dogbert Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 My dad's just bought a new laptop & needs some good anti-virus software to go with it. He's the kind of user who's PC always ends up with malware and pop-ups everywhere & unfortunately (fortunately?) I'm 3500 miles away, making it hard to do support. Right now, he's in the house with the laptop, making it far easier for me to set it up as best as I can to protect him from himself :rock The laptop's got Vista Home Premium 32-bit on it. Free software is better than non-free Any suggestions bar the usual AVG? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 Other then AVG, yeah tell him not to download attachments :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBardon Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 Can't think of much other than AVG. He's running Vista though, so I'd leave UAC turned on for sure, and make sure that he knows that if it's prompting for elevation, don't just click OK every time. Maybe also install Firefox or Chrome instead of IE? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 Yeah, have UAC stop everything. It is annoying but it works well to protect you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 Yeah, Firefox + Adblock were the first things to get installed, and UAC is getting left on for sure. Chrome's a good idea too. Any other good user friendly security apps? Speaking of Vista in general, any good must-have apps/add ons for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzzelsCousinFred Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 There's a must have app for Vista I heard about if you're using dual SLI - some kind of utility that let's you disable one card (friend who has WoW had to get it to fix video problems he kept having) Sorry that's not helpful but apparently some software doesnt like SLI on Vista (for games anyway). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Monkey Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 Isn't there some kind of remote desktop stuff built into Vista? If not, maybe you should consider setting up something like that. Then you can help Pop from home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 All Progams - Accessories - Remote Desktop Connection. It's there on XP as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 All Progams - Accessories - Remote Desktop Connection. It's there on XP as well. You can only host RDC on XP Professional, and it's the same with Vista - only the business version have it (I believe). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 www.showmypc.com Wonderful little app that uses a private SSH server. Your dad downloads it on his end and reads you his code. You input it and you've got remote access to his desktop. Easy, free and its perfect for quick fixes. I use it at work all day long. I'll third AVG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonner Cyn Posted September 23, 2008 Report Share Posted September 23, 2008 I've been looking for an anti-virus program as well, so I'll have to check out this AVG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBardon Posted September 24, 2008 Report Share Posted September 24, 2008 You should be able to use the built in Remote Assistance feature in Vista over the internet, but I've never actually tried it. I remember it being mentioned when it first came up in XP, and then it sort of fell off my radar until a customer mentioned using it last week. I tried it out locally and it seemed to work, and the docs seem to suggest that you can set it up on the internet as well (albeit there might be port forwarding issues on a router). Might be worth investigating? ShowMyPc sounds pretty cool though-is it similar to GoToMyPc.com? Vista Home Preimum doesn't have RDP, but Business and Ultimate do. Yes, this is stupid... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted September 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2008 ShowMyPC is VNC over SSH it appears so it's exactly what I need. Thanks for the tip, Romier. Installed it, AVG, Word & a bunch of Pogo games on the laptop last night, so my dad's happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted September 24, 2008 Report Share Posted September 24, 2008 Remote Desktop friggin rules. I've been using VNC for a while, I switched to Remote Desktop, and it is 10x better. I can literally work, actually do a days worth of work, over remote desktop. VNC is way to sluggish for that. However, it is perfect for doing little tasks here and there. Beats driving to your parents house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishepa Posted September 24, 2008 Report Share Posted September 24, 2008 http://www.logmein.com is the best tool I have used for remoting into my home/parents PC. It's free too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainl Posted September 24, 2008 Report Share Posted September 24, 2008 I've done entire days of work using Remote Desktop myself; it's an amazingly useful tool. Sorry - I've got XP Pro at work and Vista Ultimate at home, so I didn't know it was missing from other versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted September 24, 2008 Report Share Posted September 24, 2008 Remote Desktop friggin rules. I've been using VNC for a while, I switched to Remote Desktop, and it is 10x better. There are certainly better tools but for what he's looking to do - the sluggishness of a VNC connection won't be an issue as you note for small tasks. He gets in, fixes whatever issues are going on with his dads' computer and he gets out. All is well. At work, I have to troubleshoot clients computers without putting them through lengthy install processes or signing up for accounts etc. I've found showmypc.com to be perfect for it. Quick app download, they read me a code and I'm in with almost no issues to do what I need to do and get out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBardon Posted September 26, 2008 Report Share Posted September 26, 2008 How is showmypc with corporate firewalls? If it works over standard ports, it might be a useful tech support tool. Remote Desktop friggin rules. I've been using VNC for a while, I switched to Remote Desktop, and it is 10x better You want awesome? Combine RDP with Virtual Server. Actually, I really have to get around to setting up HyperV on server 2008 for my host OS on my virtual server box-I want to be able to create 64 bit VMs, and Virtual Server 2005 won't let you do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted September 26, 2008 Report Share Posted September 26, 2008 How is showmypc with corporate firewalls? If it works over standard ports, it might be a useful tech support tool. I use it at work all day in and out through our corporate firewall with no issues. I can readily connect to users. Technicall support for our clients is a big part of my job so it most certainly does come in handy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlayerLuv Posted September 27, 2008 Report Share Posted September 27, 2008 I am not 100% sure about vista compat and these two programs but they are both free and have very good independent ratings. I used AVG for awhile but jumped ship when they went to vers 8.x it was bad for my pc(utilization issues). I switched to Avira AntiVir personal which has a small footprint and if you are in the firewall market Comodo makes a good firewall product which is also free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lutter Posted September 27, 2008 Report Share Posted September 27, 2008 Man... sooo much Vista hate here. I use AVG with my Vista Premium... been using that since Windows 2000 and it works great! (free is an added bonus) Throw Spybot Search & Destroy as I believe Spyware is a much bigger problem than viruses nowadays Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishepa Posted September 28, 2008 Report Share Posted September 28, 2008 I use Avira as well instead of AVG on my fusion XP machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted September 28, 2008 Report Share Posted September 28, 2008 I used to use AVG, but also jumped at the last update. Now I'm using Avast and I'm pretty happy with it, except for the sound effects, otherwise its a very innocuous piece of kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonner Cyn Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Wait, AVG is free? I thought I looked at their site and saw that it had a $50-ish price tag? Am I looking at the wrong product? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlayerLuv Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 yes there is a free version. I typically watch this site http://www.filehippo.com/ and periodically check the new versions out or replace existing free software that has been #.# released from good to bad. I loved AVG Free when it was the 7.x version but I was scared off from free 8.x based on some cpu utilization issues(which could be fixed now I don't know). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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