A friend of mine has an old computer – Windows 95, Pentium 133Mhz, 32 megs of RAM and uses dial-up to access the internet. She uses Outlook Express. She hasn’t got much money, so she is looking for a free virus scanner. Currently she is using AVG free edition, and it seems to work okay on her computer, but she finds it frustrating because it doesn’t auto-update (she has to d/l the definitions manually). Also, she’s not very computer knowledgable, so the simpler, the better.
So, I was thinking of installing Avast Home on her computer, but then I thought that perhaps her computer won’t have enough RAM etc to run it properly (also will Avast Home work ok on Windows 95?). From what I’ve read, AVG uses less RAM to run than Avast, so perhaps she should continue using AVG? I also heard of AntiVir, which supposedly doesn’t use too much system resources, however, if I understand correctly, it doesn’t offer incremental updates, so it would take longer for downloads etc… If anyone has some comments or suggestions, I would very much appreciate it.
I think it will be ok.
I tried in a similar configuration system some time ago.
Suggestion: disable the providers that she won’t use (P2P, IM, etc.).
See if she must have sensitivity at High level or if will be better a Custom one (protecting only special extensions files and not all of them).
If I were she, I’ll do the same: change AVG for avast.
Incremental and automatic updates are almost unbelivable ;D
I’ll install it on her computer, and see how it goes. As Technical suggests, I’ll only install what is needed i.e. no P2P etc… (which she doesn’t use anyway)
One thing though… I notice that Avast uses Dcom. Doesn’t that pose a security risk? I read on Google-groups that apparently you can’t disable Dcom in Avast or else the virus vault won’t work properly. Is that correct? If I install Avast on her computer, should I then set up a firewall so that it won’t allow Dcom to go external?
Maybe some Alwil expert could correct me but I think avast! does not use DCOM at all.
I have my DCOM services disabled and avast is working (including the Chest).
I suppose avast! uses just RPC (remote procedure call) service from Windows but this, you won’t able even to kill it or your windows will be killed too. It’s an essencial service. Try to kill it and you system will reboot (blue death screen).
Use DCOMbobulator to disable DCOM (http://grc.com/files/DCOMbob.exe)
See My FAQ’s link bellow for more information on DCOM service 8)
I suppose avast! uses just RPC (remote procedure call) service from Windows but this, you won't able even to kill it or your windows will be killed too. It's an essencial service. Try to kill it and you system will reboot (blue death screen).
I think you’re right in that it uses RPCSS. But thanks for the tip about the dcom tool from Steve Gibson’s site.
And as the other poster noted, the IE version has to be more recent. My friends computer originally had the older version 3.x installed, and it wouldn’t work with that, so an update was needed. All is ok. Avast runs slow on her PC, but I’m going to try to find some more RAM for her computer (to bring it up to 64 megs).
I used AVG for awhile and was quite happy with it…but then I read that it didn’t scan non-microsoft email clients and had some less than rave reviews. Take a look at the link below. I believe it is unbiased AV testing.
Avast found 1 virus and 2 trojans (spyware really) on her PC! ;D
I think they had been on her computer for some time, and her previous anti-virus (AVG) program missed them completely even with the latest definitions. So kudos to Avast!
And ever since Avast detected and removed them, her PC is no longer “haunted” (her words)… no doubt the virus & spware were causing her computer to run abnomally.
So all is good now. Plus, I got some more RAM for her PC, so installation is next on my to do list…
