Is My Setup Enough? Avast Free 2014, Online Armor 7 Free, MCShield, K9Web Protection.

Hello,

I am using Windows 8.1. Here's my setup:

Avast Free 2014 (higher than the default settings)
Online Armor 7 Free (with HIPS enabled, also program guard and keylogger)
MCShield (for USB/removal media protection, tell you below)
K9 Web Protection (against porn, spyware/malware sources, proxy avoidance)
Windows' User Account Control (recommended settings)
MalwareBytes Pro (but only for on-demand scanning, realtime disabled)

About MCShield: http://www.mcshield.net/

its capabilities:

- is regularly updated and upgraded with new features;
- has generic detection routines (heuristics) for all known methods of infection used by flash worms;
- has heuristics that are not infection specific to detect malware that is more dynamic and/or new;
- has a database of known bad files;
- has a database of known legitimate files and publishers (to prevent false positives);
- has regular automatic updates (both the database and the program);
- has automatic removal mode and interactive one (where the user is asked about actions being taken);
- treats/detects both files and folders and recovers/resets attributes of legitimate files and folders moved/hidden by malware;
- FREEWARE

Actually MCShield has the most number of features for removable media protection. Maybe 5x better than USB Disk Security Paid version.


My internet usage:

no porn,
no social/personal/dating
no proxy avoidance
uses Express FIles to download movies and some software
some chatting with skype and pidgin
office works
web surfing
applies Windows Updates regularly
...and sometimes I download fresh malware from Malwaretips.com to test Avast But never click/execute the malwares


Pls do tell me your comments

This setup is really light on my netbook, INtel Atom N455, 2GB Ram, Win 8.1

 

Nice setup!

 

I honestly feel my setup is enough. Before I use Emsisoft but it's not free. I still believe Emsisoft is still better than Avast. But Avast Free is good already

 

Your setup is more than enough.
With your surfing habits you could be safe with even less. Nice to know it doesn't slow down you computer.

 

I used to run earlier versions of Avast and Online Armor in combination or one of the two with other AV or firewall. Both were top notch in term protection but I did not find them particularly light and also had some conflicts. But if it's all running smooth for you in terms of negligible or acceptable slowdown in Windows load time and program launch time, then it's surely a great setup for security. If you want to protect your privacy as well, then maybe consider full disk encryption and a VPN service and/or Tor, and maybe Jitsi instead of skype for encrypted chats.

edit: also make sure to have a good backup program. Macrium Reflect Free used to be really good and probably still is, but I haven't tried the latest versions.

 

Solid setup

 

There is an additional 5-7 seconds boot time compared to the default Windows Defender and Windows Firewall, and maybe some 5 seconds additional for the shutdown. But once fully loaded, the system is light with common tasks. Online Armor though makes it a loootttt sllooowwweerrr when installing new programs - due to program guard.

Thanks.

 

Thanks very much for your suggestions.

About Jitsi: Maybe I don't need encrypted chats for now.

full disk encryption: maybe not for now. Anyways it is only me who has access to my computer.

Macrium Reflect - I have searched this once on the internet. well all my important documents are synced on the cloud with skyDrive and CX. Documents and pictures only, not the installers. Maybe I will sign up with Hubic too, for 25GB free storage.

Thanks much.

Question:

How long is the shell life of the hard disk of a netbook computer? I use this daily for 2-5 hours, quick scans daily, full scan monthly.