New Windows user needs help with security software

Hello,

I'm a fifteen-year Macintosh user and have never owned a Windows-based computer. I have a 13.3" MacBook laptop. Windows-based computers are completely new to me.
Within the next couple of days I will be buying an HP laptop for use with an electronic sign-making machine, the Summa D75, which comes with a program called WinPlot.

I guess I'll have to start worrying about viruses, malware, spyware, and possibly other things.

Viruses are not an issue with Macs so I need to know which antivirus software package(s) is best going to protect my HP and at the same time not have any incompatibilities with either the sign cutter or with WinPlot. I don't care so much about the price of the anti-virus software as I do about its capability.

If you had a new HP laptop what would you install software-wise to make it as bulletproof as possible?

And which HP would you get? I'll need to have a big monitor, say, 15.5". It'll need to have 4GB RAM, about a 2GHz processor, at least a 500GB HD, good size video card.

What other things should I be considering?

Thanks,
Walldog

Walldog, welcome to the forum! AV's are a matter of opinion, I can't positively say who is best. The one that you are most comfortable with and will USE properly will go a long way, along with safe computing practices. As far as your laptop goes, the most expensive, business class HP will be best for you, considering that you've been a 15 year Mac user. Price is what you should be considering. What you are expecting won't be less than $2,500, perhaps as high as $3,000 or more. I honestly wonder if you will be satisfied, no matter the price. You will find that Windows requires a lot of maintenance, to keep malware and viruses away. It is a daily threat to us, even though Microsoft issues security patches and fixes. The bad guys don't give up easily. But if you have a quality AV and a separate malware scanner, and use them both on a daily basis, not weekly or monthly, you can stay fairly safe. Scan every download or attachment coming to you, and don't dare to open spam links in your email box(es). These are just the basics to get you started, not an entire list of everything you must do to keep your system virus, malware and spyware free.

15.5 is fairly standard. I would be looking at at least 17. (Mine, an Acer, is 21 inch) I have little experience of HP's, bu one of my family has a 17 inch dv9000z, which performs beautifully and has all the Windows 7 drivers installed.
Microsoft Security Essentials is creeping up the benchmarks. It is extremelylight on resopurces and is scheduled for daily definition updates.Microsoft also now have a Malware protection progam which never shows itself and runs in the background. Firewalls should also be considered. IMO they all pretty much provide the same facilities. I use only my router firewall, which, apparently, seems to do the trick.

MSE is my main AV, and it's dependable, although some don't like it because it's free. There's a small group that considers free software is no good. This is false, I have plenty of "free" software that outperforms some of what I've paid for. Regardless of price, you must be careful about what you install on your computer. I get flooded with emails on a weekly basis from software sellers, most of which I ignore. And please, don't fall for the "registry cleaner" scams. There are many of them around, and I stay away from them.

Let's discuss a few things here:

1. MACs are vulnerable to viruses also. It just that the people who write them usually don't mess with MAC because why waste all that effort for about 5% of the total computer user base. So that is an old wive's tale. Why does Norton and McAfee sell MAC AV software?

See this from CNET dated from Dec 1,2008:
2. The best rated laptops are Toshiba, Acer and Lenovo. Choose from amongst those three and you won't have any issues. HP are not rated that well, they have about a 29-30% repair record after a couple of years. You don't have to have an HP to get the job done. Toshiba and Acer make the best rated laptops available.

3. You won't have to spend tons of money to get a great laptop with the features you want. Certainly not $2500-3000 that's for sure! If you were going to spend that much you might as well get a MAC notebook.

You'll probably spend around $1000-1500 for a top-notch notebook with a large LCD widescreen. I saw a Toshiba at Newegg for $1499 with a 18.4" widescreen. You can get ones with smaller screens for around $1100 or even less.

These laptops all come loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium which should fit your needs, unless you actually need the features of Windows 7 Professional

4. Windows 7 is NOT HIGH MAINTENANCE by any means, so don't pay attention to that piece of mis-information It only becomes high maintenance if ONE CHOOSES to make it that way. (But then again, we can make anything be high maintenance if we choose to, right?)

ALL anti-virus and security programs can be enabled to run their scans silently in the background while you do your other tasks, or you can have them run scans at night while you're asleep. My AV and security run scans on a weekly basis and I have NO ISSUES at all. (I surf a lot of places, "pushing the envelope" so to speak and have no problems at all.

A good AV or internet security program will catch the nasties before they ever have a chance to do their work. The user can set the scans settings to run on a daily or weekly basis or choose their own custom settings.

Read the attached RAR file from AV Comparatives.org. It will give you a good idea about different AV solutions. I would recommend either ESET Smart Security or G Data. G Data is VERY competitively priced too! About $29 for a one year 3 PC license! But then it's your choice. Even Microsoft Security Essentials gets a good rating and it's free.


I hope you make all the rights choices that are good for you. Remember, you won't need to break the wallet to get a great laptop with the features you require. Don't let the "high maintenance" stuff scare you away either, because it's just not true. There are several good anti-virus and internet security programs out there. Just find the one that suits your needs and such.

BTW, welcome to the Windows 7 forum website!

Evidently the OP, being a 15 year Mac user, needs an app that won't run on a Mac, otherwise, most Mac users sticks with them. At one time I wanted one, but their bargain basement laptop costs $999 + tax + shipping = $1,100 + a warranty. Or there is the possibility that the OP is tired of messing with Macs and decided to switch. Perhaps as the thread goes on, that will be revealed. At the very least, Pro is in order for the member. And it IS a lot of work in maintaining Windows. It's not backbreaking work, but everything isn't completely automated. Defragging can be setup to be, and your AV can be, too. But I want to manually see these scans take place. And the option to delete your browsing history and temporary internet files, your system's temporary files, downloads, and so on is best done daily by an app such as CCleaner. You can choose to overwrite these files as many as 35 times (the Guttman method). Many users think that the delete option to the Recycle Bin is the end of things. This is false, the OP mentioned security here, that's an important part of security, is overwriting the files as they are being deleted. I make a lot of internet purchases, and I don't want any leftover data here for the bad guys to obtain. You can actually still pull up the data, but being that is has been overwritten so many times, it's just a scrambled bunch of code. My point is that while I may take things to the extreme with my daily regimen of scanning, scanning, and more scanning; it is a incorrect assumption that you can automate everything, and trust that all will be taken care of by doing so. Windows 7 is a great OS, the best that Microsoft has produced, but you must maintain it to keep it that way. The theory of a one-click maintenance solution has been bounced around, but it will never become reality.

Not necessarily, Home Premium will work for what he is doing. As I said in the previous post, he can order Pro installed on the laptop from the manufacturer.

It is NOT a lot of work to maintain Windows. No not everything is automated, but using CCleaner once a day will do the trick to rid one of browsing history and temp files. downloads, etc. And CCleaner gives the Guttman option too. The DOD option is perfectly able to do the part of eliminating any traces. The Gutmann is used if you're really paranoid and are afraid someone will take apart your hard drive and examine it's platters with an electron microscope.

It seems to work for the vast majority of uber geeks I know. These are programmers, IT people, members of TechNet, etc.

Ordering Pro from the OEM would be expensive, around $300 extra. You can do the Anytime Upgrade for less than $100, it takes less than 10 minutes, and your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Toshiba charges $75 to upgrade to Win 7 Pro on their laptops.

$300 is what one would pay for the Full Retail 2-disc set.
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Hey Nibiru...

Can you vouch for CCleaner? I looked at it and don't like where it says it comes with 'Registry cleaner'. I really don't like anything messing with my registry.

Kalario