ping: IT Folks

[JPhillips]

The music director for my church, who is in her seventies, sent me an email about her computer freezing. There's a scam involved because she said she called the company and they suggested a $700 dollar firewall plan. That part I can handle. My question is, what anti-virus would you suggest for an elderly woman and her husband who are both only mildly computer savvy? For example, she's on Zoom, but she sometimes struggles with her camera being off. Anything I suggest will have to be installed by her and her husband as she's not going to have anyone in the house yet due to a lack of vaccination.

She thinks I'm an IT expert because I run the Zoom and slides for virtual worship right now. I am not an IT expert. Thoughts?

[Edward64]

See link below. Kaspersky got a bad rep but still highly regarded by the ones that know.

I suspect the real challenge is your friend's lack of basic tech knowledge (my mom was the same)? There is no software that is that user friendly and there will be the inevitable pop-up warning/error or buy/renew me message that she'll have to deal with.

The best antivirus software 2021 | Tom's Guide

[sovereignstar v2]

I do not recommend Windows 10 users install third party AV software anymore. Windows Defender is definitely good enough nowadays. Anything else is a resource hog that will provide very little extra benefit.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

I do not recommend Windows 10 users install third party AV software anymore. Windows Defender is definitely good enough nowadays. Anything else is a resource hog that will provide very little extra benefit.

This is the path I've taken with my latest machine. I did install Malwarebytes as well.

[weegeebored]

Using Windows Defender only is an ok solution, but it's M$ so there will be problems with updates and such. Personally I use the combination of Bitdefender Total Security and Malwarebytes. Been using this combo for years with nary an issue. I recently built a new machine and reluctantly installed Win10, but everything seems just as good as it did with my Win7 machine. Before Bitdefender I used Kaspersky, but it was incompatible with some apps so I switched to avoid the hassle.

From the OP I have a bad feeling that the church computer has lots of issues which may include assorted malware. If this were my machine I would probably scorch the earth and do a complete wipe/reinstall. My guess is that this not possible so my recommendation is to download a bootable antivirus CD/flash drive and run a full scan. After the machine has been cleaned then install an A/V product plus Malwarebytes. You can find these antivirus CDs by doing a search but a reliable site to get free software is at oldergeeks.com.