Advice on Protection...

[Munty]

Ok my computer sucks. My computers have always sucked. And they're not bad rigs by nature. The hardware is all good and I never run anything more than a few years old. I've settled with XP which suits me fine and I don't want to upgrade for the forseeable future as I'd rather have no pc at all than one running Vista or 7.

My problems all arise from software... Malware, Adware, Trojans, Worms, everything you can imagine! This computer has been one of the most affected I've ever had for reasons unknown and late last year I had to get a whole new HDD because my old one suddenly became inaccessible and irreparable! Low and Behold a brand new install of XP on a brand new 1TB HDD and less than 7 days later I had to reformat again... What's the deal?!

I currently use RegistryMechanic which is a nice little tool which finds me about half a dozen new errors a day and takes care of them for me but I have NO anti-virus since Norton's time ran out (I live on free ones, hence my problems!)

What gets me though is that my computer gets bugged up even when I AM running protection, how crap is that? I'm sick of losing so many hours fixing problems I don't understand and I really want to put some preventative measures in place for the future.

So I'm going to recover all the data I need from my old HDD then reformat it and stick XP on there. Then I'll put together a collection of save-games, documents and whatever else I want to keep on this new HDD, virus check it (somehow) and store it on the other one. That will then be my emergency backup.

At that point I figure I can wipe this one clean, reinstall everything onto a nice fresh system then bring the files I want from the new backup HDD back over to this one and be nice and safe.

But of course that all changes the second I install something or so much as think about the internet so before I go through all that rigmarole I want to know how I can fully protect myself against this nonsense in the future. Bear in mind I have no cash so I'd like to find some free programs for it but I'm sure the free ones won't be the best so just hit me with whatever advice there is please!!!

Should be starting the backup in the next few days, just waiting on extra cables so I can hook it all up :p Advice is what this topic is here for so please help me out and anyone with similar questions or issues please feel free to hijack it and ask

[Airbozo]

I use malwarebytes and avast and have not had issues with virus or malware in many many years.

Several years ago, I re-installed my gaming rig using XP. By the time I had connected to the internet and downloaded the various patches and virus scanners my system was infected. In less than 3 hours on a clean install. Now I keep copies of all my utilites on a flash drive (that has been scanned) and before plugging into the network, I install and run both utilities, then get the patches...

[Munty]

I've used both of those before on my previous system I think so I'm familiar with both. There's so much jargon about at the moment, what are the things to look out for? The real system killers/savers respectively!

[xr4man]

first, there's no reason not to run windows 7 except for cost. it is far superior to xp and even more so superior to that crap called vista which i like to compare to windows ME.

anyway, that being said, i prefer to use microsoft security essentials for a free anti virus software. it picked up a few viruses on files i've had for years that both avast and free avg never picked up. good thing that file was just archived and i never really opened it.

malwarewbytes works good for scanning for malware you already have, but you have to pay for it to have real time protection.

i think i heard somewhere that the expected amount of unprotected internet time before you get some computer herpes is about 4 minutes.

anytime i do a fresh install, the very first thingi do after installing the OS is to install an anti virus program, then continue on with everything else.

[TheMainMan]

I've been running AVG free for years but the latest version has been causing system instability. Just switched to Microsoft Security essentials and it's been rock solid so far. Less options than AVG but fairly light weight and fast for quick scans.

[DynamoNED]

If you are using PC Tools Registry Mechanic, then may I suggest another of their products: Threatfire. Threatfire is a behavior-based antivirus/malware program that "fills in the gap" of most traditional anti-virus. Since it's behavior-based, it does a pretty good job of covering "zero-day" threats. It's also pretty quick and light on system resources. Best of all its free! They will try to get you to upgrade to Spyware Doctor, though. I use Threatfire with AVG, and I've never had any conflicts between them.

I've used avast & malwarebytes before, too, and they are good programs. If you are interested in trying some of the new cloud antivirus systems, then try Trend Micro or Panda Cloud Antivirus Free.

[x88x]

Kinda surprised nobody's mentioned it yet, but Spybot Search & Destroy. Great scanner, but it also has an 'immunise' feature that blacklists known malicious sites/IPs/etc. When you do a new install, always scan any removable media you have the first time you connect it to the clean computer. It doesn't do any good to wipe your system if your external HDD is infected. If you're not already, use a firewall. The built-in Windows one is actually pretty good. Oh, and idk how your home network is laid out, but if your computer is connected directly to the modem, buy a router and put it in the middle. Even a cheap router will flummox the vast majority of crawlers.


Other than that and the tools that have already been mentioned, I hate to say it but to me it sounds like the biggest problem is one that is often the most difficult to see. You. I'm not trying to be mean, really. I know plenty of people who run completely unprotected and have done for years, and have never had a single problem with malware. I also know a few people with stories like yours, where their systems get infected seemingly the moment they turn them on. Without fail, the cause of failure in the later is, in my experience, the user. Surf smarter, don't download random stuff that you don't know is 100% safe, don't install that program that gives you five free cursors but has a 500MB installer, so on and so forth. I know it sounds harsh, but in my experience, when a story like yours arises it is almost always the user taking unnecessary or poorly informed risks. Keep your system updated, be smart about what you do online, and you really shouldn't have trouble staying clean.

[Munty]

Other than that and the tools that have already been mentioned, I hate to say it but to me it sounds like the biggest problem is one that is often the most difficult to see. You. I'm not trying to be mean, really. I know plenty of people who run completely unprotected and have done for years, and have never had a single problem with malware. I also know a few people with stories like yours, where their systems get infected seemingly the moment they turn them on. Without fail, the cause of failure in the later is, in my experience, the user. Surf smarter, don't download random stuff that you don't know is 100% safe, don't install that program that gives you five free cursors but has a 500MB installer, so on and so forth. I know it sounds harsh, but in my experience, when a story like yours arises it is almost always the user taking unnecessary or poorly informed risks. Keep your system updated, be smart about what you do online, and you really shouldn't have trouble staying clean.

Haha yeah I don't take any offense at that mate, my computer warns me almost every day I don't have antivirus installed so who elses fault could it be :p

Like I said its finding something half-decent for free that always leaves me unprotected, plus I'm very retroactive which is also very bad. I tend to only look for quick fixes AFTER things go wrong and invariably my errors tend to be the breakdown of internet clients at which point downloading and even googling the problem becomes impossible.

This time my Chrome stopped working (again...) but after everything else I have on the comp failed to operate (kept getting 'so and so has failed to start' messages when I tried to run executables so it was clearly bogus and not a real problem...) I was lucky and got the internet back after a restart so here I am now trying to safeguard myself once and for all!

I'm now running Microsoft Security essentials which found over 200 issues yesterday and today has come back with 0. I've got the windows firewall on and am still using Registry Mechanic for the last bits and pieces that creep through the defences.

Should I need anything else? Is there any other way to check once and for all that the system is currently clean before I let myself relax??

I'm still having 1 seriously annoying problem which seems to be thanks to SP3 (I'm on XP remember) which is that my computer won't shutdown anymore. Google brings up a lot of people with similar issues so it's not just me and all of them have the problem after updating to SP3...

Basically whether I use the start menu or power button to shut down it just doesn't. It doesn't always do the same thing though. Sometimes it just hangs at the 'loggin off', or 'shutting down' screen and does nothing at all. Other times if I wait long enough it WILL shutdown but immediately reboots straight after.And yet other times it'll shut down properly, with no signal to the monitor, but the PSU won't switch off so I just don't get it...

And here's me saying I won't go to Vista when even XP is giving me grief haha

[Oneslowz28]

For reg stuff I use CCleaner. I am one of those internet users who run bareback. I do not run an active scanner because I never seem to get infected. I do run malware bytes once a week and every now and then I will run MSSE and it will come up with 0 issues.

I run W7 on all my desktops / htpc and vista on my laptop (to lazy to change) and maybe MSSE finds 1 trojan every 6 months.

[Lothair]

Upgrade to Windows 7. That alone will help. Then install Microsoft Security Essentials. It's not only free, but it's made by Microsoft specifically for windows and it's actually pretty damn good. Probably because of the massive amount of financial resources that Microsoft has to play around with. I think they were also just tired of the whole "Well you can't get viruses on this OS!", so they finally created a solution and one that actually works.

Other than that... stay away from downloading non-legit things and non-legit websites. That's the biggest problem for most people. I always find Limewire or Frostwire on people's systems who constantly get viruses.

What I personally do is this and it helps a lot. Buy an external hard drive. A big one. Now save everything to that hard drive instead of your main hard drive. Use the main hard drive only for the OS. Then reinstall the OS once or twice a year. Helps IMMENSELY. Keeps it running clean and fast.

Edit: Also, is it just me, or would it not be hilarious for a condom manufacturer to create an anti-virus software? lol (what I originally thought this thread was going to be related to. :p)