Does my mac need virus protection?

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Level 1

0 points

Does my mac need virus protection?

I have had my iMac for over two years and have never done any maintenance or run any virus protection. Lately it has been running slowly while online. I am getting the swirling circle often, especially while playing games through facebook. Also safari will unexpectedly quit. Do I need to have virus protection? Do I need to run a maintenance program or clean up? I have plenty of disc space left. I do all of the software updates. I don't seem to be having any problems while working offline. We have Verizon Fios and recently updated our speed, but it seems to be even slower.

This is what I have: Processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 running Mac OS X 10.5.8

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 23, 2012 12:13 PM

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Answer 1

fotofill

Level 1

4 points

Jan 23, 2012 12:28 PM in response to artistmom

To repair permissions, which will probably help a lot...

Applications-> Utilities -> Disk Utility -> select your hard drive name Repair Disk Permissions You might want to do this procedure weekly.

I just got my first virus EVER. ClamXav is a free program to check for viruses.

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Answer 2

artistmom Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 23, 2012 12:49 PM in response to fotofill

Thanks, I will try that!

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Answer 3

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,221 points

Jan 23, 2012 3:47 PM in response to fotofill

fotofill wrote:

To repair permissions, which will probably help a lot...

Applications-> Utilities -> Disk Utility -> select your hard drive name Repair Disk Permissions You might want to do this procedure weekly.

That would be overkill. In earlier versions of Mac OS X, permissions did appear to become correupted quite easily, but no more. Yes, repairing permissions can fix problems once in a while, but it's not something to waste your time doing weekly if there are no symptoms. See Randy Singer's Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance on this subject.

I just got my first virus EVER. ClamXav is a free program to check for viruses.

ClamXav will not find any viruses on your Mac unless they are for Windows or Unix platforms as there are none that we know about. There is malware for the Mac which can affect it if you allow it to by installing it. What was the name of this "virus"?

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,184 points

Jan 23, 2012 3:55 PM in response to artistmom

Because there are no viruses for OS X ClamXav will not find anything. So while that app is OK it's a waste of time. However your slowdown can be caused by many many different factors. This is a common thread we see with users, they're system has slowed down over time. Unfortunately there isn't one single pat answer as to why this is occurring. Performance slowdowns can be caused by multiple factors. However a common issue is insufficient RAM which can be cured by upgrading your RAM. Where I'd start though is reading 25 Ways to Speed Up Your Mac and go through each item until you find the cause or causes of your slowdown. Another useful tool is Slow Mac Fixes .

Good luck and let us know what you find.

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