What About BiDefender Online Scanner? http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ It found a lot of garbage that Counterspy, NOD32 and Symantec online antivirus scanner did not detect...
Well I've just posted a cleanup procedure that also includes security recommendations here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115313&perpage=6&pagenumber=5 I have served many hundreds of home and small office customers in recent years, many of whom have had a crash. I now have 7 (seven) computers running all the time, with no big problems for years in my own household. Basically, you need to get rid of Norton or Mcafee, turn off background program 'helpers' and use the free AVG along with weekly Spybot Search and destroy runs as well as another such as Adaware. For those who are just a bit careful what they click on, the built in windows firewall, in combination with a router, is adequate for most users and as I said in the other post, despite what geeks will scare you about, the bigger threat (customers have called me out just for this) to a non-tech person is a wrong setting on zonealarm or other bell/whistle firewalls.
AVG is malware itself. After one of updates it made my PC unbootable. Switched to Kasperky, so far so good.
In regards to prevention and clean-up, I have some info on-line at: http://www.hingefire.com/spyware_advice.htm This summary was put together by our security test team at a major networking vendor about two years ago. Since that time Vista has arrived and inflicted a new level of pain in the market. - Greg
SpywareBlaster 3.5.1 Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software! Tiny little program,does not have to remain running in the background. http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html I use it for years. It can update itself or do it manually from time to time. Free. Oh, and Kaspersky rocks.
I've been using AVG, AdAware, and Spybot for yrs, no problems, no issues. Never had any problems w/my system as far as viruses, malware, etc. Harold
The solution for trading is a PC behind a whitelisting SPI hardware firewall, the solution for surfing is a MAC... once you realize that fully, the only question is which MAC
You don't need a mac to safely surf. I use a PC and as I said, using those simple, free programs, I haven't had any problems in years. Can't remember the last time I had a virus. H
I used all kinds of free stuff and the first time I ran Prio I found that I was connected to two notorious hacker sites and I had Zone Alarm running. The first time I ran a rootkit finder [it only found them, did not remove them] I discovered all sorts of junk but the second time I ran it they did not show up, they were capable of detecting the rootkit finder software and hiding!! The simple truth is, with windows you will never know what problems you have, it is, by design, hackable. Unix and Mac OS's are by design a lot less hackable. Pick a free software firewall/anti virus name and research it well enough, you will find malware that it does not work against........ I've been repairing, programming and using computers since 1974 and to me, a windoz machine that is not behind a whitelisting SPI firewall is unacceptable and overdue for a rebuild from the ground up with a complete reformat. Leo LaPorte says pretty much the same thing.