PCTools

@dixie1 (1330)
United States
May 19, 2009 8:45am CST
HI, I keep getting emails from this addy newsletter@email.pctools.com I got 2 this morning talking about "Trojan Threat Alert for Windows® 7 and FIFA World Cup™". Where I need your help is to know if I should even keep continuing or block that addy? They appear to want me to buy protection with their products. I know use a Dell PC. I use the following protections: Spyboot, Adaware, Anti-Malaware, Windows Defender Do I need to keep all of these to be safe or delete any of them...or add more? Thanks so much for your help! Dixie
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1 response
Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
19 May 09
PCTools is an established and reputable company. At the bottom of the mail there should be an Unsubscribe link which should take you to their website so that you can unsubscribe from the newsletter that you apparently signed up to. This is far better than blocking the address, really. You are possibly getting the Newsletter because you have, at some point, tried out Spyware Doctor or one of their other products. All of the security products you list are worth keeping but you don't list any Firewall or Antivirus products. I would look into those if you don't have them. Windows does have a firewall but it is not perfect. Zonealarm Free is well worth having. There are a number of free antivirus products. I recommend AVG Free mainly because I have used it for a long time and have never had any problems with it. There are others which are just as good - Avast, for example - but AVG consistently gets good reviews and is generally in the top three whenever I see a comparison.
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dixie1
@dixie1 (1330)
• United States
19 May 09
Owlwings, Thank you for your excellent input/advice! Can you please send me the links to the programs u think I should download (free). I will then download per your advice. I have an XP Dell computer. I wonder if you think or if I can set all the programs I have now to run at a certain time? How would that work though, if my computer is no on? Any more feedback is sooooooooooooooooo Welcome! Dixie
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Just an Ordinary Owl?
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
19 May 09
You can schedule things to run at certain times. Some programs have a built in scheduler and some don't. Some use Windows' built in scheduler and some it leave it up to you entirely. I would schedule most AV/malware checkers to do a scan once a week or once a fortnight (depending on the danger of the sites you are likely to visit). Don't forget that your firewall and AV are on all the time, checking what's coming in and what's going out. They will let you know if something odd is happening and ask what to do before allowing it. SpyBot and Windows Defender are also sitting in the background checking things in and out, so a scan is not so urgent. What IS important is to make sure that you get updates to each program when they come out. Most of them do this automatically.
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