Upgrade my security?

[dyoungs]

I need to upgrade my security and currently run the AGV free anti-virus on my laptop. This tells me that I have no firewall operating and potentially open to malware etc. They want to charge me for this and I don't mind paying. I have looked on the net and there are some free ones which are supposed to be better than AVG according to write ups. I need to get up to speed with this as I have just purchased a new phone so I can download my banking app, worried about hackers. Can anyone point me in the right direction as I need to educate myself in order to stay safe on the laptop and phone. Thanks.

 

[lunarlander]

On cell phones the hackers have the advantage now according to this recent document: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/19/ss7-hack-explained-mobile-phone-vulnerability-snooping-texts-calls#:~:text=SS7 is a set of,travelling in a foreign country.

For the PC, you can look at anti-malware reviews: av-comparatives and virus bulletin. These 2 organizations do testing of anti-malware products.

 

[managed]

If you have Windows 10 on the laptop you could remove AVG and just use the built-in Windows 10 Security, it's good enough and avoids possible problems when using a 3rd-party AV.

 

[dyoungs]

Thanks for the replies. I'm using windows 8.1. Also, my current acer laptop is 6 yrs old and running slow and I've been told that it may be better to replace as processers work faster now. I did think it may be slow due not having a good anti-virus programme?

 

[managed]

Have you considered updating to Windows 10 ?

 

[dyoungs]

Have you considered updating to Windows 10 ?

No. Would that speed up my laptop and provide good security? Also, I have a new Samsung phone which I want to use for mobile banking, but before I do that do I need to download an anti-virus to protect the divice. Seems that AGV and others are offering this service.

 

[managed]

Well Windows 10 has good security built-in and it may still be possible to upgrade to it for free.
https://geeksadvice.com/upgrade-to-windows-10-for-free/

It may not be faster than your present OS, it depends on whether you have a lot of things running in the background now that is slowing it down or if the laptop is simply not capable of running the OS any faster.

Typically a 'clean' install of Windows (where you format the drive to remove the existing OS) is faster than an 'update' but does mean you will lose all programs and data that you installed yourself.

 

[dyoungs]

That will mean I will lose my Microsoft office 2007 which a friend installed for me? I did'nt like paying microsoft a lot of money for writing one or two letters a year! I thought running a paid for antivirus would help speed up my laptop by stopping stuff running in the background and removing junk etc. I'm sure I have recently read this. This is why I came to this forum as I clearly need educating fast. I do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

 

[lunarlander]

MS Word is available online, the web version is a subset of the full MS Word. For editing a few letters a year this would suffice.

Things would be a bit more inconvenient if you have a virus running in the background. You will notice it for sure. More than just slowing down.

 

[dyoungs]

This acer laptop is coming up to being 7 years old. Would it be better to buy something up to date?

 

[lunarlander]

Please run our tsginfo utility: https://static.techguy.org/download/tsginfo.exe and copy /paste the output to your reply. Lets see what hardware you have. I have 12 year old machines still running at peak performance.

 

[dyoungs]

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.9
OS Version:
Processor: , CPU Count:
Total Physical RAM:
Graphics Card:
Hard Drives:
Motherboard:
System:
Antivirus: None

 

[lunarlander]

Did you highlight the output and right click copy? How come everything is blank?

 

[dyoungs]

When I opened the download I was expecting instructions on running the programme. I've opened it several times and just says highlight and right click. As you have seen there is nothing. What do I need to do? Thanx.

 

[managed]

Run the program then right-click anywhere on the blue text and click on Copy in the menu that appears, right-click inside the reply window in your thread here and click on Paste.