So for the past month my computer has been dead. I think the hard drive died or something like that. This has been a bit of a hassle since I really needed to get work done and my computer was the only one with the necessary apps. Luckily my professor just received a laptop, for what reason we still do not know. So until January I get to play with this one and install everything I need on it. So I was wondering, it’s been awhile since I used windows, what would be the best virus scan I should put on this computer?
Also would it be a bad idea to dual boot Ubuntu on it? I kind of like using it, even though I’m bad at it.
I’ve been using Kaspersky, can’t say I have any complaints- since you don’t get to keep the computer forever, you can just install the free trial for a month and you ought not to have to worry about it.
You can pop the hard drive out of your old computer and load it onto a cheap little device that allows you to connect it to a USB port as an external hard drive. Your stuff might not be lost.
You’ll want to use Microsoft Security Essentials. It does the job without nagging you or in general being more of an annoyance than an actual virus. Plus it’s free. If you plan to install Ubuntu, I’d recommend you use the install inside Windows option. It would make it easier to remove later for when you have to return the laptop.
My opinion? Depends on what you want exactly. Personally, I use Avira, and it works great with finding stuff (aside from the annoying pop-up that comes up everytime it updates, but that can be taken care of easily). I’ve heard MSE and AVG work pretty good as well. Panda is also an interesting alternative (uses Cloud-computing).
If you use Firefox, some things to get would be Ad-Block Plus and NoScript. If you get Sandboxie and set it up correctly, you can be damn near immune to most shit that tries to worm its way onto the computer.
If it makes my opinion matter more, I got a degree in this stuff.
