Eternal Vigilance and Essential Security Tips - Comments Page 1

if chrome lists suggestions, wouldn't those kind of people just copy them, when hacking!!!

Forgive me for being skeptical about using PC Matic. Lukewarm reviews aside, I'm hesitant to give it a shot after my debacle with I-Drive, which you used to wholeheartedly recommend.
Strangely enough, I've not seen it mentioned on your site in awhile, leading me to believe your relationship with them has possibly soured.
I had my own bad experience with them, including tech support, and although I ditched them over a year ago, I still get "Scheduled backup email notification" emails from them regularly, which I've had to put in spam for a year now, but still, they keep coming despite my no linger being affiliated with their product.
Unsubscribe? I've tried to no avail. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
So even though PC Matic may be a decent security choice now after years of mediocrity, I remain unconvinced because I've already been burnt once.
Other than that, I've learned many things by your articles, but my mistake with I-Drive was an expensive one.

I've run the "Check for harmful software" twice and each time get this error message, "Search failed: An error occurred while Chrome was searching for harmful software."

Anyone have any thoughts as to why the search is failing? Thanks!

One of the best and useful articles I have yet seen.

Thanks Bob!

Wendyl, I got the same message that you did. It also took about 20 minutes to get the message.

To "Rocky Balboa"

We use throwaway email addresses, a different one for all business relationships, and if we find that relationship has soured and or we cannot get unsubscribed from a mailing it is a simple click of the mouse to delete the throwaway address that was made for that particular entity.

As far as I know throwaway addresses are widely available with ISP's.

BOB ....
have you changed your advice about letting browsers save your passwords, or is it just Google Chrome you make the recommendation for and now trust?

I am just not able to wrap my head around your comment about "If you don't trust Google to securely store your passwords, there's a sale this week on sticky notes at Office Depot."
Benefit of the doubt goes to the comment made in jest (even if lacking the obligatory exclamation point).
Otherwise, this comment is right up there with the phrase "you're either with us, or against us"...

@Rocky,
I had the same problem with IDrive "Scheduled backup email notification" emails after I canceled. IDrive tech support suggested I uninstall their program completely from my machine, which I did with Revo Uninstall. They were right - those emails stopped.

@Wendyl, @Steven - You'll need to check the settings (and possibly clean) three sections of Chrome: the 'New Tab' settings (under 'Appearance'), the 'Default' and 'Other' search engines (under 'Manage search engines'), and the 'On start-up' (start) page.
Ironically, you can google how to do those.

I have used PC Matic evergreen since day one and have no issues! (I have several Winxp and Win7 machines) This kind of reminds me of a lot of Amazon reviews - 50% love a product and 50% hate it! LOL

Rocky Balboa, you're not the only one who had issues with IDrive. "Regular" backups "occurred" but no backup was actually performed. I assumed IDrive was backing up my files as it whirred. When I had to re-install my Windows OS in early 2018, I was shattered to discover that my IDrive files stopped in mid-September **2017**. Thankfully, my other b/u device was "right there for me." Boo on IDrive.

I too had a difficult time with iDrive and was appalled to learn that what I thought had been backed up hadn't been. One of the most disappointing purchases ever.

Bob, I tried turning on "periodic scanning" with Windows Defender, and Norton popped up a warning to turn it off. When did your recommendation to not use more than one virus scanner change?

Just waiting for the headline:
"passwords.google.com has been hacked!"

Rocky,
I've had a less than stellar experience with both,
I-drive and PC Matic as well.

I tried chrome://settings/cleanup on the Chrome browser on my Chromebook. (It needs help.) Nothing. Searching in Advanced Settings got No Result. I finally found, in Chrome Help, an article on Chrome Cleanup Tool. Right after the name, it said Windows only. So...

It seems PC Matic Scamware pays more for advertising.

When a person tells us that they use PC Matic on all their XP and Win 7 machines, I do not consider that a sparkling endorsement.

"@Wendyl, @Steven - You'll need to check the settings (and possibly clean) three sections of Chrome: the 'New Tab' settings (under 'Appearance'), the 'Default' and 'Other' search engines (under 'Manage search engines'), and the 'On start-up' (start) page.
Ironically, you can google how to do those."

Sirpaul2: I'm not sure what you mean by "cleaning these sections" (maybe "use default settings"?), but I checked my settings and here they are:

1. Under Appearance, Show Home Button is checked and is set to Google News

2. Default Search Engine is set to DuckDuckGo

3. On Startup is set to "Continue where you left off"

Are you saying that these custom settings are preventing the "Find Harmful Software" process?