Virus's & Program To Get Rid Of Them

[tigerlily]

My computer started acting funny this morning. AVG hadn't picked anything up, so I went to PCPitstop and did their free virus scan, which found 2 virus's. I downloaded a trial of Panda Titanium Antivirus 2005 and got rid of all sorts of things. However, regedit still won't work....just gives me a command prompt window and nothing else. I'm wondering if I'll have to reinstall Windows to fix it.

Also, I was wondering what y'all use for an antivirus program? I normally use AVG Free edition, but I'm a bit miffed at it right now for not spotting those 2 virus's. I really like this Panda software, but I've never used it before. And since it's $50 a year, I thought I'd try getting some opinions before buying it.

[Blake]

Bulletproofsoft.com

It has the best spyware and adware removers, and recommended by computer experts. It found everything that didn't show up on the other spyware remover. Or, have you tried Norton Anti-Virus?

BPS has a bad cost, but its worth it...

[Kubby]

Out of all the virus scanners i found Panda to be not tht good. The best I'v used is a program called Kaspersky, too many virus's now have been created with Norton in mind and too many affect Norton to easily. Thats only my humble opinion of course

[mogster500]

Try avast, it catches most everthing, has on access scanners and is free.

[Dragonfire]

Isn't AVG like 4 or 5 years old?

I have been using CA's ez Armor. I get it free since I'm a Roadrunner customer, and it includes an antivirus, firewall, anti-spam (only for Outlook/Express), and anti-spyware. However, since my computer is stupid it won't upgrade so I've been using ZoneAlarm.

[Hunter Lupe]

Isn't AVG like 4 or 5 years old?

Antivirus programs don't age (as much as other software does). They are kept up-to-date by definition (signature) updates, which means they can catch virii that were written years after the antivirus was written (if, of course, it was updated in those years ).

[Trick]

AVG free edition is what I used to use, and then later the pro version or whatever it's called. I thought it was great, until I tried another scanner and found 2 or 3 viruses sitting on my pc :/

I ran Kaspersky for a while and in my experience (of fixing everyone else's computers) it's the best at system scanning (around 99% of all viruses will be caught). However I prefer NOD32, which also had a good system scan but also a fantastic real time protection system that basically stops me getting any viruses sneaking in in the first place, on websites...anywhere really, terminating self downloaders. Saves me hassle as I'm lazy Either NOD32 or Kaspersky is best

I think they only have trials rather than free editions though. Depending on your definition of "free". Ahem. What I recommended to people using one of the cheaper or free virus scanners (or rubbish ones like norton or mcafee) is if you really can't get a non-free scanner then the least you can do is run AVG free alongside another virus scanner. Between them they should catch most viruses although it's still not as good as getting a better scanner in the first place. If you are doing that though, periodically download the latest version of stinger from this website: http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ It's a program that specialises in many of the nasty trojans and worms that many pcs are susceptible too, both common and rare. I use it on other people's pcs a lot

[werepup]

I use the online scanner on trend.com. I've found it does the job.

[Illumination]

I used NOD32 for a day or so lol. It was highly recommended by Australian PC User (magazine) so I installed it for a day.. and I formatted the day after, and I haven't needed it since. It seemed alright to me.