Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Have you ever downloaded a file from the Internet and worried that it might be infected with malware?
That’s a real concern these days with all the malware that’s floating around the web.
It’s getting harder by the day to know exactly which sites to trust since malicious files are even making their way onto legitimate download sites.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to determine whether any file on your computer is malware-free or not by running a couple of simple scans. [Read more…]
I don’t usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, and the last thing I would ever want to do is create one.
That being said, I have often wondered to myself whether the antivirus software companies could be creating malware and spreading it over the Internet in order to perpetuate the demand for their products.
Question from Jimmy: A few months ago I bought a new laptop that came with McAfee Antivirus pre-installed on it.
I thought it was the real McAfee program but apparently it was just a trial version because this morning I got a notice saying the trial subscription had expired.
I tried to uninstall it so I could install Avira but I can’t get it to uninstall. It gives me an error every time I try to remove it.
My question is would it be safe for me to keep using the McAfee program that’s installed on my laptop even though it’s expired? [Read more…]
Question from Darryl: I have always understood Windows’ built-in “Microsoft Defender” antivirus app to be inferior to other antivirus programs.
But yesterday I heard that might no longer be the case.
What’s your opinion about Microsoft Defender?
Is it really just as good as the third-party antivirus programs that are being sold today?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Ray: I know that Microsoft Defender disables itself if it detects a second antivirus is running but that it’s supposed to automatically turn back on if you remove the other antivirus program.
Well I recently uninstalled McAfee expecting Windows Defender to turn back on, but it didn’t. I keep getting a message saying my computer is unprotected.
Why is this happening and how can I fix it? [Read more…]