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Anti-Virus Software

There are many flavors of anti-virus software on the market. Gainig ground with the big boys, McAfee and Symantec, the free, AVG is providing very dependable protection. One benefit with installing a well known anti-virus application with an annual subscription fee is that they typically have a zero-day infection promise. This is when they promise that very few computers will get infected on the very day that a virus is released into the wild. However, most of the free anti- virus programs are trying to make name for themselves, so they are hot on the heels of the others in terms of effectiveness.

Click the following links for these anti-virus programs: AVG McAfee Anti-Virus Norton Anti-Virus

  

Anti-Spyware

Spybot Search & Destroy can fix problems with tracking cookies, system internals (Registry), Winsock LSPs, ActiveX objects, browser hijackers and BHOs, and can to some extent protect a user's privacy by deleting usage tracks. Spybot also includes an "Immunize" feature to block the installation of spyware before it occurs. Spybot is not intended to replace anti-virus programs, but it does detect some common trojans.

To go to the download and tutorial pages for Spybot S&D, click here.

  

Anti-Malware

Ad-Aware is the latest version of Lavasoft’s anti-spyware solutions. Ad-Aware allows computer users to combat malicious spyware and malware; it protects users from spyware that takes control of a computer and can result in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity and stolen private information. Ad-Aware detects hazardous content on a user's computer, identifies the threat level, and then gives the user the ability to remove unwanted content.

Lavasoft’s Code Sequence Identification (CSI) technology detects malware and then searches for similar codes in order to identify emerging variants. Ad-Aware scans the computer's memory, registry, Hosts file, hard, removable and optical drives for known data-mining, aggressive advertising, parasites, scumware, keyloggers, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components.

Ad-Aware is compatible with Microsoft Windows operating systems only. To download Ad-Aware, click here.

Another anti-malware tool I recommend is Malwarebytes, available online, click here to download.

  

Hijack Software

HijackThis! can generate a plain text logfile detailing all entries it finds, and most entries can be removed or disabled by HijackThis. Inexperienced users are often advised to exercise caution, or to seek help when using the latter option, as HijackThis does not discriminate between legitimate and unwanted items, with the exception of a small whitelist of legitimate entries — thus allowing a user to unintentionally prevent important programs from running, which may cause their system or its peripherals to stop working. HijackThis will, however, attempt to create backups of the files and registry entries it removes, which can be used to restore the system in the event of a mistake.

A common approach is to post the logfile to some web board/forum where more experienced users will help ecipher which entries need to be removed. Automated tools also exist that analyze saved logs and attempt to provide recommendations to the user, or to clean entries automatically. Use of such tools, however, is generally discouraged by those who specialize in manually dealing with HijackThis logs; they consider the tools to be potentially dangerous to inexperienced users, and neither accurate nor reliable enough to substitute for consulting with a trained human analyst.

To go to the download and quick start guide pages for HijackThis, click here.

  

By the way, no NERDS here!

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