5 ms·

Who the hell uses an anti-virus in 2015? Those things slow down your PC by like 20% for almost no benefit at all. Just don't open suspicious executables (e.g. f

by Kenji 11y ago

Who the hell uses an anti-virus in 2015? Those things slow down your PC by like 20% for almost no benefit at all. Just don't open suspicious executables (e.g. from torrents), keep your OS and tools up to date and lock your browser down when it comes to plugins and JS execution.

tdicola 11y ago
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted, it's very good advice for someone who is computer literate enough to not run things they don't trust. Keep your OS and software up to date, uninstall Flash, disable crap that automatically previews files, and stick to doing most of your computing in a good web browser.
- tacone 11y ago
  Maybe because you don't need to actually open an executable file to get infected. Even displaying an image in your web browser may do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary_code_execution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary_code_execution
Asbostos 11y ago
Exactly. It's amazing how many people don't realize that this is all you need to do. Antivirus is only for people who don't follow those two rules. Well JS is fine as long as the browser is up to date. Normal people aren't going to be hit by zero-days.
- mtgx 11y ago
  > Normal people aren't going to be hit by zero-days. Normal people still use IE. There are definitely plenty of IE zero-days out there that have hit normal people. Mozilla also announced a month ago that an exploit using a FF zero-day was running in the wild.
- Kenji 11y ago
  Well, a couple of years ago I was hit by a drive-by virus. Just opening a website in (up to date) Firefox literally opened .exe files on my PC and infected the entire OS. I burnt my hands once - not again. This might be an anecdote to you but boy that scarred me - the idea that clicking a link could compromise my entire system like that. Even then - an antivirus program is unlikely to stop such an intrusion. It's just utterly ineffective, and I got viruses before despite having an anti-virus. Also, my anti-virus always deleted my hacktools and own programs which was a nuisance. Hence I don't use it anymore.
Too 11y ago
I think 20% is a pessimistic number, I've seen cases of over 50%. A friends computer (quite decent, i5 8gb) was slow to the point of not being usable at all, opening word would take like 30 sec of disk thrashing. He was on the verge of throwing it out when I took a look at it and uninstalled his antivirus, it became like brand new again.
weavie 11y ago
Non-technical partners. My wife constantly gets all sorts of crap on her machine. I have tried to explain to her the difference between popups that says she has a virus on her computer and OS alerts, but it just goes right over her head.
ionised 11y ago
> Those things slow down your PC by like 20% Citation needed.

by Kenji 11y ago

tdicola 11y ago

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted, it's very good advice for someone who is computer literate enough to not run things they don't trust. Keep your OS and software up to date, uninstall Flash, disable crap that automatically previews files, and stick to doing most of your computing in a good web browser.

tacone 11y ago
Maybe because you don't need to actually open an executable file to get infected. Even displaying an image in your web browser may do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary_code_execution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary_code_execution

Asbostos 11y ago

Exactly. It's amazing how many people don't realize that this is all you need to do. Antivirus is only for people who don't follow those two rules. Well JS is fine as long as the browser is up to date. Normal people aren't going to be hit by zero-days.

mtgx 11y ago
> Normal people aren't going to be hit by zero-days. Normal people still use IE. There are definitely plenty of IE zero-days out there that have hit normal people. Mozilla also announced a month ago that an exploit using a FF zero-day was running in the wild.
Kenji 11y ago
Well, a couple of years ago I was hit by a drive-by virus. Just opening a website in (up to date) Firefox literally opened .exe files on my PC and infected the entire OS. I burnt my hands once - not again. This might be an anecdote to you but boy that scarred me - the idea that clicking a link could compromise my entire system like that. Even then - an antivirus program is unlikely to stop such an intrusion. It's just utterly ineffective, and I got viruses before despite having an anti-virus. Also, my anti-virus always deleted my hacktools and own programs which was a nuisance. Hence I don't use it anymore.

Too 11y ago

I think 20% is a pessimistic number, I've seen cases of over 50%. A friends computer (quite decent, i5 8gb) was slow to the point of not being usable at all, opening word would take like 30 sec of disk thrashing. He was on the verge of throwing it out when I took a look at it and uninstalled his antivirus, it became like brand new again.

weavie 11y ago

Non-technical partners. My wife constantly gets all sorts of crap on her machine. I have tried to explain to her the difference between popups that says she has a virus on her computer and OS alerts, but it just goes right over her head.

ionised 11y ago

> Those things slow down your PC by like 20% Citation needed.