New PCs are thick on the ground at this time of year and so are PC problems. People deluge customer support teams with enquiries as they struggle to get to grips with recently acquired machines.

While there are rogue computers, many problems are less about faulty or difficult to use hardware and more about the marketing choices made by PC makers.

For example, laptop makers keen to keep their products below certain key price points have shipped models without enough ram. That’s dumb. Microsoft says Windows 7  (now installed on most machines) requires a minimum of 1GB to run in 32-bit mode or 2GB in 64-bit mode.

Realistically 2GB is the bare minimum and you ought to have 4GB or more. Otherwise your computer experience will be somewhere between sluggish and barely functional.

If you find yourself struggling to squeeze performance out of a laptop in these circumstances you have two realistic options: buy extra ram or dump Windows and install Windows XP (or if you’re brave, Ubuntu) instead.

Either way you’ll be in for some extra cost and a degree of fiddling around before you have a practical computer – which may not leave you feeling well-disposed towards your laptop maker.

Another problem area is the bundled software loaded by the manufacturer. A lot of it is rubbish. No, scrub that. Almost all of it is rubbish.

You may find programs you’ll never use automatically loading themselves into memory each time you boot. They can slow your computer down or interfere with other programs causing glitches or even crashes.

Alternatively you may find yourself connected to registration sites and badgered for personal information. Some preloaded applications are spyware – secretly reporting your computing activity to people whether you like it or not.

If this worries you – and it should – the best strategy is to start by making sure you have antivirus software and firewall installed and switched on. Then install an anti-spyware program like Microsoft’s Windows Defender (download from www.microsoft.com). Finally using the Add or Remove Programs panel in Windows Control Panel, systematically work through the pre-installed applications deciding what, if anything, is worth keeping and dumping anything else.

An alternative is to use CCleaner a tool to automatically get rid of the crud choking a PC.

I can't tell you if AVG Free 9.0 offers decent PC security. That's because the application was so annoying and imposed such an overhead on my computer I deleted it before testing finished.

There are times when free is too high a price.

AVG Anti-Virus Free 9.0 is still only two weeks old. It arrived about the same time as Windows 7 and is compatible with Microsoft's new operation system.

I downloaded the file in late October to test on my computer running Windows 7 release candidate version. The program is available at AVG's free web site – but as I'll explain in a moment, I don't recommend it.

It is only a small download at 869Kb – it takes seconds with broadband. The first file is a downloader which fetches and installs the rest of the software.

The process is easy enough. Yet the second screen you see is only the start of what becomes an annoying and shrill sales pitch designed to control your choices and trick you in to paying money. It appears AVG has learnt from the scam artists the software promises to protect you from.

Flakiness abounds

Your first choice is to select either free basic protection or a 30-day trial of the company's comprehensive protection.

The implication is responsible people will choose the second option – which means in 30 days AVG will ask you for money. Don't worry – you'll get plenty more opportunities to pay AVG if you choose not to do so at this point.

I thought I was downloading the free software – that's what I clicked on at the AVG web site – so that's what I proceeded with.

During the download AVG asks you to remove existing anti-virus software. This makes sense, anti-virus applications can conflict with each other and anyway, as each program imposes an overhead, the performance drop can multiply.

Annoyingly AVG doesn't remove the other software. It  halts and opens the Windows uninstaller so you can manually remove it. Even more annoyingly, the AVG installer closes itself at this point – you need to hunt around in your download folder to find it and start all over again – by now many megabytes have been wiped off your download cap.

Click, click, bloody click

There's a lot of clicking throughout this process – some of it unnecessary. Then it asks if you wish to install the AVG Security Toolbar.

The software has also helpfully pre-selected the option to change your default search engine to Yahoo. This is spam – of a sort. In both cases I choose No.

It is tricky – if you click off the first box, the Yahoo box stays ticked but grayed out. This can only be designed to trick you into selecting the search engine choice.

At this point the installer had to close Firefox. Not wanting to be sent all the way back to the start like that horrible long snake at the end of a game of Snakes and Ladders, I clicked to close Firefox held my breath. Phew. The install resumes.

We are now 40 minutes into the process. Even at minimum wage rate this free anti-virus program has cost me the price of lunch and a clutch of grey hairs.

Finally

Suddenly the process is over. A box appears telling me the install has finished. But wait, what is this?

More stuff to click.

Do I agree to give anonymous information? Oh alright then. And now would I like to receive spam? (Sorry news and alerts). Please enter your email address. Are you kidding? No.

While AVG starts its first scan. I reload Firefox. In the meantime I notice the program has installed an icon on my Windows desktop. Did I ask for this? No I damn well did not. AVG asks tons of questions during the install – but doesn't allow me to choose whether the icon despoils my desktop. At this point I'm starting to get angry.

Not responding

Meanwhile Firefox is failing to load. What's going on here? There was a string of open tabs – none of them are visible. Windows tells me Firefox is "not responding".

Eventually – more than an hour after the first download, Firefox opens. And what's this? AVG has installed AVG Safe Search. Is this the toolbar I choose not to install? The name is different, so let's assume it isn't the same thing. I wasn't warned or asked about it, but hey, let's go with the flow for a moment.  So, Firefox opens at the home page – my tags are all lost.

AVG is now scanning my computer looking for viruses. I open up the scanner's display and see what looks like a banner ad for the paid for software at the bottom of the screen.  Fair enough, the software was free and these people have to eat. I can accept advertising as the price to pay for free anti-virus.

But it has to go

Before long my computer started crashing, randomly. And things started being very s l o w   l i ke  w a d i n g t h r o u g h m o l a s s e s. There could be only one explanation for this. I removed AVG, reinstalled Microsoft Security Essentials and performance returned to normal.

Of course, you mileage may vary. AVG may rock your boat. But for me it has proved so disastrous I couldn't even test its efficiency as an anti-virus tool. I give it zero stars out of five.

Google Related Links is a tool to help push traffic around a web site.

In theory it does the same job as Zemanta's Interesting Articles feature – it allows you to add a list of related stories and Google searches to pages.

At the moment there's a test page at Googlelabs: http://relatedlinks.googlelabs.com/.

It isn't as elegant as Zemanta – and it certainly doesn't integrate well with WordPress. But its results are interesting. I tested the service on my earlier post: Windows 7 is great. Its price isn’t.

Here's what it came back with:

Related Links by Google
Norton's troubled Internet Security Windows 7 beta at Bill Bennett
Microsoft's Security Essentials is almost un-noticable at Bill Bennett
Layoffs no panacea | Bill Bennett
Norton Internet Security – the alternatives at Bill Bennett
In memoriam Twitter at Bill Bennett
When Outlook trumps Gmail at Bill Bennett
Go East young man (or woman) | Bill Bennett
Computer security guide – what are the main threats? at Bill Bennett

Related Searches by Google
windows 7
windows 7 download
windows 7 review
isn
isn't it

As you can see only two of the eight "related links" are directly relevant. Although another might just qualify if we are generous. And only one of the five 'related searches' is useful. That's 3 and a half out of 13 or around a 23 percent success rate. Obviously some work is needed.

I'm impressed with Windows 7. After running the beta for months I've discovered it is everything Windows should be.

Sure there are niggles – but that would be true of any plausible alternative.

I was so impressed I decided to buy the operating system upgrade. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Dick Smith lists the Windows 7 Ultimate and Professional upgrades at $499 each.

The price is ridiculous. The same Dick Smith has notebook computers with Windows 7 installed starting at $899 – that's notebook not netbook.

OK. I understand the $899 notebook might not ship with Windows 7 Professional – that's not the point.

For just $400 more than the cost of a software upgrade I can have a new computer. The cheapest netbook on sale in New Zealand is $425 – just $25 more than the upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.

If I got to Digital Shop I can buy a desktop for just $487.64 with Windows 7 Professional installed.

That's right. In effect I can pay just $87.64 for a new computer.

So here are my choices:

1. Buy a new PC with Windows 7 Professional. Throw my existing, perfectly serviceable machine into a landfill. Have a better computer experience but stop sleeping at night because I'm destroying the planet.

2. Revert to Vista or XP. This costs nothing – but will give me a more annoying computer experience than at present.

3. Look once again at Linux.

What would you do?

Microsoft Security Essentials sips system resources so sparingly there's no noticeable effect on my computer's performance.

And yet the free application protects my system from malware and attacks.

Lightweight

Security Essentials is lightweight compared with Microsoft's earlier, paid-for, OneCare security.

It only uses 280k of system memory on my test machine. The download is 8.5Mb and the installed program occupies about 12Mb scattered between the Program Files and Program Data folders on my on my C: drive. Of course there could be other components stored elsewhere – getting the full picture about software installations isn't easy when you run Windows 7.

One week has passed since installing the software. There's been no noticable performance hit running Security Essentials. System benchmarks are the same with and without the program installed. This is in stark contrast to Norton Internet Security 2010 which slowed my machine by about 4 percent to begin with, then progressively worsened to the point where it became unusable after ten hours operation.

Microsoft's program took seconds to download, then another five minutes or so to go back and fetch the necessary anti-malware signatures. I'm running Windows 7 beta and am completely up-to-date which meant things went smoothly for me. The Security Essentials installer will insist you download and install all the Windows updates before the application installs.

Scanning goes on for ever

I immediately ran a full system scan and quickly regretted the decision. Scanning isn't fast. The software warns users scans may take some time, but my first scan was still running some six hours after first installing the software. I started another scan before writing this piece and one hour, 15 minutes later the software has only scanned 76,000 items. The indicator bar is only 5 percent of the way across the screen.

It is possible to scan attached drives with the software, but there aren't enough hours in the day to test this.

To date Security Essentials hasn't found anything untoward on this computer. To check the software's effectiveness, I scanned my machine with Panda Cloud Antivirus and Avast. Neither found anything. Nor did Norton Internet Security 2010 find anything before being removed.

Google-like interface

Microsoft clearly learnt a thing or two competing with Google in recent years. The user interface on Security Essentials is minimalist. It uses bright red to show problems and is green while everything is safe. There are hardly any controls – compare this to the user interface on Norton Internet Security 2010 which is like the flight deck of the Star Ship Enterprise. The good news is there are few things to tinker with and break. I didn't notice anything needing changes.

When a threat appears online, the real-time protection mode kicks-in and displays a message in a pop-up window. This appears in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. You can dismiss it with a click or get more information. A lot more information than you'll ever need.

Evil empire

You can't argue with Microsoft's price for Security Essentials. It is free. In fact it looks as if it was part of the operating system from the outset. And it may have been. But Microsoft doesn't include it as standard with Windows 7 because of anti-trust considerations. There are people who are wary of using security software from Microsoft – some argue security problems only exist because of flaws in the company's operating systems. Maybe. But the Macintosh is no longer immune.

Competitors

Norton's paid-for security products are far more advanced than Microsoft Security Essentials – but the name makes that clear. This software does about 90 percent of the job of protecting your computer from attack. If you run a home system, take security seriously, run a hardware firewall and keep all you applications and systems software up to date, Security Essentials should protect you from all but the most serious attacks.

Microsoft Security Essentials is not suitable for business users and not the best choice if your home set-up is, well, let's say anarchic. Paid for products may give you better piece of mind.

Microsoft scrubs up well against the free competitors, but without extensive testing I'd rate Avast ahead of Security Essentials, there's also a solid free program from AVG we run on some of our home machines. We experienced some problems with these at the Bennett household as the free versions are difficult to find among the paid-for alternatives at these two sites.

Another alternative is the excellent Panda Cloud Antivirus – one of the best kept secrets in the security business and neither nags nor hides behind a paid alternative. You can read more about Panda and Avast in Alternatives to Norton Internet Security.

Pluses:

• free
• downloads and installs in minutes
• works straight away
• simple, unobtrusive
• easy to understand
• no performance hit

Minuses:

• slow scanning
• relatively untried
• doesn't offer the best protection

Overall:

A basic security product from a big name at an unrivalled price. Get this if you have no budget and are not confident dealing with other free security applications.

Norton Internet Security has been my main PC protection in recent years. I've a few minor criticisms, but for the most part it has done a good job guarding my desktop, laptop and my wife's laptop. The computers run Windows XP and Vista.

One problem worth mentioning is PC performance drops a few percent while the program is running – which is all the time. A small performance hit really doesn't matter when I'm surfing the web or using Microsoft Word. It is noticeable when there's heavy-duty video, audio or Photoshop processing.

Earlier this year I switched from Microsoft Windows Vista to Windows 7 RC. The new operating system performs better than Vista on my machine. It appears stable enough to for everyday use. It is everything Windows Vista was not, but it doesn’t work with some popular anti-virus packages.

Beta problems with Norton

My copy of Symantec Norton Internet Security didn’t work with Windows 7. So I tried a beta version of an updated version for the new operation system.

I promptly ran into major problems with the beta version of Symantec Norton Internet Security 2010. There are great features, but the performance overhead is huge.

It’s also flaky around the edges. Of course, the software is beta and Symantec made no promises about performance. But the system crashed two or three times a day.

There were also installation problems. Sadly this isn’t a one-off pain, the software repeatedly timed out. Each time this happens you need to download and install a new version. In fact there were times – many times when the older version timed out before a new build was ready and the PC was left vulnerable for days at a time.

The beta appears to be the only version of Norton Internet Security that runs properly on Windows 7, so I needed to find an alternative security package. For details read the next story:
Alternatives to Norton Internet Security