Virus Protection for Chromebook

I've recently purchased a Chromebook, and it's taken me quite a bit of time to get used to the changes in the operating system, much less the file system. Still, I do have a couple of questions that I hope someone can answer for me, particularly regarding installing virus protection on a Chromebook.

For a general computer, I know that I could simply buy and download the software or load the software from an optical drive. Neither of these options seem viable with my HP Chromebook which has a different file system and doesn't have an optical drive.

What about chromebooks, where everything seems to be installed as add-on apps?

Is virus protection installed as an app? And, does it still give across the board protection or will I need to add on apps for each task, i.e. scanning for viruses, running a firewall, etc?

 

WELCOME TO THE LAPTOP-FORUMS

A little light reading for you


https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chromebook-central/jiOFs1OmCJo

 

The phrase 'light reading' is a bit scary, but I'll check it out right away.

Thank you.

 

Thank you so much, I think I understand: Virus protection is almost a non-issue because the Chrome operating system is a closed system, unless you're using another system that interacts with the Chrome OS, like Linux?

So this begs a question for me, and I can post it elsewhere or to another thread if it would be better, but...

I'm studying Python and R, which both have IDEs. Is there a chance that I could accidentally 'open' the closed OS using the programming IDEs?

 

My daughter just bought a Chrome book, so this thread pipes interest in me. Upon clicking the link, I couldn't find anything about installing a virus protection software. She isn't downloading anything like music, games or videos, so I think she is ok for now; still, it would be better if she is protected. Will have to look into this.

 

It would seems that you need to ONLY CLEAR THE BROWSER SETTINGS
go to Menu, THEN Settings, Show advanced settings, Reset browser settings

 

Well I've used Microsoft's Security Essentials on my netbook borrow from the library and it works & is free. It's also anti spyware too. Free download and so quick to uninstall if you don't want it.

 

You should never trust the inbuilt virus protection.Find a good program and install in your device. If you cannot pay for the premium version, you can also use free version. I have used free version for years and it worked. You must regularly update your antivirus for maximum protection.

 

I think that you are a tad confused, since you can't install programs on your Chromebook so you are never going to be able to install an antivirus. Chromebook are basically very restricted Linux machines, so, on top of what is an already almost virus free environment you can only install apps that go trough a selection process to be able to reach the Chrome store to make sure that they won't go rouge on you.

Don't worry about any anti virus software, you are safe.