A Computer without Antivirus Software?

 

A Computer without Antivirus Software?

You are the best Antivirus

Antiviruses are excellent programs that protect your computer against all kinds of threats to the integrity of your computer and the preservation of your data and files. However, on certain occasions, its use can put a burden on your user experience. This is especially true on older or under-resourced computers where constant antivirus surveillance slows down the system so much that it becomes a problem rather than a solution.

For this reason, although as a general rule you must have the protection of an antivirus and we strongly recommend its use, there are certain cases in which it is better to uninstall it. But in return, you must modify some habits in the use of your equipment. Before pressing the button that will uninstall the antivirus from your computer, you should ask yourself if you are willing to make the commitment to act with common sense when surfing the net. If you are a regular on the download pages of files of dubious origin, you click on any banner that crosses your screen or visit pages with adult content; it is definitely not a good idea to uninstall the antivirus.

 

On the other hand, if you usually browse reasonably safe sites, your file or document downloads are from their respective official pages and you are aware that nobody gives away cars or iPads for being the 1 millionth visitor who visits their website, you already have half the battle won .

Google as gatekeeper

Nobody knows the internet and its ins and outs like the ubiquitous Google search engine. Since the robots of the Big G search engine must examine and index most of the web pages on the net, it is able to “guess” if a web page hides malicious content behind a normal appearance.

For that reason, if you are going to browse without the protection of an antivirus, it is better that you do it with a browser that provides you with extra security. This browser is Google Chrome . Not only for its versatility and ease of use, but for its sandbox ( sandbox ), which analyzes the pages before showing them to you and determines if they really are what they claim to be. This sandbox protects you against pages that contain malware or are suspected of phishing. That is, fake pages that try to impersonate others that are verified.

 

After installing Google Chrome on your computer, make sure that the protection options are enabled. To check it, click on the Customize and control Google Chrome icon , which you will find in the upper corner of its interface, and choose Settings.

 

Next, go to the bottom of the options page and click on Show advanced options. Then, in the Privacy section, check the Enable protection against phishing and malicious software box.

 

Online antivirus

If even being careful with the files you download from the Internet, you suspect that some of them could be harmful to your computer; you can opt for online file analysis.

This service offers the ability to scan suspicious files with more than 50 antivirus engines simultaneously, thus offering even greater reliability than traditional antivirus. In addition, its use is very simple. Access the Virustotal page and click Select to choose the suspicious file to be uploaded to the service for analysis.

Then click on Analyze to start the analysis. After this, the file begins to upload and go through the different filters and engines of the most powerful antivirus on the market. When the process finishes, it shows you the results of the tests. It is possible that some of them give false positives with some files, check which engines are those that have given the false positives and if they are minimal, you can consider the file as safe and use it normally. To get quick and convenient access to this analysis method, you can create a shortcut to this service by clicking on the icon that appears in the address bar of your browser and dragging it to your desktop. You can also add it to your browser bookmarks.

On-demand antivirus

If you still prefer to continue using an antivirus, but want to prevent it from being permanently active and consuming resources on your computer, you can find a middle ground by using antivirus on demand. Unlike traditional antivirus, this type of antivirus is not continuously active, it only performs its function when you start it, and it will return to its inactivity when it finishes its work, freeing up the memory and resources it was using.

One of the best considered is Clamwin , which is also free. This may be a good time to start applying some of the tips on responsible sailing that we have given you in the previous sections.

After its installation, start ClamWin and update its virus database by clicking on the Starts Internet Update icon. Next, click on a file with the right mouse button and choose the option Scan with ClamWin Free Antivirus. After this it will start to analyze the file and offer the results of the analysis in a pop-up box.

 

When you finish, click Close and it will cease its activity until you request its services again.

You can also schedule general scans of the system or of certain folders. To do so, open the ClamWin interface and click on the Displays Preferences Window icon . In the box that appears, go to the Scheduled Scans tab and click Add . Now, it indicates the periodicity of the analysis and the folder to be analyzed. Click on OK and, when the time comes, ClamWin will start, analyze the specified folder and close again.

Keep your team isolated

Another option to always keep your computer safe without using an antivirus that constantly consumes your computer's resources is the use of programs that isolate the operating system. That way you preserve the integrity of your team at all times. The best way to do this is with the Toolwiz Time Freeze program . When it starts up again, it runs Time Freeze, but before the safe environment starts, configure some folders to keep the documents or files generated while Time Freeze is active. In this way, you will be able to install programs, generate files with them and return the computer to the previous state, keeping these files but not the programs that generated them.

To enable this option, check the Enable Folder Exclusion when Time Freeze is ON option .

Then create a folder in an accessible place. For example, on the Desktop. Now, in the Time Freeze box, click on Add folder. Use the explorer to find the folder you just created and click OK . The folder will be added to the exceptions box. If you wish, to make it more convenient for you to activate and deactivate Time Freeze, you can activate the program's status bar, which will appear at the top of the screen.

 

Click Start Time Freeze to start the safe environment. Now the Time Freeze status bar has changed and indicates that it is running. From this moment on, you can make all the changes you want: modify the appearance of the system, install or uninstall programs, deactivate devices. All this with the peace of mind that, whenever you want, you can put your computer back as you had it just before starting Time Freeze.

 

If you want to keep any files, you must copy them to the exception folder that you have created on the Desktop so that they are not deleted when you restore your computer.

Recovers the previous state

When you've finished running your tests, restore your computer to its previous state. Doing so is as simple as activating Time Freeze was. Simply double-click on the Time Freeze status bar to bring up the Time Freeze interface again. Then click on the Stop Time Freeze button and then on OK. Then your computer will restart. When it starts up again, everything will be back to the way it was when you started Time Freeze, except for the files you saved in the exclude folder you set up.

If you believe that the program you have used or the files are safe, you can install or use them on your computer regularly without any risk to it, since it has previously verified that they really are what they claimed to be.