I know I should know, but ...

[Ooopsadaisy]

Norton has expired on the PC.

DP was due to go to PCWorld yesterday while he was at work but forgot as he was busy. (It is cheaper there than online and we're on a budget).

He was then supposed to go this morning but got caught up with other things. Is now out for the day.

I am stuck at home and can't go out as am on call for a few things (long story).

I need to do some Internet banking.

DP says it's fine. I don't think so.

I know I should be able to suss this out for myself and it annoys me that I'm not sure.

After the thread about weedy women, I would just like to stress that I can make up IKEA flat-packs, will drive anywhere and am more than happy to confront officialdom, so plese don't call me weedy for not knowing the answer but ...

Is it safe?

many errors that it couldn't resolve

What type of errors? Post more information.

Turning on the firewall puts a "block" between you and the Internet and gives you more control over what is allowed to come down onto your machine. As for why it wasn't already switched on, there's a number of reasons, but the main thing is you've got it on now. The MBSA tool I mentioned in my earlier post will identify things like this and other common mistakes like guest accounts and default passwords.

Computers seem scary but that's only till you start learning about them. I don't understand how my car works!

bigtilly you need security software but you don't need to buy it and it doesn't have to be McAfee. As mentioned above, there are good free products available. Turn on the firewall and automatic updates from Microsoft as well.

BadgersPaws - thank you. I think I was panicking when I went into it the first time. Malware now all done. It took over 50 minutes - is this normal? It found some problems and it has resolved them. The icon now shows on my desktop.

Squirted - AVG says there are 2015 errors Registry Status.

Don't know what that means?

Junk status is in the yellow. (????)

Security Status says Critical. (Is this scaremongering - it is trying to encourage me to spend money?)

Bumping - hoping all those lovely, helpful people are out there ....

BadgersPaws "I would also recommend turning on the Windows Firewall, instructions are here."

I have just clicked on your link, etc and it says the Windows Firewall is being managed by McAfee - I think that must have been the one it came with, but runs out soonish IIRC. So then I will turn it on?

Am just downloading AVAST - thanks!

"I have just clicked on your link, etc and it says the Windows Firewall is being managed by McAfee - I think that must have been the one it came with, but runs out soonish IIRC. So then I will turn it on?"

When McAfee expires, or when you're done with it, completely uninstall it.

Similarly you shouldn't run any other anti-virus software until McAfee has stopped running. The machine probably won't stop you doing that, but it could slow things down substantially as two anti-virus packages both fight each other for access to files.

"Squirted - AVG says there are 2015 errors Registry Status.

Don't know what that means?"

The Registry is kind of like a central database for Windows, it keeps details on what you have installed upon it and various configuration settings. Over time it does gradually go wonky, it's one of the big problems with Windows. So there will be an entry in the Registry saying "Program X is installed in folder Y". And if that program has gone then you will get a "Registry Error" flagged up by Registry checkers.

Is it a problem?

Well that's a big question. There is software that will clean up the Windows Registry, ccleaner is an example, and there are lots of bits of software that claim to do a better job if you pay for them.

The benefits of actually doing that are very marginal and very debatable. I certainly wouldn't pay any money to fix the problems, but I have run free software now and again to poke around what's going on.

I don't think that the AVG registry cleaner is free, so you might be seeing an advert trying to encourage you to shell out cash for something they want to sell you.

Just go with the free AVG for anti-virus and then something like Malwarebytes for Malware protection. If both are kept up to date you'll be pretty secure.