^^^Please suggest BEST anti virus, trojan/malware etc removal software^^^^

[jeris82]

My PC is laggin really bad, I must have gotten it from somethin I downloaded, anyone have insight to VERY GOOD DEPENDABLE software to clean up my PC without reformatting ?

Thank you.

[Flake]

OK, first thing you should be doing is telling us what is happening that makes you think you caught Badware.


What you got? Pop ups? Search engine Hijacks?

"Lagging" is vague and could be malware or the fact that you have not defraggled the hard drive since 1995. Which you haven't.

Give us some hints and we are more likely to be able to fix it.

[aesir]

malwarebytes, hands down the best free virus detection/removal software.

[Flake]

That may well be the case, but we have nothing to go on at this point, therefore no idea what we are supposed to be fixing.

[nonameowns]

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/
http://www.ccleaner.com/
and defrag ur hd

[Flake]

Spybot
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
Adaware
http://www.lavasoft.com/
AVG Free.
http://free.avg.com/gb-en/homepage

Update them before you run them.

[jeris82]

malwarebytes, hands down the best free virus detection/removal software.

I cant believe you said that because that program finds NOTHING wrong.

I get svchost.exe taking up way too much RAM and things pop up in a new window now when they never did before.

My AVG seems to be a huge RAM hog actually, is it perhaps since the 9.0 came out after dec 1st? I'm trying to upgrade to the new free as I type this.

I am just haveing my RAM taken up too much, abnormally. My PC is usally very fast

pentium 4 3.4ghz
1GB RAM
1TB HDDs
windows xp
128mg video card nvidia 6600

[jeris82]

Things take longer to happen now too

I cant upload my pics on here, god this is the most difficult site to simply upload a picture to...... ><

[Flake]

AVG 9 seems to run more precesses while eating less ram.

So what is bad? What are we trying to fix here?

[jeris82]

I am downloading and installing every program listed so far that I dont have already.

My pc usually reacts very fast but not now, there is lag between clicking on a process and having it happen, the lag time varies but it is more and more noticeable and problematic.

Sometimes it freezes and AVG was running a scan today that has been going for like 5 hours............

[jeris82]

My desktop icons dissapear then I have to run explorer.exe sometimes

[Flake]

You still didn't answer the question.

What makes you think you got badware?

When did you last reboot? etc etc

This could be about a million things.

[jeris82]

havent rebooted in a while but i have to right now......... be back after.....

[jeris82]

I downloaded something, thats all I can think that would casue this is the shit I DL

[velderia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spybot_search_and_destroy

And make sure the dust inside of your computer is CLEANED. If you haven't done it in years there's probably a blanket of it overheating your computer. Dust can cause anything, from error messages to utterly bad slowdowns.

[HunterKiller_]

Avast is an excellent free anti-virus.
But as others have mentioned, there could be many causes of 'lag'.

The most 'headache free' method to get rid of mysterious PC problems is to reinstall windows.

[crossmirage]

If you don't have NoScript and AdBlock with Firefox yet, get those.

Spybot S&D and avast are great programs, get Dr. Web CureIt to clean out the tougher malware too.

[jeris82]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spybot_search_and_destroy

And make sure the dust inside of your computer is CLEANED. If you haven't done it in years there's probably a blanket of it overheating your computer. Dust can cause anything, from error messages to utterly bad slowdowns.

You know what, my PC I remember was really dusty last time I opened it and I didnt have any compressed air so I just said eh Ill get it next time, cause I have horrible bad allergies..........

[Brain]

Another vote for avast for anti-virus.

When was the last time you did a complete backup and format+reinstallation? Might be time. Slog some more memory in there too. It's not too pricey these days, and you'd notice the bump to 2 or 4 GB (though XP will only read 3-and-a-bit-Gig, being a 32 bit OS, but still).

And when you back up ya stuff, do it to more than one media. I've had a run of staff lately that've had that ultra-super important document that they need in 2 minutes for the mega executive meeting that will stop the world exploding existing only on the USB stick that's just stopped working. *groan* </rant>

[Slash]

I'm betting your case is clogged with dust and dying from heat.

Open it up and remove it. You don't need compressed air to get the worst of it, if its caked you can pretty much pull it out with your fingers. Be sure to clear all intake holes etc as well, not just the fan and heatsink itself. I've used a paint brush to do the job before. Wash your hands afterwards. Download a free version of everest, and check your before and after temperatures.

If you're running vista you want at least 20% space free on the disc. If your hard drive space is in the red, everything will slow to a crawl.

DEFRAG your drives.

Disable aero if its in use.

i use Avast!, and i'm quite happy with it.

All things said and done, i'd recommend a reinstall of your OS, its great to have a fresh install. A day of work reinstalling stuff will leave your computer all fresh. And after you've installed all your software and fixed your settings, make a restore point to an external drive. That way, if your computer fucks up again in the future, just restore that point, and you'll have everything clean and freshly installed with your programs intact.

That is, if your computer isn't dying from heat, then nothing you do in software will help. Download everest, check your cpu temperature, and clean your insides!

[B u r l]

Sorry to say, but the best option is to format you PC, IMO. :C Virus scanners are pointless for several reasons (dare I say scam?), as they just remove the virus once it's hit the system. For one, most people run as admin so if you get infected, the virus will also run as admin and admin's can disable AV scanning. Another reason is that the virus scanner gets it's information from the operating system, so if the virus scanner hooks in at the system level then it can control what the AV scanner sees. The AV companies decided to call those "root kits" and say they can't fix them. i.e If they can't fix it, they rename the problem. Problem solved amarite.

As for malware scanners, they're also useless because they'll rip out any shit without caring if your computer needs it or not.

You're best option would be to format, don't run as admin, and also enable DEP C:

[GriNGo]

Go for Microsoft Security Essentials - top notch protection and free. No bullshit. But if you want to pay go for Norton Internet Security - the best payed protection out there (and very lightweight for the system as well!)

[arttorney]

I'm with Flake. What I've heard so far suggests to me that it's the programs you downloaded that are slowing down your computer and the spyware cleaning programs are just making it worse. Lots of programs run processes in the background that eat up RAM and slow things down by using the same interrupts as other devices you are trying to use. Is it still malware if the program that's causing the problem is the same program you purposefully downloaded. (What is the sound of a single hand clapping?)

HP puts a sackload of crapplets in the driver disks they package with their cheap inkjet printers. You think you are loading the factory device driver (which you did), but at the same time you also got stuck with all these supposedly helpful programs that want to go online for you and help you shop for HP products.

Any of this starting to ring a bell?

[jeris82]

I am gonna clean it and defrag for sure.

I removed avg and am going with ms security essentials, is that an anti virus software?

What is Dep C:?

How and what is Aero? Disable this??

[LORD M]

A-squared Free have saved me some times, try it out.

[BlightedArt]

Get a hatchet, find out where these virus' live, and show them that you mean business.

[vineris]

Sorry to say, but the best option is to format you PC, IMO. :C Virus scanners are pointless for several reasons (dare I say scam?), as they just remove the virus once it's hit the system. For one, most people run as admin so if you get infected, the virus will also run as admin and admin's can disable AV scanning. Another reason is that the virus scanner gets it's information from the operating system, so if the virus scanner hooks in at the system level then it can control what the AV scanner sees.

On the contrary. What you do is get a clean boot disk like Ultimate Boot CD for Windows with a bunch of scanners conveniently installed on it. You unplug from the Net, boot off the clean CD, and since the OS is running off the clean disk the viruses don't even get a chance to start up. At this point you use the scanners to scrub your system clean.

As for malware scanners, they're also useless because they'll rip out any shit without caring if your computer needs it or not.

This has never actually happened to me in all the years I've been running Windows.

A format is the safe way, but it's not always the best thing to do.

[Shinji2821]

Honestly, has anyone suggested doing a reformat. I never do virus scans or spend any time digging for viruses. I use AVAST because I have seen it catch things on numerous occasions. What I do is reformat, aka wipe the hard drive of all data after backing up essentials of coarse, and reinstalling my operating system. It is a much simpler process then it sounds, and routine reformats keep my machines running at optimum performance. Think of it as an oil change for your computer.

[Two Listen]

I guess someone's got to say it.

First, stop visiting places you probably shouldn't visit. 90% of all viruses come from places you shouldn't be visiting. Stop that. It is bad.

Concerning software - do you want free? Or are you willing to pay?

No one antivirus software is perfect, and the free ones - even the paid ones, won't catch everything. When I was on free programs, I used a combination of Avast/Spybot Search and Destroy, primarily. There were also some others but they're not worth mentioning. They weren't bad, but they didn't catch EVERYTHING. I decided for my new system built in June to actually pick things up and invest, and now I'm running Kaspersky and I love it. I find it much more efficient, both in resources used, database updates, and security than things such as Norton. Granted, I also do not visit places I shouldn't be visiting, and so do not really have need for much.

In fact, the best luck I've had to removing viruses, has almost always been to do it manually.

My suggestion, and probably the only way you'll fix this without reformatting assuming you actually have some type of malicious...things:

Snag HijackThis - google it. While you're at it, google some tech help forums. Type in anything that sounds real techy. Like "overclock" or whatever the hell else. Run a HijackThis log, save it - and post it at the start of your new thread on those forums. The geeks at said forums will be able to look through the log and very specifically tell you what's messed up, if anything. And once you know what specific programs or files need removing, you can simply google them - and find several website with either specific software for removing them, or manual fixes.

[B u r l]

Sorry, jeris82, that ":C" was supposed to be a sad face. It's DEP (Data Execution Prevention). It "is a security feature that can help prevent damage to your computer from viruses and other security threats. Harmful programs can try to attack Windows by attempting to run (also known as execute) code from system memory (RAM) locations reserved only for Windows and other authorized programs. These types of attacks can harm your programs and files. If DEP notices a program on your computer using memory incorrectly, it closes the program and notifies you with the DEP stop error."

I don't know what operating system you run but it'll automatically be enabled from XP Service Pack 2 onwards (I think).

On the contrary. What you do is get a clean boot disk like Ultimate Boot CD for Windows with a bunch of scanners conveniently installed on it. You unplug from the Net, boot off the clean CD, and since the OS is running off the clean disk the viruses don't even get a chance to start up. At this point you use the scanners to scrub your system clean.

Agreed. That's the best way to go about removing the virus. Although, I don't feel AV scanners should really be used to "fix" a virus problem. Of course, an virus guard could suffice.

This has never actually happened to me in all the years I've been running Windows.

That's good. But it's just how the programs run. They don't run a check to see if your computer needs an infected file or area, it will just label it as infected and remove it. I'd wager that a lot of issues people have with their systems running slower and slower etc. is the result of running all of these malware programs, and tinkering about removing stuff that shouldn't be removed.

A format is the safe way, but it's not always the best thing to do.

Yeah, it's a pain.