Antivirus

[latch]

All the anti-viruses available for windows machines are shit. I have watched as one by one each has been defeated. It is rather bleak, you had better be very conscious of how your machine runs. I could recommend the one that fails the least number of times, but people's opinions on a/v software are like assholes, everybody has got one, and so I decline to add to the mass confusion. The attitude that any software or combo of software is going to cover your ass 100% is utter madness.

Yup, I have found that education is the best form of antivirus- by this I mean reading about some of the ways they get on your computer and avoiding them. I tell my clients, "If its bad for your soul, its probably bad for your computer, too." That's not to say that is fool proof either, but it's a good start. Most of the time, I can see in a client's surfing habits if they will have a problem. Often, a client will call me because they have a virus or their computer is kacked shorty after their neighbor kid got on their computer or a brother in law stayed with them. The computer is almost always kacked because of a change in behavior. Like a detective, I say, "What happened between when it used to work and now that its a hurting unit?"

Like you said, being in tune and feeling the rhythm of how your computer responds should be on your mind- I don't run any antivirus software on my computers unless there is a problem- except for my netbook which is in the field with me. I actually picked up the blaster worm while working on a client's computer one time- don't remember how, not paying attention. Anyway, I then had to fix mine and his at the same time. Fortunately, the customer was not hovering behind me at the time. :facepalm