Computer WAS running slow as hell... free online programs are the "bizzness"
 

The wife somehow managed to infect the shit out of our computer while I was gone, and I looked at all the latest Norton/Mcafee crap... $100, fuck that. I'd used free online anti-Virus shit before, but checked out CNET to see what their recommendations were. Here's what I downloaded.

Super Anti-Spyware Free Edition
Avast Anti-Virus
Free RAMXP Pro
Advanced System Care Free
*add* Malwarebytes

You wouldn't believe the amount of shit these things uncovered. The Anti-Virus found 4 fucking trojans, and the System Care found 2300 things to correct in the registry. There were more too. My computer is running like greased lightning now. All these programs work in the background with minimal memory and just do their thing. I've got the security setting in Explorer on "medium" and the Windows Firewall "on". Any downsides to using this free shit... I set all of them to "auto-update" and I'm pretty good about being a lemming and installing updates when the little icons in the lower right of the desktop tell me to for all my programs.

now run malwarebytes.

^ This... They use that program here at work when a virus gets through Norton.

^Downloaded and performed QUICK Scan. It found 7 more things from a nasty adware program called Gamevance in the registry, plus a trojan in the registry, and another trojan in "program files". Nice recomendation. I'm going to run the Full Scan when I leave for lunch.

Super anti spyware, malwarebytes, and avg free will remove pretty much everything I have ever run into. Just install, turn off system recovery, and reboot into safe mode (see navy commercial for instructions on how to do that).

My wife picked up a nasty virus a few days ago on her lap top. AVG free took quick care of that.
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How does malwarebytes stack up the something like Adaware?

Tell em to lay off the porn :giggle:

qfmft, especially the safe mode part :D

Lots of wives grinding one out while the men are away. :laugh:

Frank

Avast and System Care are fantastic. Been using them for years. I'll now be looking at the other stuff suggested here like malwarebytes.

Hope the tour went well Sam! Good to have you back.

Its better, adaware dropped the ball years ago when spyware began becoming synonymous with viruses. New spyware/viruses can stop software made to remove it from running, and can reinstall itself by burying itself like a rootkit. Adaware is no longer relevant IMO.

Ugh...please don't turn this into some gay linux V others thing. I cant install Steam or play BC2 in linux, so eat my shorts.

Hehe, don't worry, I'm not one of *those* types. Linux sucks ass for gaming. Plain and simple. But for surfing the web and most basic computing virus free? WIN.

I'll have to try it then. I've been using Adaware since way back in the day, haven't really looked into that kind of software. I rarely get much junk on my computer because I keep my security settings pretty tight. I bet there are a lot of registry errors though. I'll try it when I get home.

Plus, I like a good fresh install every now and then. Every 2 years at LEAST.

This old ass laptop could use a freshening. It's embarrassingly slow..

Thanks for the thread Sam, I'm going to try this when I get home tonight.

I'm gonna try it as well when I get home, I'm an idiot when it comes to comes to computers.

I too use Malwarebytes and AVGFree. I also run Zonealarm instead of Windows Firewall. Doesn't stop everything, but still better than the standard Windows Firewall, and it's free also. The two best things it does is close down unused ports, and allow you to explicitly specify allowed/disallowed programs (as long as it's running).

The absolute best security system, however, is a conservative mouse-clicking finger.

I will add to this...I work on a lot of pc's on the side and the main thing I see is norton (expired) and programs like bearshare etc. Lately I have seen a lot of pop ups for fake antivirus programs which usually means trojans and virus.

AVG+Malwarebytes for security.
ccleaner and auslogics disk defragmenter for clean/speed.

Here is a link to get you to a lot of good programs 61 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For - Thanksgiving - Lifehacker