I have a five year old laptop with Windows 7. I am thinking of bringing it to one of these stores(Best Buy, Microcenters) to make my computer "run like I just bought it" for a tune-up.
Are these stores doing anything that I can't do at home? Are they worth it?
I use AVG Virus (free edition)
CCleaner
Malwarebytes
Hi,
I'm sure that depends on staff at the locations
Some are okay but for the most part low wage *******'s
The best tune up is a clean install on a new ssd
Best Buy and MicroCenter won't save you, they don't value your data and will wipe and reinstall. You can restore to factory using the recovery partition if it has one. Back up all the data you value and have the disks for programs you installed yourself and get going without shelling out a dime.
Keep in mind, those big box stores are paying the techs nearly minimum wage, you get what you pay for. I know a few of them and I refuse to work there or pay them for minimum capabilities.
Muskrat, I quit AVG and moved to Avast. AVG was just too much of a resource hog. Just saying.
There is nothing that they can do for you that you can't do at home, more cheaply, and more effectively.
There's a lot you can do right off the bat, and there's more you can do with further effort. A fresh install is the most straightforward way to go. AVG is too heavy on resources, and now there are privacy concerns. I find Panda to be both light and effective. How much do the box stores charge for this service?
They don`t do anything you can`t do yourself, don`t waste your money.
By the way, get rid of AVG, it`s garbage
Hi Usernameissues,
I don't know, and have never investigated it. They may be as bad or worse for all I know. I just go by what breaks in the headlines, and I assume that since nothing has broken about Panda, it's ok. But I know that can be wrong. I can't keep up with everything, so in many areas I depend on others to find out for me. Not the best, I know. And I really should do better considering that I deploy Panda to so many units.
paul1149,
I have installed Panda for my users that cannot seem to stay free of PUPs. I'm not too concerned about the privacy issues. My guess is, they all do what AVG admitted doing. I wonder how many people stopped using AVG because AVG decided to be honest about selling data that they collect. After your post, I did go looking for Panda's privacy statement, but never found one. Thanks for making me think to go look for it
muskrat,
I agree with those saying that you will be better off with something other than AVG. AVG lost me and my users many years ago when they starting putting the list of things to look for (the signatures) into the OS System process. This slowed many XP systems to a crawl.
MSE is probably the lightest on resources and it seems to get along with other programs. Perhaps because it does so little (no browser add-ons and no website screening). If Malwarebyte scans come up clean, then MSE is fine for those type of users.
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