The State of Anti-Virus Software

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:10:32 GMT

In the last week, I've got the Windows Anti-Virus malware 3 times. Each time, I was using chess.com on Facebook. I investigated and found others have also claimed to have gotten this virus from chess.com, but the website denies it could be them.

The McAfee virus protection I paid for ($40) didn't protect me from this virus either.

The 1st time, I decided to fire up some anti-virus software to see how they coped with the virus. I installed Spyware Dr, as this was recommended on several message boards.

But let me tell you, finding information about viruses in Google searches is near impossible. Software vendors have injected tons of pages and to redirect troubled users and sell them their software.

I installed Spyware Dr. Unfortunately, it didn't find the virus, but did find a lot of cookies. That's one of the biggest problems with anti-virus software. They find a lot of false positives.

I decided to purchase the software license since ppl were insisting it worked. I bought the license, upgraded and still found nothing. Wasted $40. And waste of time.

I contacted their support and asked why it wasn't catching, never mind removing the virus. Their support said I had to purchase the $50 version to get that virus removed. Nice catch.

I purchased the $50 version and got a refund on my $40. But... The new version wouldn't install. I had to install it 3-4 times before it worked. And once installed, it didn't find the virus either. Wasted $50. And more time wasted.

I then decided to manually remove the virus myself, which took 10 minutes. Too easy. I opened the Task Manager, killed the process and removed all references to it from the registry. Simple.

I few days later, I got the virus again. Then a few days later again. Each time, I was using chess.com app on Facebook. I guess I'll stop that and see if I get the virus again. If I don't, then I'll know it was in fact chess.com app on Facebook.

Oddly, McAfee caught the virus the 3rd time. I imagine it was updated with new code to catch this virus. It wasn't a new virus though. It's been around for quite awhile.

Honestly, I'm very good with computers. I have a bachelor of computer science, wrote 7 computer books and write my own software.

If this is difficult for me, then I can't imagine how anybody who is not an uber-geek uses computers.

Anti-virus software is the worst malware out there. I don't know how many computers I've seen boot up with numerous warnings to update and purchase the latest version of Norton or McAfee.

And I don't know how many times I've had to kill an anti-virus program because it decided to start a scan while I was working on something important and slowed my computer to a halt.

And even if you have anti-virus software, there's no guarantee it'll find the virus you do get.

The state of anti-virus software sucks. This is mostly Microsoft's fault, but also the fault of Norton and McAfee who are more concerned with their bottom line, then creating real solutions.

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The State of Anti-Virus Software