What is the best FREE setup for virus protection and removal

khaag · Post by **khaag** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:52 am

I just ran a scan in Norton Security Scan (Just scan - no removal method) and it says I have 15 high-risk threats!

So what would be the best setup to get to remove the threats and protect from future risks?

Grandmasterjimmy · Post by **Grandmasterjimmy** » Sat May 31, 2008 10:58 am

AVG free edition. Best there is IMO.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Sat May 31, 2008 11:18 am

Microsoft One Care. You don't even have to download it, as they have an online scan. (Takes a while to scan but it gets EVERY bad thing. Even reg errors.)

Post by **bicostp** » Sat May 31, 2008 11:35 am

Here's my tool arsenal:

AVG Antivirus
CCleaner (get the Slim build, no bundled Yahoo toolbar)
An older version of AVAST Registry Cleaner
Ad-Aware 2007
HijackThis

Rekarp · Post by **Rekarp** » Sat May 31, 2008 12:49 pm

Anti Vir - http://www.free-av.com/

Lightweight and Free.

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Sat May 31, 2008 4:58 pm

AVAST! antivirus. It's quiet good IMHO. With a 24/7 runtime scanner too.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:08 pm

bicostp wrote:Here's my tool arsenal:

AVG Antivirus
CCleaner (get the Slim build, no bundled Yahoo toolbar)
An older version of AVAST Registry Cleaner
Ad-Aware 2007
HijackThis

Seconded, though I've never heard of AVAST. I use Registry Mechanic... they have a free version... if you know where to look... *cough*

Rekarp · Post by **Rekarp** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:40 pm

Theres a free registry cleaner called regscrubXP.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2048

Pretty basic but it does a good job.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:24 pm

AVG antivirus seems to be less resource hungry than AVAST antivirus.
I have AVG with the resident scanner (24/7 scanner) and control center disabled, so pretty much all it does is sit in the background until it does the scheduled scan. This is just because my laptop only has 256MB of RAM, so the extra weight of the control center and resident scanner is noticeable.

WhatULive4 · Post by **WhatULive4** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:56 pm

vskid wrote:AVG antivirus seems to be less resource hungry than AVAST antivirus.
I have AVG with the resident scanner (24/7 scanner) and control center disabled, so pretty much all it does is sit in the background until it does the scheduled scan. This is just because my laptop only has 256MB of RAM, so the extra weight of the control center and resident scanner is noticeable.

Personally, AVG is still too much of a resource hog for me. I've been using Pc-cillin for the last 4 years or so and I have NEVER had a virus infection that wasn't caught. So for me, I'm willing to pay the $20 a year to have a lightweight, amazing anti-virus/firewall.

I also use CCleaner and Hijackthis. I installed Ad-aware once, but it never caught anything thanks to pc-cillin I guess. So I deleted it.

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Post by **lifeisbetterwithketchup** » Sat May 31, 2008 7:18 pm

I use:

AVG (free version)
CCleaner
Ad-aware (free version)

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sat May 31, 2008 8:01 pm

I don't really get viruses anymore. They aren't my problem. Spyware and Adware are the real problems. (Not these days, though... I guess I'm just more careful now, but I haven't gotten anything for months...) The only real problem I ever even have anymore is system stuff, like registry stuff. You'll ALWAYS have to clean up your registry.

Bay_Wolf · Post by **Bay_Wolf** » Sat May 31, 2008 8:22 pm

avast! is one amazing program and for me a little faster than the new AVG8. I use to swear own AVG until version 8 came out and it slowed my computer horribly so I switched to avast! and haven't looked back.

Regards,
Bay_wolf.