It finds a lot of adware & tracking cookies, and I run it on a monthly basis.

I hope that you do find Windows 7 a easy OS to keep secure. As long as you install MSE, set it to auto update & do a short scan daily, you should be fine. A full scan weekly is good, too. If you want to add the free version of AVG to do manual scans with, I suppose it would be OK, if you don't have problems with it.

Cat

AVG free is in operation all the time, when it's installed.

This is what gives it the ability to be so terrible.

If it was only a manual scan software, there would likely be much less issues with it.

Thanks for correcting my misunderstanding of AVG. I do remember that recently, about a couple of months ago, my mother in law called me and asked me to check out her desktop (a Dell Dimension running XP Pro). She told me that it was becoming unresponsive and lethargic.

My suggestion was to uninstall AVG through Revo Uninstaller, run CCleaner (I have this on a USB drive) install MSE & Malwarebytes, and do complete scans with both. She agreed with me, and I proceeded. After the uninstall and running CCleaner, I checked Windows Update for missing security updates, she had a ton of missing updates, including SP3. I set the updating to auto. After installing everything, including MSE & Malwarebytes, I started a scan with MSE, it went to cleaning right then. It took two runs to disinfect the computer. Then I ran Malwarebytes, it found a dozen or so of Trojans that MSE didn't detect.

Afterwards, she told me that her desktop ran like new again, and baked me a homemade pound cake, my favorite. Since then, I've been doing her computer maintenance, including backups. She wasn't aware that you had to backup your computer. I installed the Seagate Disc Wizard on it, since my backup drive is of that brand.

Anyway, AVG had ran her desktop almost useless, and she knows now never to use it again. And once again happy using her desktop. That's what counts the most.

Cat

You can actually pay a purchase and upgrade to AVG 9.0 internet security.

The security suite of theirs is what will cause the most problems of all of their available software..or be most likely to cause a problem of all.

Yeah, I've never tried the paid version. Was not planning to do that with the new build either given the odds seem to be much higher of me encountering problems with it.

Just to stir the pot a bit more (no harm intended guys) from microsofts own site.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/com...Software&s=avg

And how did you find a system restore point suitable? I was just horrified to look for one (for the first time in Windows 7) and find that the only one was for an hour or so beforehand. In XP I could see a month or so of restore points. Luckily it was a minor glitch, but I would like to know what to do if I had a real problem.

You can type "create a restore point" into the Start Menu. There, you'll be able to configure how much (in percentage) of your drive that you want to use for restore points. While you're there, you can create a restore point now, if your computer is working fine. Make sure that you click "Apply, then "OK" before closing the box. Make sure that you select the "C" drive, if you only have one OS installed, and that the top option "Restore system settings and previous versions of files" is checked.

It's not necessary to create a restore point for the recovery partition.

Hope that this helps.

Cat