# Security Software for XP?

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 19-Mar-2010 19:25:57

What is some good antispyware, antimalware and antivirus software for Windows XP that's accessible with NVDA? I just got this nice IBm and I don't want to have it infected with anything. It's mostly the bots and spyware that I worry about, since they're all over the place these days. I wouldn't want to have one and then to pass it onto my friends or to have it taking information from me without me knowing. Thanks.

## Post 2 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Friday, 19-Mar-2010 20:01:58

For anti virus, use Avira, for spyware use Super Anti Spyware.
You can find links to both through www.filehippo.com
Both free but Anti spyware you have to update and run it yourself, if you pay $20 you can get a version that schedules scans automatically, no quality difference in the software I believe, the paid version might do a more complex root kit scan, but the vast majority of spyware stuff you may get does not mess with those things.
I]ve stayed save with these two pieces of software and used Super Anti Spyware to resaurect my machine after a spyware attack and it managed to lcear it up completely.
Also both are on list of best freeware at, I think, Geek zone or some web site, you can dig for the news story through www.blindbargains.com.

## Post 3 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 19-Mar-2010 20:18:38

Thanks. I'll try them out and see what I think. Definitely good to have them on my side.

## Post 4 by dallas cowboy fanc (Veteran Zoner) on Friday, 19-Mar-2010 20:39:30

Hi,
I have used a free anti-virus program called Avast for the last few years and it has worked incredibly well, with regard to accessibility and overall virus protection.
As of last week, unfortunately, I was basically forced to upgrade to the latest version 5.0 or something, and now my screen reader will not read one word of it. Even the menu bar is dead quiet. It is like a ghost program now.
So, I guess I am in the same boat as you.
good luck,
scott

## Post 5 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 19-Mar-2010 20:48:04

That was interesting. I downloaded Avira and the registration process was inaccessible with NVDA. It read everything at once, first name, surname, street, country etc. but wouldn't read it when I was in the edit boxes so I had no way of knowing what I was doing. I don't want to have to install JFW just to install this software. Is there a work-around? I didn't know Avast went inaccessible. I know AVG did, and they were very nice at one time. Also heard the same for Spybot Search and Destroy and ad-Aware seemed to cause trouble the last time I used it but that was a long time ago. Not sure about Spyblaster or Windows Defender. I used to use something called Stopsign but it's a subscription-based service so torrenting won't work on it. Still, if anyone can help me with the Avira installation that would be nice.

## Post 6 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Friday, 19-Mar-2010 21:58:13

Yes, shift+tab around and uncheck toe boxes, I think from the combo box, its 4 shift+tabs to get to the checkbox you want, but don't quote me on it.

## Post 7 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 19-Mar-2010 23:10:53

Confused. If you're answering me, there are no check boxes, just input fields that NVDA can't read.

## Post 8 by forereel (Just posting.) on Saturday, 20-Mar-2010 0:06:59

Avast was completely accessible. I'll have to go check the new one out.
I am using Vipre. It comes in 2 versions www.sunbeltsoftware.com It cost, but it's good, and accessible completely. You go to help for some setting, but the main ones are in the desktop icon, or in the systems tray. Nice program. Microsofts new program is accessible as well, but I can't say how well it works, but it's free.

## Post 9 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 20-Mar-2010 0:30:14

Almost everything is free if you know where to look.

## Post 10 by forereel (Just posting.) on Saturday, 20-Mar-2010 0:37:37

Not this one. Smile. You can play with it for 30 days though, and it has 24 7 tech support. If you get something you can't handle they'll fix it for you, so worth every penny.

## Post 11 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 20-Mar-2010 3:22:44

Is it one of those subscription things like stopsign?

## Post 12 by dallas cowboy fanc (Veteran Zoner) on Saturday, 20-Mar-2010 3:43:31

no access. No.

## Post 13 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Saturday, 20-Mar-2010 16:05:28

Their are checkboxes at the bottom of the screen, and if you don't want to register you can uncheck them, and the next button will appear.

## Post 14 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 20-Mar-2010 17:20:15

Ah. I'll see if I can find them. I really have no problem with registering. it's the accessibility factor that's driving me nuts. i want to use this program, since I've read good things about it here and elsewhere.

## Post 15 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Sunday, 21-Mar-2010 13:09:25

Once you get past that, you'll be fine. Just a word of warning, it has a tendacy to freeze up while installing. End its process and restart the installer, and it'll finish. Don't ask me why it does this, but every computer I've put it on its done that to me.

## Post 16 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Sunday, 21-Mar-2010 14:23:53

I was able to install it okay. It just acted weird afterword, during the registration. Thanks for the warning though. *smile*

## Post 17 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Sunday, 21-Mar-2010 22:58:20

Avast is a good antivirus software...super antispyware for antispyware.
for the free trial of avast:
http://www.avast.com

## Post 18 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Monday, 22-Mar-2010 22:17:03

Avast is a system hog.

## Post 19 by forereel (Just posting.) on Monday, 22-Mar-2010 23:27:27

Depends on how small you system is? No. haha

## Post 20 by ¤§¤spike¤§¤ (This site is so "educational") on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 8:55:47

Avast is a sysstem hog, and is almost impossible to uninstall. Avira though it is good, doesn't work well with Thunderbird.

## Post 21 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 19:02:44

Their ya go straight from the keyboard of a dude whose got some pretty powerful machines. To get Avast fully uninstalled, you need to go into safe mode and run some utility that they give you.

## Post 22 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 19:28:54

Wow! that's horrible! I don't even think safe mode is accessible. thank The gods I didn't install that thing!

## Post 23 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 19:57:54

Well, I was able to install Antivir by unchecking the register button but the menus are completely inaccessible with NVDA. It just says menu or submenu with items. Am I missing something here? Maybe, there are shortcut keys? Is there another program that works with NVDA or do I really have to install JFW on this machine?

## Post 24 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 20:02:49

From my experience, Avira wasn't really that accessible to begin with, you have to use the Jaws cursor a lot, so I can imagine it wouldn't work too well with NVDA. I actually didn't have trouble uninstalling Avast either, I couldn't get rid of it from the control panel but once I ran C Cleaner and used that to uninstall it worked just fine.

## Post 25 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 20:41:35

I strongly dislike programs that make so much use of the JFW cursor. How difficult is it to uninstall antivir/ Guesss I gotta find something else now.

## Post 26 by forereel (Just posting.) on Tuesday, 23-Mar-2010 21:19:58

Yes Avast saddly is a bit difficult to uninstall, but it is a good choice, so you don't need to get rid of it. Tessa spend a little money, or get Microsofts act? Smile. If you want to test many use www.cnet.com and get free and paid ones that have a try it period. I did this once, but you'll need a machine you are not needing to use. The one I suggest cost, but it's accessible.

## Post 27 by HauntedReverie (doing the bad mango) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 7:27:10

I wish all of you would e-mail Avast! and tell them about the inaccessibility. My boyfriend e-mailed them and they insist it works perfectly! I intend to e-mail them later today, include my name, OS, jaws version, avast version, and explain a few of the problems I have. Maybe if we all spam them with complaints they'll fix it... I installed it yesterday and was greatly frustrated at it's lack of support.

## Post 28 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 15:51:50

Not only its accessibility features, but its but its system usage as well. Tif, just leave Avira, it pretty much does a constant scan, so you really never have to run the scan. You don't need to change anything in the menus, at least nothing that I've sseen anyway. But its your final decision overall, we're just giving suggestions.

## Post 29 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 16:07:57

True. I'm not blaming anyone. i just wish that I was informated about that. i actually set it to high and not normal, so that it would pick more things up. But if it makes a mistake and calls something a virus or a threat when it's not, how can I fix this problem?

## Post 30 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 19:42:32

Well, I just got some kind of notification from Avira and all it said was "avira Notification" and okay. I couldn't get NVDA to read it, not even when I alt-tabbed out of the window and then went back into it again. I hit enter on whatever it was and it went away. But I don't like this. it could've been an update message, a virus/threat, something being blocked or just a notification to let me know that it'd completed a scan. I don't like having so many options open and having no idea what's going on. Is it difficult to uninstall this? Should I worry about these notifications or are they normal? It looks like I'll have to hunt down JFW and install it for times like this. More hard disk space wasted....

## Post 31 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 19:42:58

How does it work with Hal? I've been meaning to try their new version anyway.

## Post 32 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 20:21:19

That notification that you got that your virus definitions were updated. Its a picture and some links and stuff I think.

## Post 33 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 24-Mar-2010 20:23:00

Thanks. *smile*

## Post 34 by battle star queen (I just keep on posting!) on Friday, 26-Mar-2010 18:25:48

i also use Vipre and I find it to be easy to use and it catches a lot of stuff. Also, it iasn't a resource hot either.

## Post 35 by rat (star trek rules!) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 12:14:32

I use the microsoft program. works with NVDA and jaws instantly, doesn't use hardly any system resourses, and is very good at what it does. avast never caught anything, this has caught about 3 things so far. if you haven't tried that, you should

## Post 36 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 12:49:58

I use the Microsoft program now too. I hated Avira and that stupid update screen, because it would always take me to some website and half the time my computer would freeze because of all the crap it was loading. I have no complaints about Security Essentials so far, for the first few days it was catching stuff left and right that Avast and Avira could never seem to get rid of.

## Post 37 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 12:53:21

Yeah. when I close the lid of my laptop, it goes into standby mode. Ever since installing this software, it takes forever to get out of the mode and, for some reason, Firefox takes awhile to start up. Must see how I can turn this off so that I can delete it. I'm assuming that finding it in thg programs running window and going into a context menu would do it. Hope so, cause it's regular menus, as I've said, are inaccessible.

## Post 38 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 13:00:05

There should be an icon for it in your system tray, and from there you can disable it.

## Post 39 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 13:24:47

Got it! Opa. Thanks. As a last present, they gave me a survey, after the program was uninstalled, that crashed NVDA so that I had to restart using the power button of the laptop. I went to find MicroSoft Essentials, but when I found the page, it didn't have a download link there. I tried the links on the page but none of them took me to a place where I could find it.

## Post 40 by rat (star trek rules!) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 19:36:45

there is a link there, dont' know how NVDA sees it but jaws calls it void0 or someting like that. if you need i can send you a link to the setup file off dropbox if needed

## Post 41 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 27-Mar-2010 20:16:23

ah okay. Yes, it did read it that way. weird way to label a link. Thanks.

## Post 42 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Sunday, 28-Mar-2010 9:53:08

That's microsoft for ya. Always doing stuff in Java I think that is?

## Post 43 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Sunday, 28-Mar-2010 12:25:10

Well, that link did absolutely nothing, either with fireFox or with Internet Explorer.

## Post 44 by forereel (Just posting.) on Sunday, 28-Mar-2010 22:29:53

It works. :) Go to microsoft,com and type it in the search box then. You'll find how to download it.

## Post 45 by rat (star trek rules!) on Sunday, 28-Mar-2010 23:32:52

also, after you click that link bring up a links list and press w. it reveals the download links for vista/7 or xp. not the best layout but it does work once you understand it

## Post 46 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Monday, 29-Mar-2010 0:10:57

Okay, what's the links list command in NVDA?

## Post 47 by rat (star trek rules!) on Monday, 29-Mar-2010 15:21:28

i'm not sure, NVDA isn't my primary screen reader, not even sure if there is a links list in it yet

## Post 48 by forereel (Just posting.) on Monday, 29-Mar-2010 19:58:57

I don't think so either, so arrow tell you find it. Shouldn't be far down the page. Or except the offer of the setup file here.

## Post 49 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Tuesday, 30-Mar-2010 10:19:52

Insert+F7 same as Jaws's.

## Post 50 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 30-Mar-2010 10:48:38

There wasn't even a search box to type it in. Definitely taking the offer to get it here. this is ridiculous. If not, I'll need to find something better from a competitor. I hope this software isn't as inaccessible to use as it is to find.

## Post 51 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Tuesday, 30-Mar-2010 11:20:38

I do hope you at least look at avast...it does not hog my system at all.

## Post 52 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 30-Mar-2010 11:25:56

I'm not touching Avast, not with the amount of trouble it takes to uninstall. thanks though.

## Post 53 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Tuesday, 30-Mar-2010 20:00:31

I uninstalled antivir, as I said, but now instead of the balloon saying "you have no antivirus software installe" it says "antivir Desktop is turned off". Is it still installed somewhere? How do I get rid of it completely so it won't conflict with any other antivirus software that I might install?

## Post 54 by forereel (Just posting.) on Tuesday, 30-Mar-2010 23:03:43

You'd have to go in to programs and delete it from there.
What do you mean on www.microsoft.com there is no search box? There is a search box. If you can't see it then you need to use a different screen reader. You can google, or bing the microsoft software as well.

## Post 55 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 31-Mar-2010 2:00:30

Okay, now this is getting ridiculous! I instaled AVG and it told me that I have Antivir Desktop installed. I did a search for all files and typed in antivir and couldn't find it anywhere. I went into program files and couldn't find it there. I started up Unclean, which is a nicer way to ad/remove programs, and it couldn't find anything. I had the actual .exe file that I downloaded, but of course, that doesn't mean that it's installed. Still, I deleted that too. I just told AVG to install anyway, but I really want to get rid of this so it doesn't conflict with AVG. I ran a scan and it seemed to be okay though, so hopefully, I won't have any problems in the future. Btw, the latter program is still very much accessible. Actually, I haven't found anything in it that's not.

## Post 56 by ¤§¤spike¤§¤ (This site is so "educational") on Wednesday, 31-Mar-2010 4:20:06

I'd say backup your registry and go through it looking only for Antivir or Avira. Since though it may be unistalled, there are still registry entries left that point to services and msconfig entries. The program I use to backup my registry is EruNT. It is accessible and may save you in the long run. It sure has for me. To do a manual registry search use regedit, but be very very careful.

## Post 57 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Thursday, 01-Apr-2010 23:25:03

Oh yes please be careful.

## Post 58 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Thursday, 01-Apr-2010 23:46:56

Definitely, under no circumstances, am I touching my registry without a trained technician standing by. That's like playing with my autoexec.bat or config.sys except worse. I have no clue what I'm doing. I'd like to say it's just a matter of finding those words and deleting them but yeah. I love my new IBM and don't want to ruin it. But thanks for the suggestion.