Wednesday, February 14, 2007

I Owe a Bit


Every so often I like to talk about software. Why? Well, I think that if there is something free out there that can replace and often surpass the quality of a product you would pay for... you should know. Years ago, I would have told you that having Norton System Works was a great package. It had a defragmenter envied by Microsoft (until XP came out), one of the best disc repair programs (early versions of Windows actually told you to run their Disc Doctor by name) and their antivirus program. Well, Norton Antivirus has been losing standing in my eyes by letting several things through that were easily caught with other programs. It also has slid down in ratings by Consumer Reports. Oddly enough, there was this IObit program that popped up in the listing. There is a pretty good explanation of it in this press release.

Now, this isn't an antivirus program (I changed over to Avast! last year.) But what I find interesting is that several of these programs don't like each other. I only started looking at IObit after Avast! mentioned a conflict with Norton. And of course, I'd rather not pay $20 a year just so my antivirus program catches the latest problems when I could just spend it on a CD. I have found it amazing the amount of problems that have been fixed by changing programs and even installing it on other computers.

4 comments:

LoraLoo said...

I downloaded and ran Iobit. The jury's out... I'll have to check it out for a bit. I have Norton Internet Security and I'm actually quite happy with it. I see what happens with uneducated and careless surfing on a daily basis; however, I also know things are lurking you can't always use your best judgement for.

On a totally unrelated note - I wish you a very Happy St. Valentine's Day. :)

Ken said...

I'll check it out. My work laptop has McAfee loaded on it, and it runs fine.

Martin said...

Just remember that this isn't an anti-virus program (I use Avast for that.) This scans for spyware/adware, the security defense of your system, incorrect registry entries/values, scans your start-up items, sweeps away your online activity history, cleans up your temporary files and optimizes performance.

Anonymous said...

I love software talk...I always feel better when a real person recommends something! (you are real right, Martin?)