Viruses have raped my computer

[Kjata]

Its late, im tired and pissed off, so if this isn't the right board, i'm sorry.

What are some good, or mediocre, antivirus software that's FREE. My computer only needs to live for 2-3 more months until I'm getting a new one, but it gets worse every day, and i doubt it will last that long. I'm not very technical savvy, but i learn very fast. If you can help me out, I will be your new best friend. Seriously, please help me out.

Aight,
Dan

[Shikton]

Avast is a good one
AVG too, I think that's free

[Krade]

I think it was download.com that had AVG on it as a free download. I like AVG because I've seen it work and it updates automatically almost daily.

[Anteros]

I second AVG. They're anti-spyware is pretty weak, but the anti virus is gold. I'm not a huge fan of avast, but you'll probably want to run at least 2 different types to make sure you get everything. I wouldn't recommend having them at the same time though.

[Kjata]

I second AVG. They're anti-spyware is pretty weak, but the anti virus is gold. I'm not a huge fan of avast, but you'll probably want to run at least 2 different types to make sure you get everything. I wouldn't recommend having them at the same time though.

What happens with both?

Aight,
Dan

[Erothayce]

AVG is a good one. I'm running that right now and i haven't had any problems.

[Krade]

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure running two at once would bog down your computer to epically slow speeds. Or crash it. That's always fun.

[Mordokai]

What happens with both?

Aight,
Dan

I would advice against trying :smallwink:

Lets just say that a scan can be very demanding on the computer. Two at the same time? Mama mia! :smalleek:

[Kjata]

Oh, ok.
I'm downloading AVG right now. Thanks a lot everyone:smallbiggrin:

Aight,
Dan

[TSGames]

Oh, ok.
I'm downloading AVG right now. Thanks a lot everyone:smallbiggrin:

Aight,
Dan
:( aww... I didn't even get to suggest Clam anti-virus...

[Kjata]

:( aww... I didn't even get to suggest Clam anti-virus...

*Shrugs*
Sorry, but i would have gone with AVG due to popular support.

[bluewind95]

I use Avast and HijackThis. See, if the antivirus can't tackle the virus, HijackThis will. But you got to be REALLY careful on what you delete with that thing.

[First Speaker]

Some would argue that the thread title was an inappropriate and offensive use of the word 'rape'.

Some people.

[Raiser Blade]

Some would argue that the thread title was an inappropriate and offensive use of the word 'rape'.

Some people.

Others would say it was a fitting description of the relationship between his computer and its viruses.

[thubby]

superantispieware works wonders for me

[Anteros]

In addition to bogging down your computer, some antivirus programs will actually treat other antivirus programs as a virus. As you can imagine this causes all sorts of issues as they try to delete each other. It’s best to only have one on your computer at a time unless you know they are compatible.

[Zherog]

Kjata -- are you certain your problem is viruses and not spyware? Both suck, of course, and both will slow down your machine. But dealing with each is (generally) done differently.

[Ego Slayer]

Malwarebytes is something I've used. 'tis free and all that... cleaned up a lot of trojan/rogue/blargh ickiness for me, if that happens to be what's effecting your computer.

[TigerHunter]

Malwarebytes is something I've used. 'tis free and all that... cleaned up a lot of trojan/rogue/blargh ickiness for me, if that happens to be what's effecting your computer.
Seconded. I used it to clean up my friend's computer, and it worked great.

[Zherog]

In the realm of spyware removal, I've used AdAware to great effect.

[Kjata]

Kjata -- are you certain your problem is viruses and not spyware? Both suck, of course, and both will slow down your machine. But dealing with each is (generally) done differently.

Its probably both, lol.

Aight,
Dan

[Fri]

In addition to bogging down your computer, some antivirus programs will actually treat other antivirus programs as a virus. As you can imagine this causes all sorts of issues as they try to delete each other. It’s best to only have one on your computer at a time unless you know they are compatible.

That's actually kinda awesome. I can see it as a premise of a new series. Two antivirus program, fighting to protect the same computer, but each saw the other as a threat. Will they work together to fight the greater evil?

Or...

PColloseum presents: a fight to the death between two hostile antivirus! Who would win! Place your bet.

[Linkavitch]

That's actually kinda awesome. I can see it as a premise of a new series. Two antivirus program, fighting to protect the same computer, but each saw the other as a threat. Will they work together to fight the greater evil?

Or...

PColloseum presents: a fight to the death between two hostile antivirus! Who would win! Place your bet.

I don't know whether to ask which anti-virus programs are fighting or just walk away.

[DraPrime]

Others would say it was a fitting description of the relationship between his computer and its viruses.

And some like me will make jokes out of it.

Her firewall said no, but her scren said yes!

[Yarram]

Bad luck. There is a complete solution to viruses though: Get Linux or Mac.

[bluewind95]

Bad luck. There is a complete solution to viruses though: Get Linux or Mac.

Mac can get viruses too!

The best complete solution for virus problems is to isolate your computer. No internet access and no flash drives, or floppies or external drives, or anything. :smalltongue:

[sheepofoblivion]

huh... I have like, Mcafee, or whatever... my computer is about 8 years old. And I've had a grand total of 2 viruses my entire time using it... My computer runs fine, there are absolutely no irregularities in the way it runs. I'm impressed by how well it runs. I download things with almost naive trustingness of the creator of the program.

?

[Winter_Wolf]

I'm surprised no one mentioned adding Spybot S&D or CCleaner to the roster. They're not anti-virus as such, but they kill spyware dead more often than not, which is to say that there was only one time when they didn't help me out, but to be fair there was no cure for that particular problem. Hopefully AVG is working for you. My understanding of trying to run multiple AV softs at once is that they "interfere with each other". Which I take to mean that bad things will happen, and I'm sure you have enough grief.

[Kjata]

Bad luck. There is a complete solution to viruses though: Get Linux or Mac.

Screw that, I'll take my chances with Windows.


huh... I have like, Mcafee, or whatever... my computer is about 8 years old. And I've had a grand total of 2 viruses my entire time using it... My computer runs fine, there are absolutely no irregularities in the way it runs. I'm impressed by how well it runs. I download things with almost naive trustingness of the creator of the program.

?
Ya, but I use Limewire, and that thing is a god damn virus breeding ground.

[sheepofoblivion]

ah... I find that partaking in solely legal activities yeilds to less viruses (also check out like... pandora? or something? It's this radio-esque thing, so you don't actually download anything...

I actually have no idea what it's called... but that seems to be right...

[Pandaren]

Some would argue that the thread title was an inappropriate and offensive use of the word 'rape'.

Some people.

Yes, some people, and those people don't know the actual meaning of the word rape. It fits perfectly. Foreign objects(files) are being....placed in his computer.

And by another definition, the virus is in fact despoiling his computer.

[Firestar27]

If this is spyware, then try Spybot S&D. Make sure that it is from safer-networking.org. Any other websites are probably spyware themselves. Also, Spybot S&D can be a little incompatible with Norton Antivirus and Kasperky Antivirus.

[Mattarias, King.]

I second Spybot Search and Destroy. It's great. The teatimer bit can get to be a pain sometimes, though..

On a sidenote, what IS the right board for these kinda questions? :smallconfused: I needa figure out how to get my Sophos to start updating again..

[Adumbration]

I'm on Avira Antivir, and it would appeared to have worked well so far. I also regularly run Ad-Aware to keep out the spyware - although just deleting all the cookies works almost just as well.

[DBear]

I'll second SuperAntiSpyware. That program cleaned out a bunch of crap that had infested my computer.

[Cainen]

The best way to deal with a virus is to format and reinstall. Antivirus programs are prevention tools, not perfect cleanup tools.

[Yarram]

Mac can get viruses too!

The best complete solution for virus problems is to isolate your computer. No internet access and no flash drives, or floppies or external drives, or anything. :smalltongue:

Yeah ok scrap that. I was jsut trying to be non-biased.
Solution: Get Linux

[Crispy Dave]

well im sorry to say this but once you have the viruses there isn't realy anything you can do against them. The only thing you can do is wipe your computer and re-install your OS.

[Jontom Xire]

Personally I reckon virus infection is a combination of Bill Gates' approach to writing software (Hey I have this great idea. Let's enhance the user's experience by allowing websites to run whatever software they like on the user's machine!) and PEBCAK.

I think I've only had one vaguely serious infection since I first started owning a Windows PC 10 years ago, and I think that was from browsing dodgy porn websites using IE. These days I use Firefox. It's much much safer. I don't even worry too much about where I download software from. I'm also quite capable of cleaning out the registry manually to remove anything that does temporarily decide to run on my machine without my permission.

I occasionally think about installing a virus scanner, but can't really be bothered, am not too sure how up to date a free one will really be, and don't really want to take the performance hit even if I do have 2Gb of RAM and a fairly fast processor in my machine :)