Sweet, I kinda messed up the new Compaq EVO the same guy gave me... (and he gave me a 500 GB hardrive! that is 480 GBs more than the other one!
And it is so quiet. :D
and I got it working again! Now I have a Windows XP again... and I promise to not go online with it... I know people who have XPs... there is no such thing as virus protection for them. (Unless you are a school, then you have some.)
So, first things first, time to get help with that code.
You know that there are quite good free anti-virus solutions - with a decent Anti-virus (even free) your computer should be sufficiently protected! However, without one.. I wouldn't even go online with Windows 7, Windows Defender is useless!
I think I will get Avast if I can. Any others you know about?
Glad to hear you have Windows again, Benny!
avast!, Avira, or AVG are all free AV's I know of. Can't tell you what I'd recommend, as I don't use any of them (used to use avast! a couple of years ago and it was good for the most part).
I'd check this out first though: Surun (http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/surun.html) ("Sudo" like application for Windows). You could use this along with Noscript on Firefox (to avoid scripts downloading malware) for some decent protection. I used this on my Windows partition for a while, though I barely used it (so I'm not sure if it would have done well if it was used day-to-day). The nice thing is though, Surun prevents stuff from being run with administrative privileges unless you tell it to, so in a sense, malware could only harm your personal files.
Just a note: I don't use Windows hardly at all anymore, so you should probably ask the more experienced Windows users for some different opinions. The main reason why I didn't install an AV was due to limited disk space.
I have AVG, it's pretty good, but I can't compare it to any of the others.
Thanks doomkaiber!
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Thanks for the info, and I do know some Windows experts.
If you have a genuine copy of Windows, you should be able to download Microsoft Security Essentials for free. It's their anti-virus, straight from the horse's mouth.
Other than that, Avast and AVG are others that I usually hear.
If you don't mind paying, we use Trend Micro at work, and I hear good things about NOD32, but McAfee and Norton suck. They try to dig their hooks too deeply into the OS...literally. It's very rude and in my experience is nothing but trouble.
To get rid of malware, there's a whole suite of apps you'll need to run. malwarebytes, spybot, adaware, and I'm sure there are others.
Pretty much your best bet is to use Chrome for browsing; it appears to be the most difficult to exploit. Or Firefox with Noscript and adblock; many a virus is downloaded unknowingly through poisoned flash banner ad's that got served to otherwise legitimate websites. In fact, if you can avoid installing Flash at all, you're probably better off...
No problem Benny!
Personally I have Avira - probably because they advertised it in Germany and I got a free umbrella by them (the umbrella is their icon: flap it open and it protects you from rain and you won't get a cold ;) ). But yeah, admittedly, I got it very long ago and never switched because it does the job.. I also survived the typical problematic times (Sasser and such). At work McAfee is used, however well.. it seems to really dig into the system. While I do not care for that crap at work (while I am administrator and developer for my area - in a company of 200,000 employees I am still in a low position as admin - and someone up there decided to go for McAfee), privately I wouldn't use it.
I found Avira Free to be great Anti virus also and use less memory.
I have enabled:
Microsoft Security Essentials
Spybot Search & Destroy
SUPERAntiSpyware
When I feel something is going weird, I run:
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
Dr. Web
and one other one that I must not have migrated to the new laptop... I can't remember what it is right now..
All of these are free
Quote from: James0x57 on December 02, 2010, 06:45:42 AM
I have enabled:
Microsoft Security Essentials
Spybot Search & Destroy
SUPERAntiSpyware
When I feel something is going weird, I run:
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
Dr. Web
and one other one that I must not have migrated to the new laptop... I can't remember what it is right now..
All of these are free
You're not safe!
You should also let Hitman Pro run on every startup. :P
On a technical note.. like consoles - the PS3 recently proved it - PCs are not and will never be completely safe. The most important aspect is still the user.. it won't help if you tear up a huge antivirus firewall and then you manage to install the virus yourself by ignoring all advices of your AV simply because you want to open that "f****** file, it has to be safe a friend sent it to me" - thus I for myself, have the Windows Firewall and Avira.. Spybot is done for checks in case something happens.. and well: I also actively use Windows 7 System Restore - I have a snapshot of my PC of each morning for the last 14 days. If something happens: in 99% of all cases System Restore can perform a roll-back!
Sounds good,
I chose,
Avira, Hitman, and Spybot for scans (which I can do often being at school)
First thing I will do, take a snapshot.