The Fiery Source » Software

Best Free Antivirus Software

Bob — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:08:09 +0000

Hackers are as plentiful as the mid and late nineties and every day there are thousands of threats that your computer can are susceptible to. However with the recent advancements in technology, it’s becoming harder and harder for viruses, Trojan software and spyware to take control of your computer thanks to the cooperation of many browsers, email clients and the overall more security of the Windows operating system.

With these advancements in technology, it’s not necessary to pay $50-$100 a year for virus protection. Yes you should have virus protection (unless you’re computer savvy enough to use MsDOS) because most malicious code can cause great damage including the theft of financial and other personal information.

The virus programs listed below are recommended for Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. While they can work on XP, we wouldn’t advise it because with the release of Windows 7, there is no need to stick with an archaic operating system that supports a max of 3GB of RAM.

Microsoft Security Essentials Free Antivirus

Microsoft has long been accused of monopolistic plays to corner the software market and you can imagine that the likes of Norton, McAfee and TrendMicro are none too happy with Redmond’s decision to release a full fledged antivirus, spyware and Trojan protection for the Windows operating system.

Being a beta tester of Windows 7 I can honestly say that I have not had a single problem with the OS concerning viruses and spyware, however I did install Microsoft Security Essentials just to make sure and so far it has worked perfectly. It’s very lightweight and provides great features.

Best of all since Microsoft Security Essentials integrates into Windows so well, it uses very little system resources and runs quietly in the background. If you want a free solution with all the basic support you need, this is the selection to go with. Download it here.

AVG Anti-Virus (Freeware and Shareware)

This lightweight anti-virus fighter provides excellent protection against the various unwanted nasties floating around the Internet. This virus killer provides freeware (with limitations) and commercial versions of their software, but most users find AVG Free is all they need.

This has been one of the all time favorite free antivirus solutions for millions of users. Users also swear by AVG Anti-Virus as a comprehensive and bulletproof solution. It’s not hard to see why AVG is the top downloaded antivirus on download.com. Although recent versions have become a little bloated and do hug system resources, this is a great option for those who have the power to support it (Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM should be fine).

It provides unparalleled support and is more feature rich than Microsoft Security Essentials. However the reason it ranks second is because it still has way more features than you will probably ever use and as we said before, thanks to the improved security of Vista and Windows 7, you won’t need to be deleting that many viruses unless ThePirateBay and online movie sites are your regular internet traffic. Download it here.

Avast Antivirus (Freeware and Shareware)

Available in both freeware (Home) and shareware (Professional) options. Avast is slightly heavier on system resources than most, all though it’s still considered light weight and users argue its excellent protection makes up for the increased load. The freeware version will cost your time to register on their website, they will then send you a registration code from their to activate the free download.

There is a reason why Avast continues to receive 4 to 5 star ratings from the likes of PC World, CNET and others. It’s not only a powerful anti virus protector, Avast carries a suite of features including IM and P2P sharing security as well as network shield and support for 64-bit operating systems. If you’re looking for the perfect combination of speed, power and reliability, Avast is one of your best options. It features stellar automatic updates and with its built in firewall support, you can be sure that hackers will be kept at bay. Download it here.

Avira Personal Free Antivirus

Avira AntiVir Personal Free Antivirus is for home-users only, it’s not as full featured as Avast. However, it comprehensive, easy to use, and it does a great job protecting against those unwanted nasties. This anti virus program offers : extensive malware recognition of viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, worms, an advanced heuristic system and what it calls a Virus Guard real time monitoring system. Like most on this list it is easy to install, but it also offers forum and phone support; Knowledge Base with virus descriptions are available on the web site;

Version 9 introduces a quick-removal button for eliminating viruses with a single click, enhanced anti-spyware and anti-adware engines, and support for low resolution netbook screens. Download it here.

Comodo

Before installing Microsoft Security Essentials, I used Comodo to protect my Windows 7 installation. It is a great option for those looking for something free and provides some nice features such as built in firewall (something many free antivirus programs lack).

It also has the ability to prevent certain programs from accessing the Internet or receiving information from online servers. The only reason I rank it at number 5 on this list is the warning signs can be a little annoying at times and for some reason I cannot get the damn thing to remember my selection.

But that aside, it’s a great option and since it’s free for both home and commercial use, it can provide basic protection for you small business. Download it here.

How to Remove Fake Antivirus Software

Bob — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:59:04 +0000

All those so called anti virus programs listed below are fake antivirus software programs, imposters, scams designed to empty your bank account, most are Viruses or Trojans. The makers of the fake software fool users into believing they have an infected computer by displaying warnings saying “a serious virus threat has been detected”. They will then offer the user their so called fully licensed virus software for download to remove the high level threat for a small fee of course via your credit card.

Generally what these criminals are after with this fake antivirus software is your credit card number. Some really want to sell you some sort of so called virus protection software, and all it really does is remove the program that they put on your system from the start. There’s a lot of money to be made doing this, thus the motivation behind the scam.

Then there are those that are nothing more than your typical trojans and virus programs that has one mission and one mission only, wreck your computer.

Remove Fake Antivirus is used to remove the following fake antivirus programs from your system.

Cyber Security, Braviax, Alpha Antivirus, GreenAV, Windows Protection Suite, Total Security 2009, Windows System Suite, Personal Antivirus, Anti-Virus-1, Spyware Guard 2008, System Guard 2009, Antivirus 2009, System Security, Antivirus 2010, Antivirus Pro 2009, Antivirus 360, MS Antispyware 2009, Malware Doctor, AntivirusBEST, System Security 2009, Antivirus System Pro, WinPC Defender, etc.

Again all of the above are fake antivirus programs designed to do you harm.

How do you use Remove Fake Antivirus ? Its real simply: download the executable file, launch the program, and start the scan.

Remove Fake Antivirus is designed to run on the following operating systems:

* Windows 7
* Windows Vista
* Windows XP
* Windows 2003
* Windows 2000
* Windows ME
* Windows NT
* Windows 98

Download Remove Fake Antivirus

GMABooster boost’s your netbook’s integrated graphics

Bob — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:05:55 +0000

The vast majority of netbooks and lower end notebooks rely on integrated graphics from Intel, the chipsets used include GMA 954GM, GMA 900, GMA 950 and GSE940 among others. With these netbooks basic games are playable, but if you play a game that needs 3D acceleration, your going to realize your hardware needs help.

Today we are going to look at a free software application called GMABooster that promises to give more graphics power for your games. Is this a legit claim? Read on to find out.

GMABooster is a useful little tool that allows you to overclock those Intel’s GMA 900 and other graphics cores found in the majority of these netbooks. Basically GMABooster cranks-up the clock speed from 133MHz or 166MHz to a full hearty 400MHz, or the same as the non-low voltage chipset found on standard laptops.

The application did deliver on its promise. The performance gains were about a 25% increase in our GPU tests conducted here in Florida. You won’t be able to play Crysis on your netbook and the added performance gain is certainly not earth shattering, nonetheless it could make the difference between playing some better games or not playing them at all.

It’s really hard to complain about an application that is free and actually improves the 3DMark06 performance as it claims. When it comes to netbooks users, most will take any performance gains where you can get them.

The bottom line is GMABooster application is an easy tool to use, costs you nothing and it works. The biggest drawback to this application is you have to download a new version each week – your free copy expires each week unless you make a voluntary donation and in exchange receive a serial number to permanently disable the expiration date thing. The download process used for the downloads is a bit annoying with its wait period for free downloads, but it is free.

Requirements include having .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher installed and your system running the 32-bit version of Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

Interested? You can download GMABooster here.

Mac OS X and Linux versions are also available here.

[Via TweakTown]

Review: Snow Leopard

Bob — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:12:27 +0000

Hi, this Bob Madden from FierySource.com and this is a first look at Apple’s new operating system, Snow Leopard. You can upgrade Leopard on your current Mac to Snow Leopard for $29.00 as of Friday August 28 2009. Snow Leopard is one of two operating systems coming out this year, the other one is Microsoft’s Window 7 due out October 22 2009.

Unlike in the past, Apple didn’t totally design a new product and intro it with a big dog and pony show with all the fireworks, instead they took there time rebuilding the already good operating system by modifying things you don’t see under the hood. They really didn’t add any new major features. There are a number of nice little modifications or refinements through out the system but really nothing lust worthy.

Apple says new technologies like 64 bit core applications, Grand Central Dispatch, and Open CL support all will make your system and applications run faster than before. Nevertheless there are a few other nice things about Snow Leopard. It’s speeds up some of the core applications a good bit such as e-mail and the Finder which is the Mac’s desktop. Stacks also got a much needed upgrade as well as Quick Time X.

Installation:

Installing Snow Leopard was simple and took about 40 minutes to do so without any issues what so ever. I believe the install was about 40 percent faster than Leopard and asked us only one question during installation. The default setting installs Snow Leopard without tampering with any of your saved files, music, photos, or documents.

Those who want to perform a “Clean Install” or a “Fresh Install” ( this option deletes everything for minimal issues ) you’ll need to use Disk Utility to first remove all data on the drive, then run the install.

Snow Leopard takes up less space on your hard drive. One of my computers I freed up 10 GB’s of space from it’s predecessor Leopard. Apple claims it will free up 7 GB’s.

Exchange

I think the biggest new feature in Snow Leopard is Exchange, which is a Microsoft product that large companies use to manage their email contacts and calendars of their employee’s. But previously on Windows or Leopard in order to use exchange you had to purchase an add-on product like Microsoft Outlook on Windows or Microsoft Entourage on the Mac.

Now Apples is building exchange capability directly into the operating system which means you don’t have to purchase any add-on software for features like calendar invitations, synchronized notes, Global Address Lists and automatic sync of messages, contacts and appointments are all integrated with Snow Leopard’s standard application set.

Expose:

In the past Apple operating Systems arrived on the scene with major features, there’s nothing significant in Snow Leopard, although the various changes to the operating system are certainly nice and all the little changes do add up. One such little feature is Dock Expose, just as it sounds this simply links Expose to the Dock. Holding down on an application’s icon triggers Expose for that application’s window, therefore you can drag a file onto another application and be able to select which window you want to drop it into. Nevertheless here’s a short video of it in action:

Stacks

Stacks got a much needed overhaul, it now comes with a scroll bar so icons are easy to read and anything can be launched out of the Dock. The scroll bar allows scrolling in the Grid view but by also adding a smart list view capable of showing numerous files at once. Folders are now accessible within Stacks as well, so you’ll be able to navigate to files within folders all without leaving the Stacks Window. These changes make Stacks much more useful than Leopard, probably one that should have been made a while back. Here’s a short video of Stacks in action.

Finder

The Finder didn’t get much in the way of tweaks cosmetics, however the way files behave in the Finder makes it easier to use. Icons now scale thanks to a zoom slider in the lower right of Finder windows. There is also an enhanced icon view allowing you to preview multiple documents or play Quick Time movies without exiting the Finder window.

Preview now allows you to preview any files weather you have the software installed or not. Therefore common file types from Microsoft’s Office or PDF files and so on can now be reviewed without owning the software the file was written in. Here’s another short video on Finder and how it works.

QuickTime 10

Aside from QuickTime’s acceleration, there are a few major changes to talk about here. One of which is when you play a movie and move your mouse outside the window, the video screen loses all the borders and buttons to give you a better video-viewing experience. The recording features for video, audio, and screencast capturing are the bonus points here and were previously only offered in QuickTime Pro.

Another nice feature, while watching a movie, one can click the Share button to convert your movie for iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. If that wasn’t enough Apple has given us the ability to record video from your Webcam, audio, even the screen action from the desktop with a few clicks. Those of us with an iPhone 3GS will appreciate the new trimming feature in QuickTime 10, it will allow you snatch just the video content you want. Here’s a short video on QuickTime X.

Compatibility

Here’s where the sea gets a little rough. Although Snow Leopard’s changes may at first glance be hard to recognize there has been some serious modifications under the hood, therefore there is bound to be something that won’t work. Keep in mind that if you are running a stock or close-to-stock system, you probably won’t encounter any issues. On the flip side of the coin, if you have a setup tweaked like some folks around here do then no doubt you’re going to run into some issues.

Let me just say in our test common third-party programs, such as the Mac versions of Microsoft Office, Firefox browser, and Adobe Reader all ran smooth after the upgrade.

Conclusion:

After testing Snow Leopard on two of our Mac’s we have around here I have concluded it’s a good product. Like all new software products I did find a few glitches, bugs and some compatibility issues but over all it is a good sound product that has turned an already good operating system called Leopard into a much better operating system. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is not a complete system overhaul, instead it is a good modification of the current Leopard OS. Snow Leopard makes a good operating system a bit better and faster and a worthy upgrade for Mac users. I really don’t think everyone who has Leopard needs to run out and purchase Snow Leopard even though it is only $29.00. I’ll also add that Snow Leopard is Apple’s lowest-priced operating system update in eight years. However if your a serious Mac user parting with some of that cash in your wallet may be a good idea.

For you Window users I don’t think I would switch over to Apple. I mean most of these upgrades are already and have been in Windows for some time now such as 64 bit. I have been in the 64 bit arena for over three years now with Windows and Windows 7 is about to take that experience to a higher plain by making it a preferred flavor among business users.

As for the Expose Dock Integration, Microsoft has been offering this type of functionality ( known as thumbnail preview) for years as well, and Windows 7 has taken the concept further with Aero Peek. The new Expanded PDF Preview feature is another example of what Widows has been supporting for some time now via an install-able ifilter module.

Anyway I’m not here to bash Apple’s new operating system as I do think it is an excellent operating system for the Mac, if you already own an up-to-date Windows machine I wouldn’t spend the money on a Mac to experience Snow Leopard.

This is Bob Madden from Fiery Source.com and I will see you next time, thank you for reading this review.

Product page [Apple]

The Fiery Source » Software

Best Free Antivirus Software

Similar Articles

How to Remove Fake Antivirus Software

Similar Articles

GMABooster boost’s your netbook’s integrated graphics

Similar Articles

Review: Snow Leopard

Similar Articles