Virus scanner question

by **adidas** on Sun Jul 08, 2001 7:42 pm

I have to admit that I haven't used a virus scanner in ages. My reasoning is that if I have my files backed up, I can always just format my hard drive.

I decided this morning that since I'm too lazy to go throught the trouble of backing up my files once a week or so, I should get a virus scanner, especially since I'm downloading off of ftps posted in alt.2600.warez.

I used to use McAfee a long time ago, but I hated it. It was always running and scanning in the background, causing my apps and games to slow down. What used to really piss me off was when I'd be playing Unreal and it would start scanning the Unreal executable!! That used to fuck everything up.

Is there a virus scanner that either by default just scans downloaded files or can be configured to scan only downloaded files? I don't need it scanning every time I open something.

by **Damian** on Sun Jul 08, 2001 9:11 pm

I have never had a virus scanner myself, and probably never will do so I have no clue about them. I am just replying to bump this up to the top really [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] (thanks jewboy).

[ 08 July 2001: Message edited by: DamianMoran ]

by **Megaman X** on Sun Jul 08, 2001 11:24 pm

I currently run Norton Antivirus 2001 and it doesn't seem to be to bad. You can configure it to scan automatically or turn everything off and scan manually.

by **Pdaimaoh** on Sun Jul 08, 2001 11:48 pm

I'm using Norton 2k, which is a piece of shit, but at least when I intentionally put a virus on my PC, it saw and quarantined it

it also tweaked when I downloaded sub7 (the program, not the trojan) which was fine

you can just shut off the scanner when you want to play a game, or you know you're only going to be doing stuff where you won't suddenly get infected (save for time release stuff...maybe)

you can do a temporary disable, which makes it easier

by **were** on Mon Jul 09, 2001 8:20 am

Mcafee eats up too much memory so you should avoid that.

any virus detector can be bypassed easily.I hear norton is OK, especially its diferent types of software u can get for it

Its essential for people with dsl/idsn connections...isn't download.com have the most popular software updated wekly or daily?

by **Silverhaze** on Mon Jul 09, 2001 1:41 pm

Well I have had McAfree on my PC since I bought it which means its had shit all updates but what the hey. Anyway, it has detected virus' before now and deleted them straight away. One I got from a computer magazine CD!!!

Anyway, I have no problems with it running out of turn because I usually do Ctrl, Alt, Del on start up and shut down everything except Point32 and Explorer. That frees things up a touch and means nothing will run unless you go and open it up again manually.

by **adidas** on Tue Jul 10, 2001 2:01 am

If you have Win98 or higher run msconfig from StartMenu->Run...

It will let you see which programs start on your computer at boot-up and deselect what you don't want to start.

That saves you the task of Alt-Ctrl-Delete every time you boot Windows.

Depending on the version of Windows you have, you might not have msconfig, I have Win98SE and it works for me.

I know I've seen free virus scanners before, maybe I'll try one of those. If the free ones suck, I'll get Norton from a warez site or something.

by **Silverhaze** on Tue Jul 10, 2001 1:20 pm

You know what Adidas? I've been looking for something like this for bloody ages! Thanks mate, that should save me a whole load of bother now.

Cheers Dude!