so i just got this laptop like 2 months ago. has a norton 60 trail thing which sucks norton said it has 7 days till expiration then all of a sudden it says i have a virus and does nothing i rarely download anything and im always on facebook and clutchfans and reading the chronicle anyone know of a good virus killer and protection program.
AVG Anti-Virus is a good, free option. If you are going to pay, McAfee and Symantec are roughly equal, though I have always felt that McAfee has a smaller memory footprint.
All of these are free utilities (for non-commercial use) Virus AVG - www.grisoft.com Avast - www.avast.com Trend Micro (House Call - online virus scanner) - housecall.trendmicro.com Symantec (Norton Online Security Scan - online virus scanner) - security.symantec.com Adware/Malware/Spyware Malwarebytes - www.malwarebytes.org Ad-Aware - www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php Spybot Search & Destroy - www.safer-networking.org I would suggest using a combination, if not all of these to clean out your system. They all work, but with differing degrees of success. One of the tricks of new virii and malware is that it will recognize when you are running one of the major cleaners and will block all attempts at starting the application. I just finished cleaning a client's computer off and had to use Avast as my initial cleaning application. Symantec, AVG and TrendMicro were all blacklisted by the infecting virus so I could not get any of those to run properly. Fortunately, Avast had not been recognized yet and helped solve the problem. Good luck!
I hate to say it, but nowadays you need more than anti-virus. you need... anti-spyware (I recommend Spybot Search and Destroy) anti-adware (I recommend AdAware) anti-malware (I recommend Malwarebytes) anti-virus (I prefer Norton Anti Virus) And a properly configured and secured firewall
I was trying to deal with the "Spyguard 2008" related virus at my in-laws over the weekend. When you get infected with that, it prevents you from going to anti-virus related websites such as Norton and Symantec among others. It also does other nefarious things. I ended up reinstalling Widnows into a separate directory so I could get their system back to a state where I could save their documents folder (which is all they really cared about) and move it onto the new iMac we got them for Christmas.
Got rid of the Spyguard 2008 virus by using a program called Combofix... We will see if it's a permanent fix though.
Honestly the smartest thing to do is reformat. Look, anyone in IT will tell you nine out of ten times it's better to format because you'll know it's gone. Backup your documents and bite the bullet. Think about it, if you caught the flu and could just wipe your body clean of it, wouldn't you? The same goes for a computer. If you don't completely wipe it, your computer could die on you at a much more important hour.
It's a low level virus that can cause media to become corrupt. You still have complete functionality. I'm not sure about that specific virus, but most virus issues like that can be solved by a selective startup and safe-mode boot, but it has to be both in combo. The reason being is that when a machine boots in safe mode it only boots the kernal, and the rest of the processes including some drivers get left behind. Most viruses can't go deep enough to effect the kernal...
i always recommend system restore first. that usually works 50% of the time. it's saved me from reformatting on two different computers. program files->accessories->system tools->system restore. choose at least a month before the known infection date. note: this does not erase your documents, just the window's system files. avg or any other free anti-virus software is practically useless AFTER you've received the virus.
