Provided by: “Popcorn” Eddie B.

        

Yesterday, Microsoft released a new product called Microsoft Security Essentials.  It is an antivirus and anti-spyware product, which is free, and also does not use a lot of your computer’s resources.

I received several e-mails asking if it is okay to install this product and use it instead of Avast Antivirus or AVG as a free replacement.

I have installed it on my laptop, because I want to evaluate the capabilities that are claimed by Microsoft.  However, because it is version 1 of a brand-new product, I do not recommend that the average user try it as yet.

I would continue to use Avast Antivirus, or if you have a newer fast machine AVG.

Also, Microsoft Security Essentials only operates on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and the new operating system Wwindow 7.  It will not work on Windows 98 or Windows millennium edition.

As I use the product, I will report to you in the newsletter and on this blog as to the pros and cons of the software.

Currently, I have it installed on a Windows 7 machine, and it is using very little resources.  Now let’s see if it actually works.

        

This is a bit of a rant and a bit of a warning.

On the Website Wednesday Night radio show we have talked many times over the years about what products you use to maintain your computer and what products not to use.  And we’ve talked about products that make promises and or cost money and which ones work and which ones don’t.  Which ones to watch out for, etc.

Lately, however, I have heard on several radio stations in Chicago as well as a couple of TV stations advertisements for different products that promise to speed up your computer and diagnose any issues that you may be having.  The problem I have with this is twofold.  One, some of the promises that are being made, can’t be kept.  There is no way that any single product is so good that it can fix any and every issue on any and every computer we own.

In addition, these advertisements entice you to try them by claiming that they will diagnose your computer for free.  This is true, to a point.  They will ask you to download their software, install it, and run it.  Their software will do whatever it thinks has to be done to diagnose issues with your registry and with Windows.  When it’s finished, it will display for you, what it thinks is wrong with your computer and tell you it can repair all those issues, but to do that you have to pay a fee.  It might be $29.95, $39.95, $49.95, or whatever.

The problem I have is that every one of these products detect problems differently.  I’ve tried a couple of them, and the results were different with both of them.

Again, we have discussed this many times on the show and we have found that there are a number of products that are free that can do the same or better than anything those you found in an ad on the web, or heard about on the radio or television.

So, you can go ahead and try the products. You can test them for yourself if you’d like.  Or you can just take my word for it that there are too many products out there that promise the world and then disappoint you.

The products and software that we recommend on the radio and are available on my downloads page at http://savemybutt.com work.  I’ve tested them.  I use them.  I have installed them in hundreds of machines.

One other thing, the promises that these advertisers make that they can speed up computers I find to be misleading.  I have serviced over 500 machines of listeners  and their friends and families in the past year, many of them own slower machines, because they are three, four, or five years old, and there is very little that can be done to Windows to speed up a computer to the levels promised when the hardware is not capable of going any faster.

So, just a word of warning, pay attention to what the advertisement is saying and be careful before you spend your money.  If your computer has a slower processor or the bare minimum of memory in it, there is no way you can speed it up to the levels that some of them advertise with software.

Coming very soon, I will be offering a mentor site that you can join and learn how to, not only, maintain your computer, but how to keep it running as fast as is physically capable.  Make sure you join my newsletter to find out about when this will be available.