Windows Cleanup Question

[faulknerwn 36]

Question - what is the best software (preferably free) out there to do a scan of Windows to look for viruses/malware/registry problems and such. I have used a few in the past, but some always seem to be adware or you get through a scan but it won't tell you anything unless you buy....

Also, what is the best free antivirus out there these days? Are they really a lot worse than paid ones? What is the best paid one?

Thanks!

[wmw999 2,121]

I've found that a combination of CCleaner and MalwareBytes is pretty good -- you can run MalwareBytes from a thumb drive to check on stuff that's seriously imbedded into your PC. Note that my worst PC for problems is the one still running XP (duh).

Free AV? Dunno.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[normiss 622]

Free A/V:
http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

I also agree that MalwareBytes works pretty well too.
Disabling third party cookies helps a LOT as well.

[Andy9o8 0]

(Note - I'm not remotely an IT guy, just an ordinary consumer.)

One free anti-virus I'll steer you away from is AVG. (It's popular; if you Google-search for "free anti-virus, it will be at or near the top of the result list.) On more than one computer, I've seen it hog so much resources - slow the computer down so badly - that it made the computer practically un-useable. Each time, it had to be un-installed to get the computer running normally again.

ETA - no offense to Normiss's post; he posted it while I was still typing this. But I stand by what I posted, based solely on a couple of anecdotal experiences.

[normiss 622]

You think AVG is bad on system resources?
Install McAfee.




People need to keep in mind they are overloading older systems with new technologies sometimes.


ETA:
Also keep in mind the scheduled system scan settings and do not continually stop the scans.
They DO need to occur at some point, aborting them only forces the system to run them the next time you use your system, not while it's powered down. Damn thing slows way down when running. Which IS what we want them to do.


Why is my system so slooooowwwwww????

software updates - stopped for the past 6 months are YUGE updates now.
While running an a/v scan.
While updating the browser.
While updating Adobe reader.
While crashing Flash.
While performing Windows updates.
While breaking the network connection due to the updates you just stopped.



Yea. I see this a LOT.
Don't get me started on passwords.

[Remster 24]

Microsoft Security Essentials is, for once, a good MS product. It's free.

I've had good results with AVG Free too.

And for deep cleaning, Malwarebytes (but, it is for involved users).

Remster

[Andy9o8 0]

Quote

they are overloading older systems with new technologies sometimes.

OK, In fairness, the computers I was referencing were each several years old.

[normiss 622]

We went through a 'painful' lesson on our recent camping trip.

Using a Chromecast on one of the TV's and trying to stream video from Andrea's pc and my Mac.
With the hotspot, it seems streaming direct from AT&T Uverse sucked bad. Unwatchable on her pc.
Streaming it on my Mac from Showtime streaming site was good.
Pushing it to the TV just wasn't happening.

I guess I'm bringing my HP Probook from now on.

[GogglesnTeeth 6]

I'm a big fan of Malwarebytes for a system scan. For anti-virus software, I use AVG Free on all my systems as well as family systems I help maintain.

Malwarebytes will update when first installed and each time it is ran. If you have a virus, often the first thing it will attack is any security software including anti-virus. If your current anti-virus software is not updating or not willing to scan, odds are good something such as a virus or root-kit has damaged the anti-virus software.

If there are problems, Malwarebytes will clean what it can, if there are root-kits detected, you may need to go with Combo-Fix. Those three utilities have kept my systems clean for several years.

I do work in IT.... however with this question, there are about a 1000 right answers including the obligatory "Install Linux... windows problems solved!"

Goggles and Teeth

"You fall like a greased safe!!!"

[Amazon 7]

Remster

Microsoft Security Essentials is, for once, a good MS product. It's free.

I've had good results with AVG Free too.

And for deep cleaning, Malwarebytes (but, it is for involved users).

MSE new version came out in NOV for the masses. I have been using it for a while.

MS decided to do somethinbg about being blamed for everything because that other stuff was supposed to be protecting peoples Machines.

I have not recieved any little presents from the nasty little dweebs in many years.

I am quite happy with that.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5201

[ifall 0]

I've had a lot of success with Housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and I also like Microsoft Security Essentials. Their Real Time protection is pretty good after you've cleaned up your system. Housecall is a online scan so you have to "download" it, essentially, for each scan you do.

[sfzombie13 307]

i strongly recommend malwarebytes and ms security essentials. the only thing with malwarebytes is it stops updating soon after you start using it, unless you pay for it. it is well worth the price, you can get it cheap here: http://discuss.howtogeek.com/t/malwarebytes-sale-price/8905. i use it a lot on virus cleaning, never as a constant thing. never pay for antivirus software, there is no reason to with the good free ones out there. that being said, some new exploits get by all of them at first, some are better than others for updating databases.

another good scanner is msert, you can get it from http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx, but you have to get it each time you use it, it's only good for 10 days. i use this and malwarebytes on almost every scan i do for viruses.

i recommend never using ccleaner or iobit unistaller, unless you know what you're doing. they can both hose your system with a quickness. and never install more than one antivirus product, they fight each other. hijack this is very good, as is tdsskiller, combofix, roguekiller, gmer and fixzeroaccess. do not use any of these unless you have a recent backup. and also, ms has a bootable scanner that you can download and burn to a cd to get rid of really nasty things. it lets you boot into a cleaner to remove root kits and stuff.

_________________________________________
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes

[format 0]

Ina amateur level
enjoy EasyCleaner (for cleaning Registry and MORE important: StartUp software)
and Avira Free antiVirus which I can promise doesn't slow your comp (as others admit they do by 30%)
Now, I'm talking PC... and free

What goes around, comes later.

[faulknerwn 36]

Cool! Thanks for the replies. I've also heard really good things about nod32..