Antivirus and Dfrag

[hychewright 46]

Is anyone using AVG free version antivirus with FSX? Is the spyware program with it good? Also, has anyone used or using the ultimate Defrag program and is it any good..... Your help will be appreciated.RegardsLamar

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Lamar,I don't use any of these products, but I'd advise you to set up your antivirus to ignore your FSX installation directory. You don't want a virus scanner slowing your system down as FSX reads files. Consider your FSX installation directory to be "secured."Having said that, it then behooves you to ensure that you don't place anything into that directory (by default it is C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesMicrosoft Flight Simulator X) that hasn't been scanned by your anti-virus prior to being placed there.By that, I mean, scan anything you download from the internet to install into your FSX directory.Cheers,

[bobbyjack 61]

I paid for AV for a number of years and still had problems. I now have free vervions of AVG on one computer and Avast on another. They seem about the same. They do not have active spyware removal. You have to do that manually. There are other freeware programs that do that also. And as fsxmissionguy stated you need to exempt FSX from scanning. I just turn AV off when I fly, but then I don't use real weather or other online flying often. As for defrag, I think that there may not be a freeware program that people here like. But I have to believe that any defrag is better than no defrag.Bob

[greggerm 312]

>Is anyone using AVG free version antivirus with FSX? Is the>spyware program with it good? Also, has anyone used or using>the ultimate Defrag program and is it any good..... Your help>will be appreciated.I haven't heard anything bad about AVG Antivirus, with the exception that it might miss a few very obscure viruses. This may have changed in recent weeks or months, so don't hold me to it. (I use NOD32, which has a large following in the flightsim community).I *DO* use UltimateDefrag with my FSX installation - it works quite well. UD lets you defrag and sort your files by alphabetical order. This works VERY well to keep the FSX directories in good order and it improves (however slightly) load times of the simulation. The more scenery addons (mesh, textures, roads and coasts, etc.etc.), the more useful a good defrag will do. A decent free alternative for UltimateDefrag is JKDefrag, which is a very VERY capable free defrag tool.-Greg

[Guest UlfB]

I second Greg's opinion on NOD32. I did use Avast! but had a lot of problems with it in Vista 32. No problems at all with NOD32, and I've excluded my FSX folder from scanning and have no problems running NOD32 and FSX at the same time.Ulf BCore2Duo X6800 3.3GHz4GB RAM Corsair XMS2-8500C5BFG 8800GTX, Creative SB X-FiFSX Acc/SP2, Vista 32

[hychewright 46]

Thanks for that great advice! I will be sure that FSX is not scanned. That file will be off limits.RegardsLamar

[hychewright 46]

Thanks Bob, I'm getting some great sound advice from you guys and I do appreciate it very much as this will be my first adventure with FSX.RegardsLamar

[hychewright 46]

Thanks Greg, you know I found the NOD32 web site and that was my first choice for payware. Good protection with low or no impact on FSX. Thanks for telling me about JK Defrag. I will check it out! Thanks so much again.RegardsLamar

[hychewright 46]

Thanks Ulf, with you and Greg giving it a thumbs up.... I think I'll go with NOD32 as well. It has to be good with most of the flight sim community using it!RegardsLamar

[Shri 0]

Hey FSX MissionguyHow do you get the AVG to ingnore scanning FSX folder?Thanks in advance for anyone.RegardsShri

[FalconAF 213]

Lamar,I reponded to your other thread about FSX software addons, recommending a good payware anti-virus program over a freeware one. Good choice on Nod32.As I said in my other post, I did System Administration for the Department of Defense for over 25 years. If the freeware stuff was that good, we wouldn't have paid for the real stuff. I'm no doubt gonna get flamed by some folks here, but I don't care. You are playing with fire using freeware anti-virus and other "system utility" applications from the Internet. There is NO such thing as a "free lunch"...you pay a price for it...and run some huge risks.Some people swear by the freeware AVG. I won't touch it with a stick. Why? Not because it's "not a good program". It may/may not do the job for you. It's the User Agreement you sign on to when you decide to use it on your computer.Go to this site for starters. It's the U.S. Computer Security Response Team (US-CERT) website homepage:http://www.us-cert.gov/Start reading the stuff there if you want to get educated about protecting your computer. One of the links on this page takes you here (to their Security Publications):http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/index.html#newsOn this page you will find this link to their PDF file about "Software License Agreements: Ignore at Your Own Risk" publication:http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/EULA.pdfRead it. Read ALL OF IT !!! Now, go to the free AVG website, and read their "Privacy Policy" webpage here:http://free.avg.com/ww.privacyIf it doesn't make you shudder, it should. Here are some copy/paste lines from it:"...we have provided you this Privacy Policy to inform you how your personal information will be collected, tracked, stored, used, and protected...""With Whom Do We Share Your Information? Through some AVG Technologies websites, by selecting a region (language) option, you may be asked to share your personal information, such as your e-mail contact, with selected local AVG Technologies partners, such as distributors (the full list of which is available at our local websites) so that they can contact you, on our behalf, about AVG Technologies products, services or offers that we believe are important to you or your business and to provide you a local technical and customer support. WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ OUR PARTNER'S PRIVACY POLICIES BEFORE PROVIDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION."Note that if their PARTNER'S privacy policies differ from AVG's, you are screwed. You gave your consent for the AVG partners to do whatever they want with your personal information already as THEIR privacy policy may state."Other Offices of AVG Technologies Since AVG Technologies is a global company, we provide information on AVG Technologies products users to our worldwide offices (subsidiaries and affiliates) which are listed at www.grisoft.com/ww.contacts. The personal information that you have provided to us may be made accessible to these AVG Technologies offices for marketing and customer relationship management purposes. Also, in certain countries our outside contractors might undertake the collection, transferring, storage and processing of your information. By using an AVG Technologies website, product or service, you consent to any such disclosure to and use of personal information that you have provided, by AVG Technologies worldwide offices.""Links to other companiesFrom time to time, AVG Technologies websites may contain links to and from websites of our partner networks, advertisers or other third parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.""Co-branded websitesWe also link to co-branded websites...and the privacy policies of these co-branded websites may differ from this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to read the privacy policies on any co-branded website to which you link, and we disclaim any liability for the data processing activities of our business partners which will act as independent data processing controllers."The above entries are just from the free AVG Privacy Policy publication. Read the EULA for more stuff.Take it or leave it...there is no such thing as "free". There is no way, after reading the above, and the AVG free product EULA, that it is ever going to get near my hard drive. If all this "free" stuff was so darned good (and safe), why the heck isn't Corporate America (and the rest of the Corporate Economic World) using it? Not to mention your World Governments?Flame me if you want...already got lots of those T-Shirts. But if anybody equates "free" to the same as "safe", you don't understand how things work when it comes to Internet and Computer Security.Respectfully submitted,FalconAF

[Guest JIMJAM]

I have always used AOL. I know ,I know its crap. But Ive used it for so long,I have had no real problems and now thats its free, well.....Anyways, Nothing and I mean NOTHING will clog up,eat resources,add stutters and kill performance worse than the McAfee Antivirus ,security,Internet saftey bla bla bla programs.Do not load them.I use alot of freebies with Crapcleaner,Spybot search and Destroy,Ad-Aware and a must, Enditall.You just need to be sure to disable the automatically check for updates on any program.Oddly enough, After all the raves about O&O Defrag, ruinning in per Nicks method over and over, FSX is slower than ever.Not in flight loading but preflight,loading terrain and planes, I can hear the HD churning and it takes forever.......This is with the complete/name.I also used the other popular defrag prog but to be honest, other than seeing all the pretty blocks all nice and neat, I cannot notice a difference in FSX.I have a dedicated FSX machine and strongly beleive that less is better.All of these freebies,defrags,tweakers,monitors,ect ect add up quick and can often cause more problems than they fix.

[FalconAF 213]

JIMJAM,Most "gamers" having nothing but bad things to say about Symantec Norton System Works or Norton Antivirus and McAfee. Their biggest complaint is that they are "system resource hogs". Well...they "are"...but the "gamers" are missing a very important point about them.For the 25 years I was with the Department of Defense, we exclusively used Norton and McAfee. Why? They are NOT designed for "gaming computer security". They are designed to FULLY protect a computer and networked computers from just about anything that may attack them. They HAVE to be "resource intensive" to do this. And the fact that they had direct agreements with US-CERT to get the FIRST notifications of new viruses, trojans, etc, allowed Norton and McAfee to provide new signature file updates and threat protection within HOURS of something being discovered. Almost all other...especially freeware...antivirus programs took DAYS (some of them WEEKS) to get the new signature files out to the users. You were left completely vulnerable during this time. It's still the same way with many other anti-virus programs today.Corporate and government users aren't trying to get their computers to run their applications based on "Frames Per Second", like gamers do. They have other priorities...security being the most important one.Do I run Norton or McAfee on my home computer? No. They ARE too resource-intensive to allow something like FSX to run at it's best. But they certainly aren't a "piece of crap software" that a lot of people here like to call them. They do EXACTLY what they are designed for...maximum security on a computer or network...where the end-user NEEDS that level of security. Do I use freeware antivirus and system maintenance utilities? When it comes to antivirus protection, not a chance. There are excellent payware antivirus programs that don't leave you vulnerable to all those "Privacy Agreements" and "EULA's" that are totally insane. Nod32 is one of them, and it works very well for gaming and FSX.I do use Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware. They are good programs with EULA's that don't compromise your personal privacy or security.I also use O&O. You should not be experiencing the slowdowns you have loading FSX because of using it. It sounds more like your anti-virus program is scanning your file usage in "real-time". Whenever FSX wants to load a file, the anti-virus program is scanning the file(s) for virus's first. What anti-virus program are you using? Is it configurable to allow you to tell it to NOT scan files in a particular folder on your system when you are running that application?FalconAF

[hychewright 46]

Excellent reading!!!!! I should know better, I worked for the Department of Defense for 32 years in DCAS (Defense Contract Administration Services) Quality Assurance and last 7 years as aircraft safety manager. Small world...... I don't think you will get hosed on this thread because everyone has their own opinion and rightfully so.... Sorry about the mix up, shouldn't have started two simular threads. You know that is scary when you read the small print!! Most people probably don't read the small print..... I did not. I'm deleting AVG from my experimental laptop. I think your reply will help a lot of other simmers..... It helped me understand about some free ware. Very good sound judgment!! Thanks again and anyone wishing to comment please respectfully do so.RegardsLamar

[FalconAF 213]

I received a couple private inquiries about my posts above. Nothing sinister...but after getting them, I thought it might help some others if I expanded on my posts.Reference the free AVG EULA, which I recommended you also read, but didn't include any "cutpaste" items from it. Here's the link to it:http://free.avg.com/ww.93828Here's a "cutpaste" of one of the things from it you are agreeing to:"(ii)BY PROCEEDING TO INSTALL THE TOOLBAR, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT THAT, UPON ITS INSTALLATION, THE TOOLBAR WILL MODIFY VIA THE SETTINGS OF YOUR BROWSER THE