# best antimalwarespywarevirus protection?



## foxmusk (Nov 23, 2010)

Because i hear different things all the time.

i just got that "vista antispyware 2011" virus on my computer (as well as one i've had for a while that makes google searches redirect to fake websites). what is the best anti software to fix this? free, of course. malwarebytes didn't catch either of them.


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## Xenke (Nov 23, 2010)

Avira AntiVirus

http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus

I like it, it works.

At least, as far as I know.


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## Pine (Nov 23, 2010)

Avira or AVG


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## Stargazer Bleu (Nov 23, 2010)

I heard a lot of people also mention
BitDefender and Kaspersky
Being top sellers.

Not sure how good they really are.


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## ArielMT (Nov 24, 2010)

I still haven't run into anything negative about Kaspersky, but BitDefender has been causing some firewall/mail-related problems for some of my customers lately.

Also, MBAM, which you can also get off of BleepingComputer's Vista Antispyware 2011 removal page if the malware won't let you get it directly.


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## ArielMT (Nov 24, 2010)

Aw, crap, now I remember.  I fought this thing recently, and oh was it a pain to remove.

Basically, I booted into the recovery console, chose the command prompt because there weren't any restore points, and ran regedit to null out the pw.exe exefile association hijack to "%1" (IIRC).  I don't have a reference system for what the hijacked registry keys are supposed to be, so I had to guess.  The price if I guessed wrong would've been a repair install or reinstall.

Once that was done, and pw.exe wasn't hiding itself from MBAM, I booted into Safe Mode, and MBAM found it then.

But holy crap did that take so long.


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## GingerM (Nov 24, 2010)

I like AVG, personally.


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## Ames (Nov 24, 2010)

Depends on how much you're willing (or able) to pay.


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## Stargazer Bleu (Nov 24, 2010)

Ariel  (or anyone) what is your opinion on webroot? I have a free 6 month full version for it.

Without regards to price what would you say is best to have?


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## Willow (Nov 24, 2010)

AVG Free. It comes with Surf Shield as well and even when you're browsing a site and a virus is about to try and attack your computer, it stops it. 

I set it to scan my computer every day, which is pretty useful seeing as how it's caught several viruses already.


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## ToeClaws (Nov 24, 2010)

I stick with AVG on Windows boxes - works very well (better than the school's paid product, Trend).


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## Gavrill (Nov 24, 2010)

I'm using avast, seems to work well on small stuff, I may back it up with AVG at some point.


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## net-cat (Nov 24, 2010)

The best AV is AdBlock and/or Flashblock. (That's actually on reason why I had to stop using Chrome. The ad blocking extensions it has are utterly abysmal compared to Firefox.)

Also keeping your Flash and Acrobat Reader up to date. (Flash generally pops up with a new update every week or so. Don't ignore it.)

Of course, those aren't the only vectors. (But they are by far the most common.) A general protection solution is needed. Everyone in my family uses either AVG or Microsoft Security Essentials.


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## Sauvignon (Nov 24, 2010)

avg sux. as soon as i switched to avast, it found viruses that avg didn't find.


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## Runefox (Nov 24, 2010)

I recommend Avast!, simply because it's much lighter than AVG while running and has similar/slightly better scanning accuracy depending on the situation. It also hasn't stolen focus on me or broken MS Outlook/Exchange because it failed to update a component (AVG did both of these things on the 9.0 release). In addition, it has a pre-boot scanner for 32-bit systems, which is extremely useful for removing threats like this. It's surprising that MalwareBytes hasn't caught it, but there are some other tools I recommend over at the Windows Tweaks post that might help, GMER especially.

Also, AdThwart is the most capable ad blocker on Chrome, and as far as I'm aware, it catches everything that AdBlock for Firefox catches (FA ads included). Coupled with disabling plugins by default and using whitelists (like NoScript), I get pretty decent security overall.


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## ArielMT (Nov 24, 2010)

Runefox said:


> It's surprising that MalwareBytes hasn't caught it


 
MalwareBytes won't catch it because the hijacked .exe association ensures the malware runs all the time and is able to hide itself from MalwareBytes.  In addition, in my case at least, the file had the ASH attributes set, ensuring Windows treated it as a critical system file, hidden even if "show all files" is selected.


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## Ikrit (Nov 24, 2010)

get no script for firefox
only allows something if you give it permission


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## Ricky (Nov 24, 2010)

Linux


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## ArielMT (Nov 24, 2010)

Ricky said:


> Linux


 
I know a waterfall screensaver that looks cooler than anything on Windows or Mac.  Get it here.


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## net-cat (Nov 25, 2010)

Runefox said:


> Also, AdThwart is the most capable ad blocker on Chrome, and as far as I'm aware, it catches everything that AdBlock for Firefox catches (FA ads included). Coupled with disabling plugins by default and using whitelists (like NoScript), I get pretty decent security overall.


It can't seem to fully implement the AdBlock engine. I've seen ads (usually streaming videos) that Firefox is blocked the Chrome didn't.


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## Leafblower29 (Nov 25, 2010)

ESET Smart Security


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## yiffytimesnews (Nov 29, 2010)

I have been using Super Anti Spyware for a couple of years http://www.superantispyware.com/ it's an amazing program, it gets everything including Flash tracking cookies and trojans. This amazing piece of software picked up stuff that Avast missed. Which makes me think that maybe another fur was right that I should change my anti virus software. Btw I am using the free version.


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## AshleyAshes (Nov 29, 2010)

Has anyone noticed that most Anti-Virus software now have such stupid names and are so plentyful that it's ligitimately difficult to tell them from illigitimate, rogue software?


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## Runefox (Nov 29, 2010)

AshleyAshes said:


> Has anyone noticed that most Anti-Virus software now have such stupid names and are so plentyful that it's ligitimately difficult to tell them from illigitimate, rogue software?


 
Yeah, like "Norman". No, that's _totally_ not a rip-off of "Norton". But it's legit (albeit superficial protection at best).

Avast! is still my favourite though.


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## AshleyAshes (Nov 29, 2010)

SuperAntiSpyware totally sounds like rogue Chinese made malware to me.  But nope, ligit.  I thought that guy was JOKING when he suggested it, untill I Googled the software.


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## Barak (Nov 30, 2010)

BitDefender 2010 is the shit :3... Like, it's really good.


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## Chilla (Nov 30, 2010)

heyy.. i had the same thing.. do beleive its called "the google redirect virus", i had to reload windows.. to get rid of it.  tryed avast, McAfee, spybot, hyjack this, they all found nothing, although Avast blocked most of the websites from coming up :/ it didnt totaly fix it, But its the only half decent one that saw something going on and acted.


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