Virus and malware problems...

[mapsedge]

No, not on one of my machines, are you kidding?  No, this was on a friend's laptop.  She asked me if I could fix it, and I did.  It took a long while, but I did.

Along the way, I installed some additional software, and by way of explanation of what I'd done and why, I left this note folded into the closed computer.

There were more than 150 viruses, malwares, hijackers, and adwares on this PC, and it took eight hours to clean. The computer was in bad shape, but there wasn't anything on it that could have gotten there without help, e.g. without someone actively downloading it. Many came from sites a reasonable person shouldn't be visiting anyway. Whether he or she knew what they were doing or not, that's what happened.

Want to keep your computer safe?

Stop downloading stuff to your computer.

If a message pops up on the screen that says, “Your computer may be infected with blah blah blah blah, download this tool to clean it up”, don't. Just don't. Those pop-up screens are actually virus loaders: they claim to clean, but all they do is set up housekeeping on your couch, drink all the beer, and piss on your computer.

In short, stop downloading stuff to your computer.

You have all the browser toolbars you need. If you feel the need for another, go get Google's toolbar. You don't need any other browser helpers, plugins, search engines, or toolbars. There are only three that aren't malware or virus: Yahoo, Google, and StumbleUpon.

In short, stop downloading stuff to your computer.

You have all the virus/spyware protection you need. I installed the following products:

Avast anti-virus. Free, and best in class. www.avast.com. Once registered it will work for 12 months, updating itself every day if you let it. There's an icon down by the clock: a blue dot with an “a” in it. Right-click on it and check it out.

Avast does need to be registered in order to function: don't worry, it's perfectly safe to do so. Right-click on the icon, select “About Avast!...” click on “License Key”, then “Program Registration”. Follow the instructions.

Spybot Search & Destroy. Spyware/Malware protection. Free, and best in class. Use it once a week: you can find instructions by Googling “Spybot Search & Destroy”. There's an icon down by the clock: a box with a lock on it. Double-click and check it out.

WinPatrol. Free and best in class (seeing the pattern?) Real-time system monitoring: watches for changes to how your computer starts-up. It's always on. There's an icon down by the clock: a blue dot with a scotty dog in it. Double-click and check it out. You can find more info by Googling “winpatrol”.

Firefox web browser. Internet Explorer is the least secure browser on the market. Most web-based viruses and malwares are made to take advantage of IE's vulnerabilities. Ditch it. The Firefox icon is on your desktop and in the Start menu, and it's your default browser now. Use it.

I removed Symantec/Norton virus protection. Not only was it four years out of date, but it's also the worst protection suite in the industry. If you feel like you ought to have something else, read the part above about “you have all the virus/spyware protection you need.”

In other words: stop downloading stuff to your computer.

Let Windows Updates run. They're there for a reason and your computer was way behind. (Not any more, of course.)

Last thing: stop downloading stuff to your computer.

p.s. Stop downloading stuff to your computer.

Comments

[billthetailor.livejournal.com]

I used AVG for a long time and was very pleased with it, but a while back (a long while back) they changed server names where updates were coming from without updating the software to match. Every installation (and there were many) broke. It was then that I found Avast.

I'll have to look at SuperAntiSpyware. (Yeah, that's hokey as hell.)