Trouble Downloading Antivirus Software

[stargazer]

I've been working for the past week on my daughter's computer, and began to notice in the past couple days it was running slower and slower, with more pop-ups and being re-routed to sites I didn't want to go to, and similar such red flags. It finally occurred to me to call and ask her if there was Antivirus software on the computer, and she said no. I had assumed there was. Never assume, I guess.

Well, the problem I'm having now is that I can't seem to download any free antivirus software. Whenever the .exe file comes up, it has another extension, ".exe.part" -- and Windows says it can't open the file.

I find myself thinking the computer has a virus, and that this is all part of the virus. Can anyone help me with this?

 

[Daniel E.]

When I download files in Windows, the ".part" at the end of the file name usually just means that the file did not completely download yet.

I would recommend downloading a 90-day, fully-functional trial version of Windows OneCare, which includes antivirus and antispyware:

Windows Live OneCare - Home


(If you have the same ".part.exe" issue with the file from Microsoft, then try to select a different download option like "Run" rather than "Save" or visa versa. If that doesn't work, please post again with some specifics, like which browser and Windows version you are using and if the download status showed 100% completion. Also, how fast was the file being downloaded? Closer to 30 KB/s or more like 100 KB/s? Are you using dialup or DSL or cable broadband? Is a wireless (hotspot) connection being used? Have you downloaded any large files from your current ISP before? )

 

[stargazer]

OK thanks for the information.

In the meantime, however, I downloaded a 30-day trial of AVG, which I guess isn't free any more. I mean, the trial's free, but I have to buy it after thirty days to continue using it.

I'm about 50 minutes into the scan, and so far it's found four viruses and 3 Trojan Horses, in addition to some adware.

I called my daughter again, but I'll discuss that elsewhere.

 

[lonely cat]

I would advice you to use the Kaspersky online scanner.Using only one antivirus may not clean all the viruses you had.Kaspersky is an online scanner,you do not have to download and install it,use it within your browser.Also make sure that you use a firewall in order to maintain your PC clean.If you give more information about your system I can be more helpful.You do not have to pay to be secure,there are many good combinations of free programs to choose.:2thumbs:

 

[boi]

hey stargazer
I use avg and its great. It is still free it's just hard to find the free edition on the site AVG Free Advisor - Free antivirus and anti-spyware downloads
I also use adaware and spybot, those two seem the best and do not do anything wierd with the computer and they are free. those get rid of ad's and stuff not viruses
Ad-Aware 2007 - Reviews and free Ad-Aware 2007 downloads at Download.com

Spybot - Search & Destroy - Reviews and free Spybot - Search & Destroy downloads at Download.com

just another suggestion

 

[stargazer]

Lonely Cat, thanks for the tip -- I will check that out. It does seem reasonable that one antivirus program alone might be insufficient to catch all the bugs and worms and what.

Boi, thanks for the link. I didn't really want to have to pay for AVG after 29 more days from now, although it did a good job last night -- of cleaning out 225 infected files, deleting 4 of them, and putting the rest in the "Virus Chest." (I'm not sure what all that means, but the comp is working better now.)

I've also always used Spybot Search & Destroy, as well as AdAware. I guess I've been so pre-occupied lately I forgot about the whole protection aspect of having a new computer.

Plus, I assumed (never assume!) that my daughter had all this taken care of before she let me borrow the computer. She got off the phone quickly both times I called, and I think she was afraid I was about to blame her for the viruses -- which I hope I would not do. She might have felt guilty, though, or perhaps dumb for not having protection, while going to gaming sites, and sending and receiving mp3's and videos, playing YouTubes, etc. Hm.

 

[Retired]

I also use adaware and spybot

My experience with AdAware is that it is largely innefective against real spyware as it looks only at cookies; and I have found spybot to be unstable most of the time.

IMO the best spyware software that works in the background, is effective and is free is Windows Defender.

 

[boi]

hmm I might try windows defender...cool..I never had any probs with adaware and spybot though.

 

[stargazer]

I can try Windows Defender too, but having already installed AVG, I have a question about it. Does anyone know whether I'm supposed to click "allow" or "deny" on that window that always keeps popping up, saying things like "My PDF Creator is attempting to establish a connection with port such-and-such?" I can't tell whether this is something I'm supposed to let it do, or if this is some kind of bad thing that I should deny.

 

[Daniel E.]

It's a security feature that is dumb as nails, which is why it has to ask. However, the same thing is true in Windows Vista's security system since they haven't developed any smart algorithms yet to do some of the thinking for us. So everytime an application is trying to connect to the Internet for the first time, you can expect that message. I have never been in a situation yet where I really needed to disapprove of anything. I do disapprove a few times, but only when I have never heard of the program that needs approval or if I don't want an existing program to keep on trying to update itself or send user statistics back to the developer.

 

[stargazer]

OK Thanks Daniel. I think it's actually giving me an option to "always" use the same reply (allow or deny) so I guess I might as well set it to "always" allow, so as not to have to deal with the ongoing pop-up.

I have a new issue now, and I really feel like a fool. In borrowing my daughter's computer, it never occurred to me to check and see if it had enough memory for me to run Finale 2008 music notation software effectively. I now find that it does not. The memory here is only 512mb, and Finale 2008 needs at least 1000mb to run without errors being created (staves dropping out, etc.) -- I just lost the entire left hand of a piano section, although I do have it saved on another file and can paste it in later.

My dumb question is: I have heard over and over about adding memory to a system, but how is this done? It is possible for me to purchase some kind of memory stick that will add about 512mb more to the memory?

Not that I can afford it right now, but I might as well know. I just got an error message saying: "Warning -- Memory is getting low." So I don't know how able I am going to be to continue to do Finale jobs on this computer until I deal with this.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I have heard over and over about adding memory to a system, but how is this done? It is possible for me to purchase some kind of memory stick that will add about 512mb more to the memory?

Not that I can afford it right now, but I might as well know. I just got an error message saying: "Warning -- Memory is getting low." So I don't know how able I am going to be to continue to do Finale jobs on this computer until I deal with this.

It's quite easy to add additional RAM for most computers, if you're not afraid to open the case and careful about how you handle the RAM stick. The good news it's it's also relatively inexpensive still. Upgrading a Windows XP machine to 1 GB (i.e., an extra 512 MB) generally produces an noticeable improvement in speed overall.

 

[stargazer]

It's quite easy to add additional RAM for most computers, if you're not afraid to open the case and careful about how you handle the RAM stick. The good news it's it's also relatively inexpensive still. Upgrading a Windows XP machine to 1 GB (i.e., an extra 512 MB) generally produces an noticeable improvement in speed overall.

That sounds like a plan. There's an Office Max near the Inn -- maybe they have the RAM stick? I need to get out of the room again anyway -- the rain has stopped and it's gloriously beautiful out there. I might not be able to purchase the RAM stick tonight, but I might as well investigate.

I also think that recent slow-downs might have been mostly due to insufficient memory for the programs I'm running. I ran two Virus scans and cleaned out all the other bugs.

It might be a good idea to do a disk clean-up and de-frag the system as well. I am slowly realizing that my daughter might not have been too attentive to these things, but I'm not going to call her about it. She was good enough to let me borrow the computer, so I don't want to express too much anxiety over things I can probably handle myself.