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Well hold on bucko

"As long as antivirus products aren't free (and in fact they're rather expensive for casual users)"

Two good FREE avs for the "casual" user are
Grisoft
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php
and
AVAST
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

" It would behoove the software industry to provide those products without charge"

In a sense they do and that is part of the problem. With each peecee sold there is a fully functional, time limited trial AV program installed. All the general peecee abuser sees when they buy their new box is "internet ready". With a warm fuzzy feeling they go home, set up and 3 to 6 months later they call people like us here at ZDNET feedback crying cause their peecee is doing back flips on their table.

No one told them they had to subscribe to get their updates and maintain security. I am not and do not pretend to be a tech. (All though I did sleep at Holiday Inn last night, sorry I digress). I have helped folks like that and one of the first questions I ask is "when did you last update your anti-virus software?" At that point the person's usually eyes glaze over and reply meekly, "Whaddaya mean update." I then explain that the AV that came with the peecee is subscrtiption based and the glaze in their eyes turns to anger with the statement, "Whaddaya mean subscription?" It is at this point that I realize I should learn to start to screen my calls.

I clean out all the spyware, adware, malware, virii, troji, that I can without reloading Windows and saving the little wifey's Flowgo emails and forwards. I then install either two of the AVs mentioned above combining that with simple instructions that are constantly bantered here on ZDNET and slip out back to lonely hovel to ponder why I bother. I know that in about a month the same crappola is gonna happen again.

I said all that to say this. I hate Bestbuy. But I gotta give them credit before the peecee abuser can get the machine out of the store they install all Windows updates and at the least try to push incremental sales of AnitVirus products. You could give these same peecee abusers a box with Linux or OSX on it and they will invariably run in root and we all know what that can cause. So I am not so quick to jump on Microsoft for their short comings.

"And by the way, Microsoft itself exacerbates the problem of malicious attachments with its attitude of "don't bother your silly head about anything technical". Quite specifically, the default Windows choice of not displaying extensions on file names is insane, as is the related default of not displaying hidden files. It's all too easy for someone not to see that something that looks like a jpeg file is really a .exe file."

Well yes and no. Most peecee abusers have no idea what those extensions mean. People that have heeded somewhat my warnings have called me and asked, "Hey Squawky, can I open these picture attachments sent to me by my daughter in college?" I ask what icons or extensions are showing and are they sure they are from their loved one? Give them an answer and go back to my rat killing. The problem is drawing that fine line of knowledge and awareness and paranoia. I really do need to screen my calls better.

belopw is a little flash link of me (on the right) when I get a call from my friends or family witha computer problem.

http://www.jengajam.com/r/weebl-ahhhhhhhh

Posted by: Squawkbox   Posted on: 06/02/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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