Better?

@NicCrockett I'm sorry in time you need to upgrade to Win 10! XP, Vista and Win 7 will be support less next year so it's time to move on and up in the OS department IMO. I loved XP and hated Vista and loved Win 7 but didn't care for Win 8 or 8.1 but been using Win 10 since it came out and even the older builds of Win 10 will not have support: https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/13853
@TripleHelix, I wouldn't blame Webroot for a failure on Windows XP, I realize it's outdated. This was 3 Windows Server 2012 R2 endpoints and 2 Windows 7 SP1 endpoints. These are up-to-date Microsoft supported operating systems and Webroot's software doesn't work as advertised. There is no excuse why this and other functions shouldn't work on these systems.
I'm just saying I can't see Webroot supporting older OS's indefinitely and the time will come and they will drop support for XP and some other older OS's.

Windows Server 2012 and others: https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/lifecycle/search/1163

Thanks for understanding @TripleHelix. Just curious, do you always like your own posts?
Sure for now as i don't like this new Community Software.........it's like tying one hand behind your back but that's a story for another time as I have been on here for 7 years! 😱

I'm just saying I can't see Webroot supporting older OS's indefinitely and the time will come and they will drop support for XP and some other older OS's.

@TripleHelix I agree with you completely and if I could upgrade my entire infrastructure right now I would. However, I don't have a budget for that and even if I did, as a manufacturing facility we are beholden to the technology that our vendors use on their machinery. Some of them refuse to use the latest because they test their software on what they consider to be stable operating systems. Most of these are still using Windows XP. It sickens me, but my hands are tied. Even if I had a budget to replace everything and it was possible to get up-to-date systems, I'd be looking at a minimum of a 5 mil investment. This doesn't mean everything here is out of date, after all I'm writing this on a Windows 10 PC. However, my points still stand. Webroot hasn't worked properly on any system I've ever put it on, including this one. I've never used a piece of software with more bugs. I have had worse support, but Webroots hasn't been especially great. Although, I will give the support rep I'm currently working with props, but unfortunately he's been the exception. The only reason we're still here is because of the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 support. The price doesn't hurt either, but I guess you get what you pay for.

Understandable.

You definitely have more time than me. 😂

@Muddy7,

The issue of Webroot not cleaning up dump files, logs, and other files on an uninstall has all happened in the last few months for me. As you said, this is a long running issue, and I've seen dump files going back multiple years. However, it's a problem that still exists based on what I've seen in just the last two months. Some of endpoints are old and the C drive is only 10 GB in size. If it has a little over 1 GB in dump files from Webroot and everything else is running, I have 1-2 GB of free space on the drive. This isn't a good situation for the server to run effectively and yes I need to replace it, but that's not an option at this point. This means I need the software running on it, to run as efficiently as possible.

Just to clarify, I'm not looking for perfection. I just want the software to work as advertised and run with as few issues as possible. This hasn't been my experience with Webroot.

I should also clarify, I'm not using Webroot as an MSP. We are a business that uses Webroot's Business product across our infrastructure to manage our endpoints. So, it's just me managing one company.

Sorry for the confusion on the let's say "malicious file". Webroot found it on a random daily scan and declared it as "malicious". All it was, was an executable for a program the user had in their My Documents folder. The user wasn't using the executable because they installed the program previously. The file was just sitting in the folder from when they downloaded and installed it. It was a legitimate program, not a "malicious file", so Webroot caught it as a false positive. The real questions are:

• Why wasn't it caught during download?
• Why wasn't it caught when the user ran the executable to install the program?
• Why did it find it on a random daily scan when it wasn't being used?

Webroot was installed on the PC during all of these events. When I viewed the report on the "malicious file", it said it was aware that the file was malicious before the user downloaded it. I know this because Webroot tells you when it was "Determined Bad". This date was before the user downloaded the file. I also know how long it was on the PC before it was found because Webroot tells you the "Dwell Time", i.e. the the length of time the file was on the PC. I also use Spiceworks, and it confirmed when the program was installed. Again, Webroot said it was "malicious", but this was a false positive. I hope this clarifies and doesn't confuse you further.

We have a saying at our company. If you want to break your software or hardware and find where problems are that need to be fixed, send it to us. Granted, this means you also have to want to improve your software and hardware. However, we are known for breaking the mold and helping companies in our industry improve the capabilities of their offerings. Given that I shouldn't be too harsh on Webroot. We are a one of a kind company that has a unique infrastructure.

Sincerely,
@NicCrockett

You definitely have more time than me. 😂
Time flies when you're having fun. 🤣

Thanks, Nic.

I'm far clearer now.

So:
Regarding the "malicious" (Webroot FP) file:

• It doesn't particularly bother me it wasn't caught during download
• It doesn't particularly bother me that Webroot didn't find it on the daily scans

Why is this? Because I know that Webroot is not so much the champion at finding malicious files on your system as the champion of blocking malicious behaviour. And I know that when Webroot scans your system, it is not looking everywhere but rather in the places where malicious files are known to launch from.

But (and given what I've just said):

• I am more concerned that it did not catch the executable when run

However I am just a humble user, and it would be much more interesting if a Webroot engineer were to chip in here. Their speculations might be able to throw a lot more light on what might or might not have been going on.

And so (and thanks for having the amazing patience to explain things right through to the end ☺️) I would still maintain my view that, notwithstanding Webroot's admitted weaknesses (some of which, regarding the Business Console, you've made me aware of for the first time), it is very good at keeping a user's machine clean of malware infections. That view, of course, may be subject to change given any future information I might become aware of.

You're not likely to get a lot of answers to a question like this but in the simplest response possible: it's better because it has less impact on your system's resources. It also scans incredibly fast so you're not going to have to scan at times when you're not planning to use the computer. But is it truly "better" than other AV's? According to AV-Comparatives and AV-Test there are many "very good" AV's on the market today. Unfortunately Webroot generally does not lend itself to testing by these labs. However, Neil Rubenking from PCMag has rated it one of the best AV's and Security suites. But again... is it better than all the rest? The truth is: there is NO best anything (no best AV, no best Security suite, no best shaver, no best computer, no best car...). Anything made by man has trade-offs and glitches and so does WRS (i.e. currently its password manager is broken and has been so for months now). But I like it and have found that it works for me. And many others would agree. Plus, it is gratifying, at least to me, that it happens to be an American company.

Cool. But I'm sure the American company has added quite a bit to the original otherwise, why did the original sell out if they were so popular and successful? I'll stick with what I said before and that is simply that there is nothing that is best including Prevx, Webroot, Avast etc etc etc. Some are "better" for a time and then they fail for one reason or another. Currently WR is failing miserably in their password management but hopefully that will soon be fixed...hopefully.

In my experience, users tend to disable features or whitelist too much on products such as AVG/McAfee/Symantec leaving them less protected than if they had chosen a lightweight product (such as Webroot) that may not need as much adjustment to begin with.

Yep, I've been using it since the Prevx days too and it's never let me down yet on the Security side
Likewise for me (and dramatically so by comparison to my previous experiences; also, with reference to the second to last post, personally I've never disabled any protection feature on AVs I've used—at least, as far as I remember).

Nic however (previous poster) has had a somewhat different experience. I'd like to have gotten to the bottom of it (I've always been interested in those who, in real-life use, have had not so positive an experience of Prevx/Webroot) but I clearly sensed he wanted to put his experience behind him.

@NicCrockett

Interesting.

I see Forum members here raving about Webroot's Support. I've always assumed this must therefore be true for the way Support deals with infections (as I say in an above post, I've never yet had to deal with an infection since moving over to Prevx/Webroot) as my own experience in general with Webroot's Support is a bit underwhelming ☹️. However, maybe my expectations are too high as my benchmark has always been Prevx's quite breathtaking level of Support they used to have.

What surprises me, however, is that you find Webroot so buggy. My experience is completely the opposite. I would have assumed that this was most likely due to the difference between the Business and the Home Versions, but then again if that is so why is this problem not mentioned in the Spiceworks Customer Reviews which are so overwhelmingly positive?

Btw I never got to the bottom of the incident regarding the malicious file that remained in the My Documents folder of one of your client's devices, device which was protected by Webroot, for over a year (this is what I was referring to in my previous post above). You said s/he downloaded the file OK and then even executed it. My queston is this: did it ever to your knowledge make malicious changes to and/or compromise her/his device? I ask this because Webroot is known, by comparison to other AVs, to shine as an extremely effective behaviour blocker while not always being a perfect malware file detector (sometimes waiting until the first device in its worldwide userbase encounters the first malicious action by that file—but then acting instantaneously).

Finally, because of my personal experience (though I'm always listening to others who use or have used Webroot—so far most of those who are prepared to share their experiences seem to have similar experiences to mine—you are certainly one exception to this rule) I, in contrast to you, am loyal to Webroot because of my experience up until now regarding its superb protection of all my devices, and rather less loyal when it comes to its bells and whistles (Backup & Sync, Password Manager, System Analyzer, Personal Security Report and anything else I might have forgotten to mention).