[Paul_Sengupta]

@skydriller I didn't do anything...

Thats what my partner says...

I then find with people, on further questioning, say, "All I did was..."

[Grelly]

Have you considered taking the hard disk out of the old machine, fitting it to a caddy and then plugging it in to the new one whenever you need it?

[Jim Jones]

Have you considered taking the hard disk out of the old machine, fitting it to a caddy and then plugging it in to the new one whenever you need it?

I’ve got a portable hard drive I used for backup before going Cloud, I was thinking that might be ok for that.

I’ll have some time tomorrow to look at tidying up my old PC files first, if I just copied them as they are it will never get done. Thanks for the suggestions, especially the free stuff.

[Ian Melville]

For duplicates, I used Easy Duplicate Finder. You can try it for free, but the full version is around $40. In my case, it was worth the dosh in time saved.

https://www.easyduplicatefinder.com

[matthew_w100]

We use de-duplicating (though on Linux boxes) as a scripting exercise for potential recruits to demonstrate their worth. It can be done quite elegantly, but I won't tell you how in case you apply for a job

BTW, what's with the "tapatalk" signature being tattooed on a number of people's posts? Have they been hijacked?

[VRB_20kt]

Tapatalk is an app for reading and responding to forums. It self-promotes with each response.

Thus:

Sent from my K6000 Pro using Tapatalk

[townleyc]

Win 10 antivirus is basic, apart from being a target. The anti-malware is also basic.

Why spoil the ship for a half-penny of tar?

Buy a decent full blooded security solution - personally I use and recommend Kaspersky Labs Total security. Definitely not McAfee for home use.

Also watch Ccleaner - it got caught distributing malware last year, and not doing a full uninstall.


KE

[rikur_]

personally I use and recommend Kaspersky Labs Total security.

I suppose that avoids the need to catch malware by installing it directly.

EU, UK, Barclays, US

[matthew_w100]

Has anyone ever actually had a virus?

[Colonel Panic]

Never. Whether being an Apple user since 2003 has helped I know not. Not bothered with any anti-virus stuff (other than spam filters) since then either.

[rikur_]

Has anyone ever actually had a virus?

Definitely in the late 1990s, yes.
I can't recall having any personally for 10 years+ - but still clean a few per year off friends and relatives PCs.
Symptoms seem to change over time. Aside from crypto-ransom stuff most stuff I've cleaned off recently has had no explicit symptoms, just 'the laptop was running slow'. As I understand it a lot of current malware focuses on spying and botnet. My perception is that Android is nowadays the weakest ecosystem in widespread use. e.g. apps masquerading as games/utilities which make facebook posts by the user to promote themselves etc.

I think it's mostly a user behaviour thing. If you're prone to looking at unknown websites, installing small utilities/games etc then you're more at risk. Certain roles are also quite vulnerable - e.g. a lot of viruses have targeted accounts payable teams, and unfortunately the way many ebilling systems work, makes it difficult to distinguish between a genuine e-bill and a bit of malware.

For my relatives laptops, I just stick with Windows Defender - and set-up the laptop so that the account that they login for day-to-day use isn't an Administrator account.

[stevelup]

It's very difficult (if not impossible) to 'catch' a drive-by virus from a website for example - all browsers for years have had mitigations in place for that, but as rikur says, if you go off piste and download and run stuff you shouldn't be doing, then it's easy to come a cropper.

Most 'viruses' these days are actually exercises in social engineering - clicking on a banner offering something wonderful, and then deliberately downloading and installing (not to mention giving admin privileges) to the amazing tool you think you're getting.

I clean up about a dozen machines a year that have been infested with all sorts of carp, and in almost every case it would have been avoidable with a bit of common sense.

Android is a complete time bomb. All those folks who moan about Apple's 'locked down ecosystem' are so misguided that it hurts.

[VRB_20kt]

"Whether being an Apple user since 2003 has helped I know not".

Since Apple OSs are essentially Unix I'm sure it's helped a lot.

Windoze has much better intrinsic security than it once had - especially if it's set up properly

And of course Linux has pretty strong controls.

The virus landscape has also changed with so many people using the major email providers that filter mail pretty effectively.



Sent from my K6000 Pro using Tapatalk

[Paul_Sengupta]

Has anyone ever actually had a virus?

Yes. Caught off the forum here when the ads had been farmed off to google ads.

https://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=66546

Cost me a lot of effort and an afternoon's work.

I don't suppose that's the most work that the forum has cost me though!

[matthew_w100]

So all round not a problem worth spending money on then!

TBH I'd rather spend money on decent backup software and reliable (remote location) backup storage than on commercial malware protection.