Computer question

[bld1942]

I use AVAST and AD-AWARE on both mine...no problems to date, both free versions

[Skyh13]

Honestly, sometimes you get what you pay for, but there are plenty of very good, free applications that are completely legit and can help you do a lot to fix up your computer.

Here's a list of a few programs I would HIGHLY suggest:

CCleaner
- CCleaner is a great tool for generally cleaning up your system, getting rid of temporary files and other such things that are just taking up space on your computer. It can also scour through your registry and find entries that you can safely just get rid of, which can help with performance as well.
CCleaner - Home


Spybot S&D
- Spybot S&D is one of a number of good, free anti-spyware, anti-malware programs. It works well, and should take care of most problems you run into. Granted, if you were to buy software like SpySweeper, you can probably benefit from more resources dedicated to making software which finds and gets rid of more spyware and such, however there's no harm in at least trying this software first, considering it works great and is free.
The home of Spybot-S&D!

Windows Defender
- If you're running windows XP, it's worth your while to download Windows Defender, as it's free, and it's just more anti-spyware, anti-malware protection. Granted, it has scans automatically scheduled for FAR too often, but you can change that pretty easily. Doesn't hurt to have it.
Windows Defender: Home Page


One thing I must say, is that the free anti-virus programs are fine, and you can look up ratings for how each does, performance-wise and protection-wise. The important thing to remember is, though, don't have more than one anti-virus program running active protection at the same time. That can really cause some annoying problems, aside from bringing your computer to it's knees in terms of speed. For anti-spyware, though, it's more worthwhile to have multiple programs installed, as long as you don't have them actively running at the same time, since that'll hurt your computer performance as well. But individually running anti-spyware scans with different programs is very beneficial.

Anyways, sorry for the long post, but there's what I have to say about that!

[Skyh13]

Oh, and McAfee and Norton both have positively awful performance, they can really kill speed on your computer.. not that they don't work well, but they're very bloated..

[superdorf]

I use AVG, Spybot S&D, Malware Anti-Malware... Ad-Aware.

[tamjam]

I doubt it a virus or anything. People always think they have a virus but really they are quite rare. Sounds like now is the perfect time to put a fresh install of your operating system on there. Peace.

[candg4ever]

I'm not an expert by any means, but my inexperience has led me into problems that have given me some knowledge on these matters.

The last time I had a guy come work on mine, he told me all he ever used was AVG free downloads. I personally bought Panda a couple of years ago and haven't had any problems since. You can buy it online to save a trip to the store. I don't really know anything about their tech support, as it has worked so well I haven't needed to contact them.

Spybot will clean things up pretty well and refer you to other sites if you need more than they offer. Like I said, I'm no expert, but these places have all been helpful.

[ketelmeister]

Thanks for all the help...I loaded about six free programs, ran them and my computer has really sped up. They all found lots of infestations! Should I leave them all laoded. I added spybot, adware, sdfix, malwarebyts and a system cleaner. Malwarebyts ran for hours getting stuff. Do I leave them all on the computer now?

[ketelmeister]

I doubt it a virus or anything. People always think they have a virus but really they are quite rare. Sounds like now is the perfect time to put a fresh install of your operating system on there. Peace.

I'll do that next. Thanks.

[TykeClone]

My computer has gotten really slow, locks up constantly and in generally doggy. I have AVG free for a virus protection, but I think it's probably loaded with viruses and spyware. Any ideas or help? I'm clueless on what to do.
Thanks.

All good suggestions so far.

I would say that the free version of AVG is just fine for consumers. It isn't remotely as much of a hog as Norton or McAffee and does a great job of keeping machines free of viruses.

I also use a combination of AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy to get rid of spyware.

If your machine has a clean bill of health, it would be a good idea to take a look at how much RAM you have. You didn't say how old the machine is, but if it is a few years old, it may have come with only 256 or 512MB of RAM. This is cheap and easy to expand and definitely worth the cost. If you're using more than the physical amount of memory in the machine, it really degrades your performance because anything over and above what is installed is kept in a file on your hard drive.

[jumbopackage]

Thanks for all the help...I loaded about six free programs, ran them and my computer has really sped up. They all found lots of infestations! Should I leave them all laoded. I added spybot, adware, sdfix, malwarebyts and a system cleaner. Malwarebyts ran for hours getting stuff. Do I leave them all on the computer now?

I'd just leave them all there.

I would disable any "real time" protection that any of them have though, and just run them periodically.

Like I said before, no one of them is good at everything, but all of them are good at something, and they will often find things that other ones miss.

The only tool I didn't tell you about that you might want to check out is Hijack This. It will do a "scan" and show all the stuff that runs when your computer starts up.

It's far FAR less automated than the other tools, but if you're still having problems, there are places like Bleeping Computer that will take a log that hijack this spits out and tell you what all you have going on with your computer (for free!).

[cytech]

AVG is a good program the problem most of the time is the users.

If people do things on the internet that are pron to getting infections then they will get them no matter what program they are running to protect their computers.

I have anti virus/ spyware software on my machines but I don't really need it. If all you do is visit legit sites you will rarely ever have a problem.

[MadCy]

I don't tend to trust free anti-virus stuff. I figure that someone has already found the answers to that software. I could be wrong on that.

We use PC-Cillin, and it's worked great for me.

I've had McAfee before, but it drove me nuts. It slowed down the computer just as much as the spyware/viruses did.

I'd try the PC-Cillin, and see if that works. People might have better ideas, but that's my first one.

I agree 100%. I built a new PC this past summer and put on AVG as well, also Windows Defender and Adaware. These free softwares never caught anything anything in the scans. The PC got infected with something and wouldn't boot into windows just last week (no need to explain it here). I fixed it using the recovery console, then installed Trend Micro antiv virus/spyware. It found TONS of stuff spyware and trojan viruses.

Needless to say once I got it fixed, figured out the cause, I did a format and am now running much more protected.

[TykeClone]

If people do things on the internet that are pron to getting infections then they will get them no matter what program they are running to protect their computers. .

Is that a typo?

[cytech]

lmao yeah it actually was but I think my point still stays intact lol.

[CycloneErik]

Glad to hear the computer is working well. As someone said, this might be a good chance to add some memory to the computer.