Well, Here's an interesting tale to tell.
yesterday, like a complete and utter prat I got a virus.
tere is nobody to blame for this but my complete bone headed stupidity.
Sinse I've got a lot of spam of late, I've been setting up male rules to dispose of it, ---- things like automatically moving anything with viagra in the subject line to the deleted items folder.
I'd just read and deleted a message, and then thought better of replying, so went to the deleted items folder and like a total zombi just pressed enter on the first message presuming it was the ast one I deleted.
No such luck! my rules had worked, and I was opening a pandora's box of spam!
Needless to say, I closed it quickly, -----and hoped it was just spam advertising.
No such luck, sinse quite soon windows was popping up security alerts.
So, I downloaded the free version of Avg.
this was an interesting exercise in itself, sinse Ie had been envirusated and wouldn't let me find the link, ---- so I had to connect my laptop to the net, find the link, E-mail it to myself and open that E-mail on my desktop(i certainly wasn't going to use my backup external drive when my desktop had a known virus).
So I downloaded and ran avg a few times.
Previously Avg got right up my nose, ---- not for it's lack of virus squashing ability (though it did for some odd reason decide that Klango was a virus), but for the amount it slowed my computer up when it decided in it's infinite wisdom to scan or update, ---- which it insisted upon doing at every! oppertunity!
It was most annoying to have my computer slow to a crawl when I first turned it on to the point where Hal wasn't working properly and I couldn't even word process for my thesis for a couple of hours while Avg checked my C drive and updated it's deffinitions.
I had in the end to uninstall the thing just so that I could get things done, ---- and decided it wasn't worth the bother, and to stick with spybot for add and spyware (though it's manual updating is a major task!), and take my chance with viruses by careful brousing, ---- sinse generally after many years, I've found unless you open dodgy E-mails or download dodgy links, you don't have to be as paranoid about viruses as some people are.
Now however, Either Avg is more relaxed, or this pc has a good wodge more ram than my last, sinse I haven't noticed Avg imparing performance significantly at all.
If it continues not to be a pain, I might considder subscribing when the month of free license runs out, ---- sinse as I said, Spybot's manual update system is a pest, ---- as each component, ---- add deffinitions, security protocalls etc has to be downloaded and installed separately, ---- and it's nearly as much of a pest determining which bits are actually needed by spybot (obviously updated german language files aren't), as it would be removing a serious virus.
I can also say, that sinse Avg's background scanner picked up the virus even before I started a general C drive scan, ---- I know it's not going to crash my computer at start up by conflicting with Hal the way Macaffi did when i was living in Colidge.
Not sure why I'm sharing this, ---- accept it's a vaguely interesting litle tale, --- and some people may have thoughts on avg and slowdown.
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)