Email and virus Protection on Windows 7??

[ThisIsNot]

I suggest you give up the ghost on having a dedicated e-mail program. Those have simply faded away now into oblivion due to the user interfaces of web based hosting services (ie Gmail). Companies just can't compete with the e-mail hosting companies as they are always changing. For example, I can now make free phone calls to any U.S. or Canadian land line, have a private chat, have a private video chat, and send e-mails all through Gmail. It is quick, simple, and easy. Programs such as Outlook or Thunderbird just can't compete.

As for the virus protection, that sounds fishy. Uninstall it and download AVG -free. It is the best, free virus program you can get. It sounds like you have a fake virus/spyware program on your computer. These programs install themselves, "scan" your computer, tell you that it is infected with something, and then want you to pay to "remove" whatever the infection was. The programs themselves are an infection and can be difficult to remove without reformatting a computer.

[cokids]

yup, it uninstalled without problem...thank God!!

Now I will check into AVG. I also have CyberDefender, but realize that they want $$ even though it is hyped as a 'free' program. Know anything about them?

Beth

[ThisIsNot]

No, I haven't heard of them. The big names in the anti-virus crowd are Norton, McAfee, Grisoft (AVG), and Microsoft (yeah, I know, it sounds strange). Norton has sucked for a long time now, AVG has become the standard for free virus protection, I think McAfee is good on the enterprise level but their home software sucks, and Microsoft (Microsoft Security Essentials) actually stays on top of things. The only aspect where Microsoft fails is that their software, much like their operating systems, are widely used so "hackers" go after it first.

I actually think that Security Essentials is rather easy to use and it consumes less resources than any other virus protection software I have used. It also lumps spyware, adware, and virus protection all into one package. However, as I said, it tends to get cracked first simply because it is available on so many machines.

Personally, I would never trust a "Free" virus scanning application that continually asks for money. AVG Free will often advertise for the full versions of AVG but it isn't forcing you to buy anything. You can download AVG Free, scan your computer, and remove infections without every seeing a "you must spend money to remove this" warning.

As I originally said, CyberDefender sounds fishy and it turns out they are. A quick Google search shows that CyberDefender's software is in fact fake. They essentially trick people into thinking that their computer is infected and then charge them to remove bogus files making it look like the software cleaned your system. Don't use it, uninstall it, and never look back. Continuing to use CyberDefender means that you are just asking for trouble. Uninstall that fake program and go with something else. AVG Free will be more than adequate, I think even Microsoft Security Essentials would be better. You might also be able to obtain a free enterprise edition of McAfee or even Norton if you are a college student. My old university offers up downloads of the enterprise version of McAfee that I am still running on my netbook without issues. Either way, you need to get rid of CyberDefender.

[cokids]

Took your advice and uninstalled Cyberdefender in Control Panel.

downloaded AVG and began to install. It stopped to tell me to uninstall Cyberdefender which I have already done. It no longer appears in control panel uninstall dialogue. It is highly NOT recommended to continue installation of AVG without removing cyberdefender, so what do I do now?

I hate having conflicts, but looks like this may be my only option. AVG is obviously finding parts of Cyberdefender that were not uninstalled.

Beth

[ThisIsNot]

Of course, that is the way those scam virus protection programs work. They get inside of your computer, make you think you have a virus, and then never full uninstall themselves.

Go ahead and install AVG and see what happens. You may have to use AVG to completely remove what remains of CyberDefender. I would also do some Google searching to see if there aren't ways to completely remove CyberDefender. You might have to manually dig through your computer to delete files (hold the shift key and then hit the delete key, this will permanently remove files, you don't want to send anything CyberDefender related to the recycling bin as it can always find a way out), delete registry entries, delete dll files, etc.

I think you actually would have been better off activating your trial of McAfee in the very beginning as you can always completely uninstall that while CyberDefender is nothing but a big scam.

If worst comes to worst, you can always reformat your computer or even restore it to a point before you installed CyberDefender (which still may not remove the necessary files).

[cokids]

Called Cyberdefender and talked w/ tech support. They had no explanation for dangling defender pieces on my comnputer. Said I should talk with 'uninstall specialist'....got put on hold again for 10 minutes!! Then got a regular tech support person who could not help me. They haven't a clue....because they know it is intended that these things install and don't remove themselves!!

So, I went ahead and downloaded/installed Avast which installed without any warnings. I ran a scan and it didn't find anything. Will later upgrade from free program and try removing defender mess. So, for now, I'm protected against viruses, but spyware is absolutely another problem! I expect that CD IS spyware!

Beth

[ThisIsNot]

Or you could switch to a program such as AVG-free (or even their paid version) which will protect you from both spyware and viruses.

[cokids]

...when installing it told me to uninstall cyberdefender, so I stopped there.

It warned of conflicts and a slowed computer which I do NOT want!!

Beth

Avast installed without such warnings.

[ericinboston]

go and get your free trial of Counterspy at:

Spyware Removal - Download a free Trial - CounterSpy Antispyware Software

1)install it
2)Let it update itself
3)scan your entire computer and let it throw away anything it found...if that other program truly is a virus/spyware, Counterspy will get rid of it
4)reboot
5)scan your entire computer again
6)reboot
7)uninstall Counterspy
8)reboot
9)Install AVG


If following the above fails, there is really nothing more I/we can do without physically having the computer in our hands. Do you have a backup of the computer before this problem? Does Acer provide a recovery partition to restore your computer back to original factory settings as the day you opened the box?

ACER PC Restore to factory settings

The Acer website is pretty unhelpful...you'll need to Google around with your exact machine model to find out.

-Eric

[ThisIsNot]

Originally Posted by cokids

Avast installed without such warnings.

AVG >>> Avast

It doesn't matter if AVG threw you a few warnings, that doesn't make Avast the correct option to use especially since there are still remnants of CyberDefender on your computer. Going with another no name virus protection setup simply because it didn't see CyberDefender as being a conflict is not the right way to go. That is like spilling 2 L of soda on white carpet and then covering it up with newspaper saying that you didn't want to clean the carpet as the steam cleaner could ruin it.

So uninstall CyberDefender (as I originally said, AVG might be able to handle this) as outlined by Eric, uninstall Avast, and then install AVG.