Works Great with Windows ME
Written: Sep 30 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: easy installation, works with WinME
Cons: none so far
|
|
|
| randomaccess's Full Review: InoculateIT PE |
I recently upgraded to Windows ME, which I am very pleased with. Unfortunately, I had to give my Norton Antivirus 5.0, which is not compatible with WinME, so I set off in search of a replacement.
My requirements for a virus scanner are simple: clean installation, no system changes unless I specify it, and, most important, be easily configurable.
I don't run the virus scanner in the background all the time, instead I run it a couple of times a week by running the program manually. This is not necessarily a good practice, because a virus could run rampant on your system before you realize what happened, but I would rather take a chance with this and have my system resources 100% devoted to my programs.
I tried McAfee 5.0, and it was very obtrusive, automatically setting startup and system options, and crashed frequently. I began right away having shutdown problems, and frequent BSODs (blue screen of death).
I uninstalled Mcafee, but it left quite a few registry entries behind, and my shutdown problems didn't go away. Fortunately, WindowsME has a great program called System Restore, which lets you go back in time and clean up your system and your registry, restoring it to any time period you like. The system had done an automatic restore point about an hour before I installed McAfee, so I pointed the program to that restore point, and after a few minutes I was back in business.
Unfortunately, I still had no virus protection, so I hit the newsgroups, and the Epinions site to look for other options, and came up with InoculateIT, a virus scanner which appears to fill my needs perfectly.
The program is free, support is free, and virus definition updates are free, and the program is published by Computer Associates, one of the Industry heavyweights.
After a very simple registration form, and a relatively quick download (3.2MB), double click on the executable to install the software. I always choose the "custom install" option when installing any program, which gives you much more control over what is going into your system. Choosing this option in InoculateIT, lets you choose what will be loaded at startup (or choose not to run the program at all automatically), and what items you would like to scan automatically.
At this point I don't have any viruses on my system, but I am please with the simple installation and the unobtrusiveness of the program. The interface is simple, just click on the drive you want to scan and click on "go". The only option I changed was having the program not check all files for viruses. The online FAQ advises that this should only be checked when the program runs for the first time, or if you have a problem with a virus.
I also ran an automatic update, which connects to CA's FTP site and brings in the latest virus definitions and program updates. The company claims that updates can occur as frequently as several times a week.
It's unfortunate that we need a virus program at all, but if you are in the market for a virus program, give InnoculateIT a look. The price is right.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
randomaccess
|
|
Member: Bob
Location: NJ
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 9 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.