Battle Antivirus for my mom's old PC

[yigido]

Hi friends,

I need to hear some advices on this question.

My mother using and old PC. Here its specs..

1,87GHz Intel Pentium + 4 GB RAM DDR3 + (I added SSD for more responsive system)
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, this is why I am asking this.
I installed Win10 on this PC and PC works so slow. So I cannot use Windows Defender by default.
On Win7, even I did not apply Windows updates, because it makes it slow too.
It needs old gold Win7 without updates.

I need less false positives, less system impact on real-time and adequate protection. Adequate protection, why? Because she already scares from internet. I covered her browser with extension to prevent malicious sites. (with DNS too) I just need your suggestions?

Please comment Thanks
yigido

 

[SHvFl]

Depends. Does your mother download and install application because if not maybe an anti exe would be a better option. It will for sure be lighter. If not Avita has small impact.

 

[shmu26]

install avast free, do a custom install w/o all the extras

 

[Daniel Hidalgo]

Avira Free
very light, high protection real world, few false positives, not so friendly interface
Panda Free Cloud
very light, medium protection real world, friendly interface
regards

 

[LabZero]

BitDefender free edition could be a solution, also it has good antiphishing filter.
And in addition ZAM free as on demand scanner (lately less FP in my opinion).

 

[hjlbx]

Hi friends,

I need to hear some advices on this question.

My mother using and old PC. Here its specs..

1,87GHz Intel Pentium + 4 GB RAM DDR3 + (I added SSD for more responsive system)
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, this is why I am asking this.
I installed Windows 10 on this PC and PC works so slow. So I cannot use Windows Defender by default.
On Windows 7, even I did not apply Windows updates, because it makes it slow too.
It needs old gold Windows 7 without updates.

I need less false positives, less system impact on real-time and adequate protection. Adequate protection, why? Because she already scares from internet. I covered her browser with extension to prevent malicious sites. (with DNS too) I just need your suggestions?

Please comment Thanks
yigido

@yigido - for such a system, which is almost identical to my W7 Ultimate, I suggest you look at software restriction policy or anti-executable.

For example,

• Simple Software Restriction Policy (freeware)
  
• Bouncer (free version)
• NVT ERP (freeware)

You can configure it, and you mom will learn quickly.

You should also consider Horizon DataSys Reboot Restore RX (freeware) = extremely easy to use.

1. Clean Install OS
2. Install desired softs

System in known to be clean

3. Install Reboot Restore Rx - it will create clean baseline and always return to that clean snapshot after every system reboot (very, very simple)

Since you have Windows Update disabled, you don't have to worry about updating the baseline - but if you do want to update Windows - just uninstall Reboot Restore Rx (using the uninstaller in program folder), update Windows, reinstall Reboot Restore Rx. You don't have to use the same procedure if you update the installed softs\programs.

If you have any interest please send me a PM.

 

[Omnipotent]

Sophos Home because of it's simple interface, it's lightweight and you can monitor your mothers PC and change settings directly from their online dashboard.

 

[Petrovic]

Rollback RX, Acronis and similar
And there is no need for anti-virus

avast,avira,sophos...etc

1,87GHz Intel Pentium

I need less false positives, less system impact on real-time and adequate protection.

This does not exist

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

I agree with SHvFI
Voodoo Free would be very light or Avira
In fact you could add both of these.
Good Luck buddy

 

[BoraMurdar]

I have one old PC at home, it serves for my mom to play some puzzle game on Facebook to kill time, and I sometimes play or mix some music on it as it is connected to my home speakers. It has Pentium D 2.8GHz, 150GB HDD, 1GB of DDR1 RAM, ATI Radeon graphics.

• Windows 10 won't install at all
• Windows 7 can be installed but it's painfully slow, with updates enabled CPU usage never drops bellow 93% (svhost.exe thingy)
• Yes I tried Lubuntu, Mint, LXLE etc, drivers are not optimized correctly and it's a little faster than Windows 7 installed

The main bottleneck to other things is low CPU IPC architecture and probably prehistoric HDD to modern browsing usage, and program's usage.

So, you can guess it, Windows XP is installed, updates to 2019.

How I am keeping it "protected"?

Installed programs worth mentioning :

• Softmaker Office Free
• Sumatra PDF
• GOM Player
• JDownloader
• SlimJet Browser

Private Firewall + Avast Free (Deep Screen, Hardened Mode, Heuristics and other Sensitivity modules on Maximum)

I believe Private Firewall is enough as it's kinda default-deny program but I installed Avast free to keep my conscience at low.
System partition is backuped from AOMEI, system images are stored on external HDD and I backup it manually once in a month. Actually everything important is on external HDD, nothing to lose if something goes wrong.

I teach my mom to be very suspicious on everything she did not see before when browsing, although she only read the news on the sites I bookmarked for her, and playing that puzzle game.

So trust nothing

Spoiler

Protected that way with more than 2 years.

.

 

[yigido]

Thank you for suggestions friends

@hjlbx she is playing some games so returning to the first day of the Windows.. is not my type. After reboot, she will lost all her career on games. Am I wrong? Your setup is the best for my needs on her PC. I am thingking on it.

Avira, Avast, Panda, Bitdefender Free also came to my mind I am trying to decide which one.

@BoraMurdar Your story is so similar to mine. Her PC is into the living room and everyone sometimes uses it. My father and little brother too.
I do not install much softwares to not bundle the PC. I also explain her some things while online. I showed some security practices
She scared after this and like your advise..she never trusts anything on the screen. I will not at home for whole year so I do not want to worry about her security.

 

[hjlbx]

Thank you for suggestions friends

@hjlbx she is playing some games so returning to the first day of the Windows.. is not my type. After reboot, she will lost all her career on games. Am I wrong? Your setup is the best for my needs on her PC. I am thingking on it.

If she needs to keep game infos, then in that case Rollback RX Home (freeware).

It depends upon what type of games she is playing - ones that store infos on local system (such as settings & preferences) or is all on-line. It makes a difference.

All on-line, then Reboot Restore RX should work. If saving game profiles on local system, you can do it one of two ways:

• Include gaming config in Reboot Restore RX baseline; or
• Use Rollback RX Home to keep current, but on-going game profile changes

Using Rollback RX Home she can revert system back to clean baseline on-demand - for example, only when infection is obvious.

Plus, you can teach her how to clean the system (using CCleaner, etc) and then update the baseline. It is very simple.

@yigido - I can help you create a strong User Space policy if you decide to go the software restriction policy route.

 

[BoraMurdar]

Another thing to add, Administrator Account and Standard (Policy Restricted) Account is a gift from heaven in these situations, a lot of people forgot about that Windows features

 

[DJ Panda]

I would you Avast Free with ONLY File and Web shields activated. Jack's Avast guide works well too!

 

[Cohen]

Avast Free (follow Jack's Guide for Maximum Protection) should work well for your Mum. uBlock Origin would be good to have on her browser too.
You should also make her a standard account to use instead of an admin account if she isn't already.

 

[Ink]

Standard User Account would be recommendable.

What AV is your PC capable of running without affecting it's performance? What software did you run before Windows 10?

 

[Overkill]

IMO she would be better off running sandboxie and /or nvterp and run weekly scans with mbam or maybe eek since it's portable. Any AV is going to slow down the system somewhat.

 

[jackuars]

I'd suggest Avast as well. It runs great on older machines.

 

[CMLew]

My mum's PC is running core 2 Duo with 4GB ram too on Window 10.

I clean install everything first;
Then remove all Microsoft's 'Bloats",
Install only Skype, Foxit Reader and Office 365 (She insist she wanted it so I bought a one yr license);
Then NVT ERP (Lockdown Mode) and finally Shadow Defender (On Boot).
Then create another user account for her.
The PC is ready to go.

She's a happy clicker too so... Anti-Exe works best with SD on this case.

 

[yigido]

Guys, I installed Avast on that PC with File and Web shield only. System runs smoothly with no lag.
I also enter my avast account on this PC and I can check the status of the PC from far
Thank you for you all suggestions, it is much appreciated