Author Topic: 'create Restore Point' question (Read 33918 times)

bit · « **Reply #25 on:** July 31, 2015, 12:40 AM »

^app103, I am now running AVG free, and already seem to be proving out your xlnt advice with fewer and milder crashes. Many tnx! (:

PC Crash 2.jpg

app103 · « **Reply #26 on:** August 01, 2015, 04:43 AM »

^app103, I am now running AVG free, and already seem to be proving out your xlnt advice with fewer and milder crashes. Many tnx! (:
(see attachment in previous post)
-bit (July 31, 2015, 12:40 AM)

Just passing on some of the best AV advice I ever received for an older PC.

Here is an additional piece of advice: Stick to the free version and do not buy the paid version.

The paid version will likely come with a bunch of extra features that will defeat the whole purpose of switching to a lighter anti-virus. If you don't have the extra features, you won't be tempted to turn them on.

Ath · « **Reply #27 on:** August 01, 2015, 07:15 AM »

Hm, don't share the simpathy for AVG, had to drop it in favor of Avast free, to get my i7 860 out of 'snail'-mode. Everything was dead-slow since AVG free was installed. Not anymore

Ath · « **Reply #28 on:** August 01, 2015, 07:20 AM »

Oh, and I forgot to mention the unexpected crashes when AVG was installed

These are, as expected, also gone

bit · « **Reply #29 on:** August 02, 2015, 04:03 PM »

^ Tnx app103 & Ath. (:
I reinstalled Malwarebytes and followed your advice on the settings.
AVG free is working out great, and I'll also save $40/yr on Norton's renewal fees.
I'm getting a lot fewer crashes and BSODs now.

BTW, (: is the same thing as :), a 'smilie'...

bit · « **Reply #30 on:** August 04, 2015, 10:42 PM »

I see from this thread that a lot of DCers are excited over a free upgrade offer to Windows 10.
I have to ask, what's so great about Win 10, and will it bog down my OS when it is barely running smoothly on Win 7?

bit · « **Reply #31 on:** August 09, 2015, 01:32 AM »

^app103, I am now running AVG free, and already seem to be proving out your xlnt advice with fewer and milder crashes. Many tnx! (:
(see attachment in previous post)
-bit (July 31, 2015, 12:40 AM)

Just passing on some of the best AV advice I ever received for an older PC.

Here is an additional piece of advice: Stick to the free version and do not buy the paid version.

The paid version will likely come with a bunch of extra features that will defeat the whole purpose of switching to a lighter anti-virus. If you don't have the extra features, you won't be tempted to turn them on.
-app103 (August 01, 2015, 04:43 AM)

I take it MSE is Microsoft Security Essentials?
Is that a freeware antivirus that is kept updated, or a Windows add-on that is not maintained?
You posted elsewhere MSE is all you use.
Makes me wonder if I should stick with AVG-free, or switch to MSE?

Okay, at AV testing: Is your antivirus app doing its job? (dated July 23, 2015) it says, quote: "The lowest score in the most recent tests is 89.6 percent, earned by Microsoft’s Security Essentials. Because it’s free and comes from Microsoft, AV-Comparatives considers MSE a baseline product — in practical terms, it’s better than nothing. (Microsoft has long been taken to task for its relatively poor showing in AV software.)"

Maybe I better stick with AVG-free for now.

I see it also says, quote: "Not all free programs get unspectacular scores. Panda Free Antivirus, for example, got the top scores in the most recent tests."
"The current winner, Panda, blocked 1,894 out of 1,895 attacks — none of them requiring user input — for a near-perfect score of 99.9 percent."
I found Panda Free Antivirus on filehippo.
The only question would be my original one, if it will make my OS crashy, and I suppose the best way to find out would be to give it a try.

Curt · « **Reply #32 on:** August 09, 2015, 02:36 AM »

I see from this thread that a lot of DCers are excited over a free upgrade offer to Windows 10. I have to ask, what's so great about Win 10, and will it bog down my OS when it is barely running smoothly on Win 7?
-bit (August 04, 2015, 10:42 PM)

Windows 7 was easy to run, compared to Vista. Windows 8 was easy to run, compared to Win 7. Windows 10 is easy to run, compared to Win 8. Replacing your current system will make life easier for your machine

-if your drive has the space! It's not just "+10GB" as some said. Win 10 will also keep your current files, so in real life (with updates, and stuff) it will need in the area of 50GB free.

I hope you later on will come back, bit, to tell how life with the Panda has been.

tomos · « **Reply #33 on:** August 09, 2015, 04:36 AM »

"The current winner, Panda, blocked 1,894 out of 1,895 attacks — none of them requiring user input — for a near-perfect score of 99.9 percent."
-bit (August 09, 2015, 01:32 AM)

the other side of the coin is false positives - I find "none of them requiring user input" in the quote above a little scary tbh. - is it going to e.g. decide anything made via AHK is dangerous and must/will be deleted - without asking you?
FWIW, Panda is not the worst at false positives according to your link - but AVG has very good (low) false positives.

bit · « **Reply #34 on:** August 09, 2015, 08:53 AM »

I see from this thread that a lot of DCers are excited over a free upgrade offer to Windows 10. I have to ask, what's so great about Win 10, and will it bog down my OS when it is barely running smoothly on Win 7?
-bit (August 04, 2015, 10:42 PM)

Windows 7 was easy to run, compared to Vista. Windows 8 was easy to run, compared to Win 7. Windows 10 is easy to run, compared to Win 8. Replacing your current system will make life easier for your machine

-if your drive has the space! It's not just "+10GB" as some said. Win 10 will also keep your current files, so in real life (with updates, and stuff) it will need in the area of 50GB free.

I hope you later on will come back, bit, to tell how life with the Panda has been.

-Curt (August 09, 2015, 02:36 AM)

Tnx for the heads-up on Windows 10!

Due to a complicated series of past events, I can only run 20GB of free space anymore.
That is because...8 yrs ago, a friend set me up with a system that was 'fast' and got me a RAID mobo w/o telling me.
I ended up with a mobo that can only 'see' one SATA HD at a time, no matter how many are plugged into it.
That prevented me from doing HD clone backups.
So, b/c of that, to run HD clone backups, I have to have one EIDE HD connected, to do clone backups.
My mobo can 'see' up to two EIDE HDs and one SATA at the same time.
But the EIDE HDs are pathetically slow compared to any of the SATAs.
My largest EIDE HD is only 200GB (the other two EIDEs are 80GB each), so my three SATA HDs have to be limited to 200GB active partitions to remain backup-compatible with the 200GB EIDE.
It all works nicely for HD clone bkups; SATA to EIDE, EIDE to (other) SATA, and so on, but limits my OS to 200GB.
So I have no room to upgrade to Windows 10.
I've also seen reports (and posted them to DC), that Windows 10 is (with apology) glorified spyware, which is not too encouraging.

"The current winner, Panda, blocked 1,894 out of 1,895 attacks — none of them requiring user input — for a near-perfect score of 99.9 percent."
-bit (August 09, 2015, 01:32 AM)

the other side of the coin is false positives - I find "none of them requiring user input" in the quote above a little scary tbh. - is it going to e.g. decide anything made via AHK is dangerous and must/will be deleted - without asking you?
FWIW, Panda is not the worst at false positives according to your link - but AVG has very good (low) false positives.
-tomos (August 09, 2015, 04:36 AM)

Okay, I'll hold off on any switch from AVG-free until I can get a little better idea of Panda has a bad habit of false positives or not, and thank you for that perspective!

Is there any danger of Windows 10 running an automatic update-install over my Windows 7, just for me running 'automatic updates'?
I'd rather that not happen just now.

bit · « **Reply #35 on:** August 09, 2015, 09:30 AM »

BTW, I wonder how long these daily pop-up 'buy AVG ads' will continue to appear.
It's no biggie, but they seem a little persistent.

bit · « **Reply #36 on:** August 09, 2015, 09:34 AM »

Ex-Machina pic

Spoiler

BTW, would anyone like a little Windows 10 humor?
Cortana is an interactive virtual AI 'helper' created by Microsoft for Windows Phone 8.1 (where it now supersedes Bing Mobile), Microsoft Band, Windows 10, and coming to iOS, Android, and the Xbox One.
Firstly, here's a poster for the flick 'Ex-Machina', an innocuous but sinister robotic AI who spends most of the movie begging to be let out of the prison her creator keeps her locked up in.
ex-machina 1-12.jpg

bit · « **Reply #37 on:** August 09, 2015, 09:36 AM »

Ex-Cortana pic

Spoiler

With Paint Shop Pro 7 and 18 saves, I transformed her into... ...a live-action Ex-Cortana.
Do NOT let her out of the 'box', no matter how sweetly she begs!

bit · « **Reply #38 on:** August 09, 2015, 10:25 PM »

(deleted by bit)

bit · « **Reply #39 on:** August 11, 2015, 10:09 AM »

Sorry to bother you guys again.
AVG free is great, seems to be an outstanding program.

Before, I could at least close the 'buy me' pop-ups.
Now, I can't get this pop-up to close or stop appearing.
I can minimize it, but it reappears if I open or maximize anything else.
It won't close using ctrl-alt-del (does not appear in that menu).
It appears in the CloseAll menu, but refuses to close using that either.
Clicking on the 'x' in the upper-right corner doesn't close it, but makes another 'buy me' pop-up appear.
AVG blurb 2.jpg

I did try the 'free trial' full-featured version, so maybe if I uninstall the whole thing, then reinstall and don't choose the 'free trial', I wonder if that would stop this pop-up from happening?

EDIT: Okay, I figured out all I had to do was click on the 'stop maintenance now' option and it finally closed. Tnx.

app103 · « **Reply #40 on:** August 11, 2015, 07:20 PM »

BTW, I wonder how long these daily pop-up 'buy AVG ads' will continue to appear.
It's no biggie, but they seem a little persistent. (see attachment in previous post)
-bit (August 09, 2015, 09:30 AM)

Just consider them your daily notification that AVG is running. It's when you don't get a pop-up in the free version that you should worry.

bit · « **Reply #41 on:** August 11, 2015, 10:23 PM »

BTW, I wonder how long these daily pop-up 'buy AVG ads' will continue to appear.
It's no biggie, but they seem a little persistent. (see attachment in previous post)
-bit (August 09, 2015, 09:30 AM)

Just consider them your daily notification that AVG is running. It's when you don't get a pop-up in the free version that you should worry.
-app103 (August 11, 2015, 07:20 PM)

tnx.^^

tomos · « **Reply #42 on:** August 12, 2015, 03:18 AM »

it's the price you pay for freeware I guess

bit · « **Reply #43 on:** August 17, 2015, 04:46 PM »

My pc has been crashier than ever today. >.<

MilesAhead · « **Reply #44 on:** August 17, 2015, 05:12 PM »

@bit If you have or can back up your system I would try the PC with all the av disabled/uninstalled. See if the crashes disappear. If they go away completely at least you will know what you are up against.

So far I haven't found a "real time shield" type of protection that didn't make my machine act flaky. But I have not done exhaustive research as I think they are inherently performance robbing.

Shades · « **Reply #45 on:** August 18, 2015, 09:20 AM »

If you run Windows 7 on your system, you should start taking a look at the 'event viewer'. Windows 7 and up log everything what and when it is happening on your system quite well. You can copy-paste the error message and code(s) verbatim into google/bing/duck-duck-go and see more explanation and/or solutions.

When one moment everything runs fine and then a lot of crashes happen very close to each other...it might be that there is a physical cause, such as local heat buildup, where the pc terminates itself to prevent (further) damage. Checking files for viruses with any anti-virus software (free or commercial) is an intensive task, causing quite some heat to be generated.

Every 6 months I physically clean my computers from dust (including the power supply...be careful with that though, the warnings on those devices are really something to take into account), inspect every fan and replace where necessary and check if all cables and cards are seated properly and re-seat where necessary. There are now over 30 computers directly in my care and none of them experience the problem you describe.

If you work with a laptop, all this is still true...but as laptop cases in general are not meant to be opened and closed regularly, it might be better to do a cleanup job once a year. Dust bunnies are a real problem with laptops and people always think their laptop remains as clean as the time they bought it. Until they see the photos I take during cleanup!

Laptops are only a nice way to generate extra income for me, because these often appear in front of me for repair. And it is mostly the same thing over and over again.

Anyway, you won't know unless you start looking at the event viewer.

bit · « **Reply #46 on:** August 18, 2015, 06:11 PM »

^heat is possible.

bit · « **Reply #47 on:** August 19, 2015, 10:14 PM »

Shades, I think we're on the right track: heat!

bit · « **Reply #48 on:** August 22, 2015, 09:44 PM »

^That's amazing the computer can shut itself down to protect from heat damage.

bit · « **Reply #49 on:** August 29, 2015, 01:42 AM »

Okay, my computer is now getting plenty of air.
It crashed a couple of times today, one a BSOD and one just a PaleMoon crash watching YT (youtube).
The YT crash was an Adobe crash of PaleMoon, followed by a mssg 'do you want to continue plug-in?'
Adobe sure seems crashy to me.

What is this mysterious 'plug-in' that is always trying to run with the vids and crashing PaleMoon?
I always click on 'no' that I don't want to run the plug-in, and when there is no crash, the vid plays fine anyway.

The only 'sure way' to avoid YT crashes, seems to be to download the vid, then play it back from Desktop (then delete it).