ClamWin is going to be your only open source option, and my Windows clients and family have been very happy with it on their desktop machines. Since this is a laptop, though, it is important to note that it does NOT do on-access scanning - only scheduled scans. If she doesn't have the discipline to leave it running overnight once a week or to run the scans manually, it won't help her. Some people used to combine it with WinPooch to hack together an on-access scan, but WinPooch has been unmaintained for a few years now.<div>
<br></div><div>For a full OSS solution, you could install anacron through cygwin. Avast would be the simpler solution but, as you said, it is closed source.<br><div><br></div><div>Avery</div><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_quote">
On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 10:19 PM, Michael B. Trausch <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mike@trausch.us">mike@trausch.us</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">On 02/12/2010 09:43 PM, m-aaron-r wrote:<br>
> Google shows up strong on ClamWin, and AVG shows up<br>
> as a "free" closed source offering, but I'd be happy to be<br>
> educated on the strengths of either as well as any other<br>
> options out there.<br>
<br>
</div>AVG *used* to be good. They have become craptacular in recent years,<br>
however, and cannot be soundly recommended anymore.<br>
<br>
Avast and ClamWin are the ones that I hear Windows users talking about<br>
favorably that are free. I've used both; Avast is closed-source and<br>
annoyingish to me, though some people are comforted by its daily "Virus<br>
Database Updated" sound clip. ClamWin has always seemed to work well<br>
for me when I have put it in places, and it doesn't have any conditions<br>
on redistribution given its favorable license.<br>
<br>
There is only one other really, _really_ important thing to remember<br>
with Windows: no matter how many CPU cycles or how much RAM you devote<br>
to anti-virus, anti-malware software, and no matter how up-to-date it<br>
is, commercial or otherwise, the only true defense is prevention. As<br>
the saying goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and<br>
that's indeed the case. And contrary to what many people seem to think,<br>
it's not anti-virus, anti-malware software that is the prevention. It's<br>
the computer user him- or herself. In the majority of cases, viruses<br>
and malware actually require assistance from the computer user to get on<br>
the thing in the first place.<br>
<br>
Also, the utility of a monthly (or weekly!) full bit-for-bit image of a<br>
hard disk running Windows can not be underestimated. Current versions<br>
of Windows create more than one partition at installation time, and<br>
systems that are sold with OEM copies of Windows tend to not come with<br>
recovery media anymore, instead opting to have the recovery media<br>
located in a partition on the hard drive (whether it is at the beginning<br>
or the end of the hard drive is dependent upon the vendor). If you<br>
always have a recent image of the HD, you can save a lot of time when it<br>
comes to restoring from disaster. After all, it is a *lot* easier to<br>
restore from a very recent full disk image than it is to reinstall<br>
Windows, find your data, restore that, do the several hours or days of<br>
updates (even on a 70Mbps connection it takes that long!) and then<br>
reinstall all the application software that you had in the first place.<br>
I'll offer to tell Windows users how to do these sorts of things for<br>
themselves without charging a cent, but I tell them that if they do not<br>
want to do it themselves, I'll sell them the service to do it on a<br>
monthly basis.<br>
<br>
Most Windows users I know think that they do not need such a service,<br>
and also don't think they need to do it. They wind up paying more money<br>
in the long run on repairs than they would if they'd just do the proper<br>
maintenance tasks, or even better, stop going to questionable places on<br>
the Internet altogether---downloading software illegally and browsing<br>
pornography Web sites are the two largest sources of nasties on most<br>
computers I work on (even in offices). Despite being told where the<br>
stuff is coming from, they fail to listen to my recommendations and then<br>
wind up calling me back, surprised that their system is full of crap again.<br>
<br>
As an aside, I find that it is often possible to clean a system such<br>
that even without an install CD or backup to restore from. It does,<br>
however, take a great deal of time and effort, and is far more expensive<br>
for me to do than it would be for people to just buy a new Windows<br>
license and reinstall from scratch.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
--- Mike<br>
<br>
--<br>
Michael B. Trausch Blog: <a href="http://mike.trausch.us/blog/" target="_blank">http://mike.trausch.us/blog/</a><br>
Tel: (404) 592-5746 x1 Email: <a href="mailto:mike@trausch.us">mike@trausch.us</a><br>
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