Yes, Virginia, You Need a Whitelist - Comments Page 1

The only question I have about PC Matic is it uses the cloud but does not say how.

Is my information from my computer stored in their cloud, or does it even go there temporarily ever?

I've been using Emsisoft for many years. It costs only 29.95 a year. It has excellent support. If I have a problem or it has any problems I always get a prompt reply. I see no reason to change, even though I do use one of pcmatics products; namely pc optimize 3.

You should have titled this article "PC Matic Ad" and avoid fooling your readers into thinking they are going to view a new article about what is best for Virginia.

I've used PC Matic for several years now. It has snared about half a dozen bugs I have remained problem free. It also keeps my machine tuned up and cleaned up of the junk that accumulates from use just like the old PC Tools did. I have a lifetime 5 seat license, that's how sold I am on it.

Mike, it's a recommendation, not a command. Ignore it if you want, but do you then ignore every other product review as an ad? My SIL (MCSE, Redhat partner, runs several server farms, geek x 100) has used it for several years, and recommends it highly. I'm getting a lifetime subscription. YMMV, so enjoy.

@ Mike
I think you miss the point. Here is an expert telling his readers what his experiences are with AV programs. White listing is the ONLY effective answer to malware, so much so that blacklisting approaches should be labelled as a con. There is not a blacklisting app on the market that won't be breached sooner or later.

What would you rather have on the door to your venue? A person checking everyone has a ticket to enter, or a person checking faces to catch someone who looks like they don't have a ticket?

VoodooShield (https://voodooshield.com/) is "entirely US-based" and is a great whitelist antivirus that I have been using for many years. It is also FREE for home use. They do have a paid version that gives you more bells and whistles, but the FREE version has been completely satisfactory for me.

David & Brian: I certainly did not dispute the value of PC Matic, but only the manner in which it was presented. Bob does not require your defense to be effective.

I've been following Bob for a long time now, and PC Matic is one of his sponsors, and hence he has been pushing PC Matic for years now in order to get paid. I don't blame him.
So Mike is correct, this is just a long advertisement under the guise of an article for a sponsor.
I know one thing, PC Matic is definitely not for me, thank you.

While I have no problem with Bob telling us about PC Matic and how good he believes it is, I do agree with Mike that the title and lead-in to this item leaves something to be desired. While I'm not so sure that I'd go so far as to call it an advertisement, the fact that Bob was not as out-front as he usually is when telling us about the software he uses, helps me to understand why Mike responded as he did.

I do not use PC Matic yet, although I may give it a try at some point in the future. I use the default Windows 11 security suit (Windows Defender, Smart Screen, et-al and BitLocker) to protect my computers here. I accompany what Microsoft provides with a healthy dose of skepticism about anything I see on the Internet, as well as a lot of caution about clicking links (even to sites I am familiar with).

You see, I am of the opinion that the greatest security threat to any computer is the user. For example, most users see an advertisement for something that interests them at some web site, so they click the link without a thought. They don't take a moment to check where the link is actually taking them, they just click. I don't do that. When I see something with a link that I want to investigate, If I am familiar with the site, I open my web browser, enter the site's address, and go look for what I saw that interested me. If I'm not familiar with the linked site, I do a web search on the site's name or URI to see what I can learn about it. Most of the time, I simply avoid unknown or unfamiliar sites entirely.

Another example: When I saw the link for this item in my Ask Bob email, I copied the link to a notepad window so I could make sure it was genuine. This is it:

https://askbobrankin.com/yes_virginia_you_need_a_whitelist.html?awt_a=6HSL&awt_l=IEzKM&awt_m=J8rB9Hqdk8P6SL

I removed the extraneous part (?awt_a=6HSL&awt_l=IEzKM&awt_m=J8rB9Hqdk8P6SL) and used the useful part (https://askbobrankin.com/yes_virginia_you_need_a_whitelist.html) to get here. I know that this is a bit of extra bother, but I keep a notepad window open most of the time for such purposes, and it took me only a few seconds to see the link address, and I was then able to know it was safe.

When I'm in my Linux distribution (I dual-boot KDE Neon with Windows 11), I do the same thing regarding web links. I have the firewall that comes with that distribution activated, and I open a Kedit (the KDE editor) window for the same purpose.

The bottom line is this, I want to know where a link is taking me before I decide to go there.

I have been using the internet regularly since my Windows 95 days, and I have never had any issues with malware, although I did get a virus from a file I downloaded from a BBS site before the internet became the World Wide Web, but that was in my MS-DOS days before I learned anything about malware or antivirus programs.

I hope this helps anyone who takes the time to read it,

Ernie

Thank you Bob for another informative article. I really appreciate the detailed information and descriptions between whitelisting and blacklisting, the reviews of software products, the comparisons between products out there, and so much more valuable information. A lot of the information has really helped me to remain vigilant against the scammers, hackers, hucksters, cyber-criminals, and other miscreants out there. We appreciate your service!

Is PC Matic compatible with Norton 360, or will one of the programs complain that I need to uninstall the other?

Would surely have been wise & helpful to name free whitelist sites/programs broadly the equivalent of PCmatic.
I like the white list concept but have no clear idea about how to implement it. Suspect many others might be in the same boat?

I hesitated for a few years running McAfee. What a mess that was and finally pulled the trigger and went with PcMatic. I will never look back, I don't even have to think about computer security now. Of course I don't open strange emails.

I have been running PC Matic for 2 or 3 years and I click on just about anything. Yes it has blocked a few but when it happens I just chuckle.

My computer days goes back to Windows 3.0 and I have used every anti virus out there. I will never go back to any of the others.

I tried PC Matic and had a very bad experience with it. It is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to add a program to the whitelist.
I couldn't do it.
PC Matic support was non-existant.
Oh, yeah. They explained how but I didn't have a PhD in kiddy-script!
I will never use it again!

I have been using PC Matic for 20 years (?) maybe more, I don't remember. I never had a problem with it, I have never been infected, and the first time I used it, it dramatically improved the performance of my old unit. I really do not consider the column an ad; Bob was giving his advice on how to keep your computer clean and a means to do it.

My question is, what happens if a "white" listed prog runs that is compromised by some black hat crud.??

allowlist

&

denylist

@ David Lagesse I don't know about Nortons coexistence with PC Matic, but Malwarebytes plays together OK, so there must be some sort of acceptability with PC Matic. With Supershield it's a different story. Upon installation, it warns that ANY other AV app must be uninstalled. So if you want to run another AV app on a demand basis, it will need to be either an online scan, or one from a USB drive.