You get what you don't pay for ... (Computer Associates InoculateIT Personal Edition)

Member Name: timtm

Product:	Computer Associates InoculateIT Personal Edition
Date:	24/05/01 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's free!, Easy to install, Easy to use

Disadvantages: No pretty box to keep it in

(slight update - see the bottom of the opinion)

I had, of course, left it too late to get an up-to-date virus checker, and someone in my family ran the Snow White virus. Cue getting cut off from Freeserve, the computer slowing down at random times, Netcape crashing lots, and general woe and pity. After finally persuading them to let us have the connection back, of course the first thing I did was to look for a virus checker. The people at Freeserve suggested InnoculateIT, and so I went there with credit card in hand and concerned look on my face.

The first of these disappeared when I looked at the site, and found out that the personal edition is free. It costs nothing beyond download time, and a slight hassle of having to also download the latest update (sometimes, that is, if they haven’t quite included it in the main program). So I set my computer to download it, still slightly concerned that it might not do the job needed since it was, after all, free. So I went away and made a cup of tea. Before I’d finished, it was downloaded, installed, and ready to run.

And run it did, for a long time. It found the infected files, and asked for permission to delete them. It even warned that one of the infected files was a system file, so I’d need to replace it, and it found the probable location to do so from with ease. It scanned every file on my system (which, I was amazed to find, numbered over 75,000), then cleaned up and stopped.

Et voila, virus free.

The impressive thing is not only that it does its job so well; not only that it’s so comprehensive; not only that it costs nothing and is easy to install; but also that you can sign up to a free email list which keeps you up-to-date with viruses that exist, and lets you know when you can go and get the free updates for the free program which is all completely free.

It’s a wonderful thing.

Slight update:

Er, they
9;ve started charging for it. It's still cheap, though. See the comments to the opinion for more! I don't know the new price, as us current users don't have to register again ...

Summary: