Crap, I think I have a virus.

Anyone know of any good antivirus/malware programs that are fwee?

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Avast is pretty good, I think.

Not as good as getting a proper OS like Linux or *BSD, though ;)

edited 28th Apr '11 2:40:42 PM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is pretty good.

Microsoft Security Essentials is my other program. It's not that great, though.]

I kinda want to install Linux, but I don't think I have enough computer-knowledge to... sadface.

edited 28th Apr '11 2:55:01 PM by AllanAssiduity

Avast is indeed good. I'm pretty careful when browsing, but since I started using Avast I haven't had any major virus issues.

No OS can overcome the User, but there's plenty of options.

Anyway, if those options don't work, you can try an anti-virus iso like Kaspersky, F-Secure or BitDefender.

Sometimes a virus program can be rather stubborn, and if you don't know how to deal with that, then a separate boot is the way to go.

Pendrivelinux will also let you copy most ISO's to a USB memory device if you don't have a DVD/CD burner.

Seconding Malwarebytes and Avast

Heapers’ Hangout

Oh, good. I had heard that Avast and Malwarebytes are good, just wanted to make sure. Thanks!

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Note that Malwarebytes works best if you run it on safe mode.

You can download a pirate language pack for avast.

So clearly, it is the best. Get it now.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

As in, pirated pack or "Arr, me hearties" pirate pack?

Because the latter would be all kinds of awesome.

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The latter.

Quick Example.◊

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

Out of curiosity. What made you find out you had a virus?

Seeing all these piss ant tropers trying to talk tough makes me laugh. If Matrix were here, he'd laugh too.

This obviously fake adware thingy that tried to download something.

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That sounds bad. I remember visiting the Metal gear section of Fanfiction.net on my school laptop. Then it froze and something came up that told me I had gotten viruses from a bunch porny sounding sites i never visited. (Granted, i was looking up porn) Then a message came up that said someone was trying to hack in my laptop and steal my identity and i had to download a virus protection thing which costed money. The strange thing is, i have never heard anyone say that they got a virus from fanfiction.net.

Seeing all these piss ant tropers trying to talk tough makes me laugh. If Matrix were here, he'd laugh too.

^ Might not have been fanfiction at all—viruses sometimes hibernate for a day or two so you don't know where you got them.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

I use Avira Anti Virus free edition. It's quite good. Only has two issues: 1) it will pull up (at most once a day) an ad to buy the money version and 2) it's not meant for the computer illiterate.

I think at least one of the porn sites had to do with metal gear.

Seeing all these piss ant tropers trying to talk tough makes me laugh. If Matrix were here, he'd laugh too.

I use AVG free edition on my netbook, and the only real problem is every time you open it, it suggests you get the full version (which I only really need on my much larger laptop). It also recently (IE a day or two ago) updated its engine and virus definitions.

edit: Oh, and if you install the toolbar, it likes to change your search engine to AVG's. I'd recommend against installing the toolbar

edited 28th Apr '11 9:44:46 PM by Acebrock

My troper wall

Malwarebytes has so far proven itself to be the best anti-virus software I've ever used, but it still doesn't cover all pockets. I'd recommend either Avast or AVG behind it doing a scan every once in a while to help keep a few more of those pockets filled. Get Malwarebytes and one of the other two, install both, update both, restart the computer in safe mode and run one and then the other.

Zone Alarm is quite an effective firewall if you can bear the fact that it'll be bugging you for a while after you first install it (the program is pretty smart but it needs to acquainted with you first). Plus, it's a two way firewall and quite secure both ways.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

If you have a virus, installing an antivirus after the damage is done is... well... duh. It may work but most of the viruses I've found so far now are capable of detecting installs and try to block an antivirus's way in, or even intercept the install and make use of the privileges to install themselves as if they were the antivirus.

That said, yeah, uh, Avast would be my choice for an antivirus. Second to actually using a Linux distro, of course. And while it may sound overkill, I have two antiviruses installed in my Windows systems: one as a service (usually Avast) and a separate one for scan on demand for some particular cases. For such purpose, AVG has proven to be quite effecive, as it is the easier to have its definitions updated and is the one that seems to work the best in emergency boots or from/over external drives.

Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?

Don't forget you can install them in same mode, though you'll lack the internet connection to get it fully up to date, but it should be enough to catch enough of the virus to either flat out kill it or mangle it up enough to allow you to get the program updated in normal mode.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

This. Anti-virus software works much better at preventing infections than eliminating one that has already manifested. Your best bet is, if you have the original OS disk (most computers don't anymore), to back up information from the computer you need, format and reinstall the OS, and then put an anti-virus software on it. It's much less of a hassle and more likely to work than just installing an anti-virus and hoping that it'll remove the virus or trying to manually find the virus and getting rid of it.

edited 30th Apr '11 1:57:16 AM by Driscoll

WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A DIALOG BOX INTERRUPT GAMEPLAY.

Nthing avast!, it's consistently protected my machine pretty well.

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

Avast! has the feature of not allowing you to exit it. This is useful for protection against viruses; on the other hand, it's a problem if you temporarily need to free up RAM.

It's easy enough to install/uninstall if need be, just something worth pointing out.

edited 30th Apr '11 3:17:55 AM by newtonthenewt

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

Switched to Avast, where's that Pirate thingy?

Fight smart, not fair.