Base Loadup Freeware for a Vista Laptop

[AllanL]

A friend has asked me to load up some basic software on a Vista laptop for their son's Christmas.

Whatever happened to an orange at the bottom of the sock and a Giles Annual? But I digress.

Being an XP luddite, I was wondering if anyone knew of any potential issues with loading up OpenOffice, Spybot, Superantispyware and Malwarebyte?

The parent was also wondering if there were any freeware internet filters that could be loaded up?

Any other/better suggestions gratefully received.

[TSR2]

Why don't use use the website filters built into MS? As for 2 doses of anti spyware / malware, a bit of overkill. To be honest (although not very configurable) Windows defender is actually quite good, not perfect, but for non techies, it hits the spot and is standard with vista. I would use Spybot S&D before the others. and pay for a decent AV. AVG is utter pants. Again, if this is a family, and they aren't technical at all, then buy something that comes with good support, I'd really recommend Trendmicro.

[05pricej]

in some cases less is more (or something like that :roll: )

I prefer installing as little as possible, so i'd say something like an antivirus (avast, norton, etc) maybe spybot, and use windows defender.

Also as a matter of preferrence you could install firefox and set it as default.

Oh and dont forget to uninstall the junk that came with it

[SkippyBing]

For an anti-virus I'd recommend Kaspersky, it's reasonably priced and doesn't take up 99% of the CPU cycles, unlike say Norton, I currently use their internet security package (anti-spyware, virus etc.) on three machines and it's worked perfectly which is more than I can say for Norton when I had that running on the same network. Anti-virus software is generally something I feel it's worth spending a few pounds on.

As an aside, if your friend's son is a student he may be able to get Office etc. at the student rate, if it's anything like the price I paid for it through the MoD it's an absolute steal (£17:99 for Office 2007!), although Open Office is more than sufficient unless you want to build a massive database or something like that.

[speedbird591]

I have three laptops running Vista Home Premium and all of the programs you list will load and run perfectly OK. As it's a youngster using it, I would encourage the parents to install an AV internet suite such as Kaspersky which, like Skippy, I run on all our 3 laptops. You don't really need anything else and it is very low maintenance and updates and scans several times a day. Maintenance is something that kids don't do. The advantage of Windows Defender is that it is part of the OS and updates automatically. There's no point in loading anything that has to be manually updated and run because kids won't do it, the definitions will quickly go out of date and you'll be round there sorting out viruses and trojans!

The main difference you'll find between XP and Vista is the UAC (User Account Control). Installing programs is a constant procession of pop-ups and warnings and will drive you potty. If it belonged to you or a PC confident adult, I'd say turn it off, but for a youngster it's probably best to leave it on as it will make them think about what they're installing.

Ian

[airboatr]

Open Office works great on Vista
windows defender , and Kaspersky
just ... something to keep inmind Every High Secure site around the world has been hacked
DOD the world bank , the french presidents personal idendity was stolen for crying out loud!
so It's get the best you can for us regular folk , stay away from the "bad" sites
open attachments from those you know and trust ect ect...
ATB

[AllanL]

Thanks for the suggestions. After a nephew wrecked two perfectly good laptops by downloading cr*p from t'internet, I'll be advising them to follow up on the self-updating anti-virus software.

I have both spybot and superantispyware after an attack on a works laptop left me losing a fair bit of time resolving the issue. While spybot works in the background, superantispyware works when you want it and does find stuff the other package misses, but I'll stick to spybot for this installation.

[Quixoticish]

Why don't use use the website filters built into MS? As for 2 doses of anti spyware / malware, a bit of overkill. To be honest (although not very configurable) Windows defender is actually quite good, not perfect, but for non techies, it hits the spot and is standard with vista. I would use Spybot S&D before the others. and pay for a decent AV. AVG is utter pants. Again, if this is a family, and they aren't technical at all, then buy something that comes with good support, I'd really recommend Trendmicro.

Anti-malware and SuperAntiSpyware work well together and aren't overkill at all. To be honest I'd recommend anyone disable the memory resident guff that "protects" you (nothing can protect you more than a bit of common sense folks, although when setting up a laptop for kids this may not be an option ) however for your once monthly scans this combo works very well and will pick up almost anything, I always recommend it as part of a monthly routine along with running Registry Mechanic, System Cleaner and UltimateDefrag.

Spybot S&D used to be one of the best (when ran alongside Adaware) but my own experiences demonstrate how in the past 12 months they've started to miss things the two previously mentioned will always pick up.