My Turbo PC

     I received a pop-up for this product the other day so decided to investigate it. What I discovered leads me to believe installing it on my laptop may not be a good idea. My Turbo PC is a download product that is supposed to eliminate viruses, spyware and optimize, clean & repair your Windows PC which they claim will help your computer run smoothly. They also offer tech support at a rate of $199 per hour. The simple truth is there is no way this product can repair a computer in any way that any other antivirus software can.

     Further, there have been complaints about them to the Better Business Bureau that they have ignored. As a result the BBB has not accredited them.

     Customers have contacted the company by e-mail, but the e-mails have gone unanswered. There have been issues with obtaining the license key. 3 1/2 hour online waits for tech support have been reported. One customer complained that they were charged $10 for "support" without advance notification nor were they given the $10 discount that is advertised on their website.

     One complaint states that the consumer ordered the program to clean up and speed up her computer and downloaded the program, but it did not work. She e-mailed the company and the company told her the program takes 15 days to take effect. She waited the 15 days and found that the program was not effective. She contacted the business again, who told her to wait 15 days. She finally became frustrated and indicated she was going to contact BBB. No response.

     If you want to clean up your computer CC Cleaner is free and it is endorsed by PC World. CC Cleaner clears out temporary files, cleans the Windows Registry, erases browser histories, etc. CCleaner also intelligently scans for cookies you want to keep, like Google and Yahoo. While it is free you can purchase a priority-support license for $25. Only one warning...it includes the option to install Google Chrome and make it your default browser so you have to uncheck two boxes if you don't want this to happen.

     For anti-virus, my personal choice is Webroot which is the anti-virus of choice of Best Buy. Also, if you need tech support, Best Buy's Geek Squad has, in my experience, been a good deal. Once when I picked up a virus and a few times when I have had some minor technical problems that I didn't know how to deal with I found their online tech support to be very efficient.

     For free anti-virus, the best I have found has been AVG. It's what I use on an old and rarely used desktop that serves mostly as a "backup" computer.