Baculus Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 My girlfriend recently brought her computer to my house so I could assist her in cleaning the system of the many viruses which were present. Apparently her brother used the computer quite a bit, often visiting rather questionable sites, and as a result it was chock full of all sorts of browser hijacks, viruses, and malware in general. Upon starting up the computer, I was pretty much assaulted with various pop-ups and running processes: basically, her computer was inoperative. After attempting a few programs which kept crashing due to the various malware processes that kept consuming CPU and memory, I was able to search for free antivirus programs and came upon Avast, an antivirus program that has a free home edition. The best part of this application is that it'll clear the malware and viruses even before Windows starts up, which is when the "bad" processes would begin on her computer. I downloaded the program from the following website: http://www.avast.com/ Upon completing the application’s installation, I was able to start a system scan, which indicated that a virus of some sort was running on the system. It then indicated that it would run a scan and removal before system startup. I rebooted the computer and watched the Avast antivirus scan and remove a number of infected and malicious files - I had to run this process twice, making sure to go into Safe Mode (with Networking) on the second attempt, but by the second scan and removal, the system was clean and functioning! Overall, I was very impressed by this antivirus program - it was easy to install, quickly found the viruses (and other malicious program, actually ran a process which many antivirus programs do not have - the pre-boot scan and removal. And even though it took two attempts, going into Safe Mode probably made the difference on the second attempt. And the best part of this program - at least this particular version - is that it's free. Thus, if you are currently plagued by malware and viruses and are seeking a program to help resolve your woes, then I'd recommend the Avast Home edition of their antivirus programs. And, in the future, I'll probably purchase registered version to help support the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oriolesfan93p Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 I have also been impressed by Avast, but there are 2 others that do just as well in my opinion, and those are AVG and Panda, both have free versions available, and for all 3 companies the paid for versions offer more options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMalcolmConnection Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 AVG Antivirus is also a great one. They all are basically a wash in my opinion (the best free ones). Where one is lacking, the other will make up for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Sick Posted July 7, 2006 Share Posted July 7, 2006 I use Avast and AdAware and (knock on wood) haven't had any viruses / spyware / malware problems since they were installed, a couple of years ago. I also run acouple of other spyware progs periodically just to make sure AdAware hasn't missed anything! So far so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baculus Posted July 7, 2006 Author Share Posted July 7, 2006 Aye, I definitely agree with using layer applications to prevent virus and such. I use AVG, Adware, SpyBot, and I scan my box with online scanners, and now Avant. Thus far, I am clean, especially for the occasional data mining cookie. Between all these apps and being careful, a user should be able to keep their computer relatively clean of software malware. I gotta hand it to the companies that provide the free software - they are really doing a great service for the public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrapeApe Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 A great utility to have is the Ultimate Boot CD. It has AVG and I believe Avast and a bunch of hard drive utilities and linux rescue boot image as well as memory and cpu testing utilities. I use AVG but will definitely give Avast a try. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselPwr44 Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 Is this the virus cleaner?? I'm at the site and hope to get the right one..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrockster21 Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Sweet...downloading Avast now. I got fed up with Norton...what a piece of crap. I hated it. I will also check out AdAware...I've got SpyBot now, but Norton interfered with it so I couldn't use it effectively...:doh: DON'T SUPPORT SYMANTEC!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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