Virus in attchments?

[Combwork]

I'm on AOL. Is there any way of checking if an attachment is safe to open without opening it first? Somewhere safe to forward the email to before I open the attachment? As well as AOL I've got a gmail account for non business use.

I repair antique musical boxes and sometimes get genuine inquiries from new potential customers whose first language isn't English. When asking about the cost of repairing a comb they might include an attachment of a photo showing the damage.

The free version of AVG loads whenever I turn on the computer.

[merrylander]

I use Avira and it checks everything that come off the net, email too.

[bhunter]

AVG, Avira, Avast and most of the others are fairly good; however, there is no 100% certain way to remove all risk except to not go on the internet. My clients usually pick up their problems by clicking on crap that pops up or by installing infected programs. BTW, I really like McAfee and Norton because I make a lot of money removing their preinstalls from new machines. IMO, they are a greater threat to computing tranquility than a virus. Microsoft Windows has slowly become more secure than it once was, but it still needs work.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by bhunter

AVG, Avira, Avast and most of the others are fairly good; however, there is no 100% certain way to remove all risk except to not go on the internet. My clients usually pick up their problems by clicking on crap that pops up or by installing infected programs. BTW, I really like McAfee and Norton because I make a lot of money removing their preinstalls from new machines. IMO, they are a greater threat to computing tranquility than a virus. Microsoft Windows has slowly become more secure than it once was, but it still needs work.

I agree completely about McAfee and Norton! I used AVG for years, now use Avast plus Malwarebytes with leaky old XP Pro and have no problems.

I've been told by IT types that W7 & W8 all by themselves are more secure than XP plus AV software. I don't know whether that's true.

John

[Dondilion]

Norton is one big PIA.

[bhunter]

Originally Posted by Boreas

I agree completely about McAfee and Norton! I used AVG for years, now use Avast plus Malwarebytes with leaky old XP Pro and have no problems.

I've been told by IT types that W7 & W8 all by themselves are more secure than XP plus AV software. I don't know whether that's true.

John

I currently install Avast on most of the machines I manage. ESET is probably the best commercial product. On my own Windows machines, lately I've been using Microsoft's Security Essentials.

Windows 7 is much better than NT, XP, or Vista. I have not yet formed an opinion wrt to Windows 8, but so far it seems to work fairly well after I ditched the new Metro interface. MS still hasn't learned to design intuitive interfaces. Case in point, I've used Solaris, BSDs, OS/2, VMS, Linux, OS X, IRIX, AIX, SCO, Nextstep, BeOS, and Windows operating systems together with their respective GUIs, but I had to go online to find out how to shutdown Windows 8 from the GUI.

[d-ray657]

I use Windows 7, and protect my computer with Microsoft Security Essentials complimented with Adaware. I have had no problems with malware while I have been using them. It did seem that the Adaware slowed down my browser loading, so I disabled its real-time scanning (leaving Security Essentials intact), and set it to perform scheduled scans.

Regards,

D-Ray

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by bhunter

but I had to go online to find out how to shutdown Windows 8 from the GUI.

OOPS!

John