Help with security software

Brand spankin' new here, so please be kind! I'm looking for opinions on which freeware offers the best antivirus/antispyware/firewall protection and plays together well. Please help me make the best choice, thanks so much!:wave

 

Thanks for your response! This particular m/c has Win 2000 SP4, with AMD Athlon(tm) Processor 64 30 00+. I take it that's 64 bit? Another PC that got the OS hosed by Internet Security 2010 virus has WinXP on it, I did backup the registry first via SpyBot but have no idea how to restore from there. The PC boots up, I can login, the desktop flashed by for one second, and the OS shuts down. I did read the malware link but was overwhelmed by what all it said. On this Win2000 PC I currently have SpyBot, AdAware and Zone Alarm, and am worried I can fall victim to that same nasty virus (spent all last weekend scanning and trying different tools to remove it before reading up on it after it was too late). If you still suggest the ones that you did, now knowing what I'm running, I will uninstall and download those. Please confirm...thanks again!

 

I'm sorry to post again, but feel it's important. I did download CCcleaner and the Windows update to allow Autorun to be disabled a few days ago, but have been somewhat timid to begin as I have not yet backed up a decade's worth of data on here. I have a CD/DVD burner but no clue the best way to do this. Can you suggest freeware to accomplish this with? I see a backup option in Win2000 system tools, just need a little help getting started. I also have Advanced WindowsCare V2 Personal...not sure what this is? Thanks again.

 

I am on dialup using a phone line, so I am not sure if that is P2P. I do use FDM for a download manager. I have ZoneAlarm Pro version 3.5.166. I agree that AdAware is not great, it did not find the Internet Security 2010 virus on the XP PC whereas SpyBot did. But then I said "fix all problems" and suddenly had no OS. I'm sure I agreed to delete important files not knowing what they were, and did backup registry thru SpyBot beforehand, but do not know how to restore this now that I can't get the OS up. To clarify, this is on the XP system, not the Win2000 m/c I'm typing from now and want to protect from this problem. Thanks for the tip on the "3 dots" I will not do that again. Thanks so much for the info on the backup program and the other one that I have, will read the links.:-o

 

Hi, really wanna thank you for your help here. I have all files ready to install that you suggested, with the exception of Malware Bytes, which I believe is no longer freeware? Is there a similar tool you can suggest to replace it? Also, do you know of software that finds duplicate copies of the same file on your machine? What with over 13 GB of data to backup, I'd like to pare it down as much as possible before doing so. And I'm guessing writing to DVD would be better than CD, correct? You guys are the best, thanks again!

 

txs so much, Halo - you are AWESOME! No, I had no intention of deleting any files other than pix, videos, and files that I created MYSELF. Really appreciate it, and this screen shot clears everything up! Have a great day.

 

ahhhh, so it's really David - yeah, I think Halo would be too hefty of a title for me to try and uphold! LOL Enjoy your day too, David. Julie

 

Hi David,

First of all, I know you will send me to that malware link, but I thought I'd check with you first just to see if you have anything to recommend. This was from a friend's laptop that I was emailing to, I'm hoping I didn't give them the virus, but it did not show up on mine as of yet. The log is attached; if you can just look at it I would appreciate your advice. And again, I do know that I need to go to that other screen and figure things out there. But some words from you first would really help here. Thanks David. Julie

 

Thanks very much, David. As it turns out, this laptop is owned by Xerox, so we will let the SA folks handle things as they would view our installing 3rd party software on their machine dimly, I surmise. I did install Avast and scan my system, it suggested a scan at boot level which found a virus in a temp file of Windows with the name consisting of numbers, as well as a few spyware files in a directory I had for iGive shopping (I belong to an animal rescue group that benefits from this tool). I was unable to move the files to the cabinet or repair them, so I did NOT say delete all, but delete once, came back with file deleted, scan repeated and m/c booted. I ran Avast scan again with a clean report. BTW Malwarebytes found none of this when I scanned originally. I did backup files beforehand with todobackup, was unable to write to DVD but the 14GB file is on a secondary hard drive at E: and I also discovered I had Nero Backitup on here, that wrote to DVD but said some files were locked by another program (todo I suspect). The malware on my friends machine did not identify itself specifically as Internet Security 2010, as it did on the one I had it hit, and the desktop background was white, not blue, but I'm glad you told me what it was. Hopefully EDS has encountered this before and can fix the Xerox PC. Thanks again, and enjoy your Monday (my job ends in 10 days so I'm not sure I will). Julie

 

Thanks. I should also have mentioned that when I installed ToDo it noted a possible conflict with ZoneAlarm, but said that it MAY be necessary to remove ZA and reinstall todo or something like that. Also, the backup verification failed on the 3rd and last DVD, saying backup_0007 is corrupt. Avast also found some word docs at boot level saying the zip archive was corrupt which confused me. I guess I'm not totally confident I have sufficiently backed things up, so I will buy more DVDs, run Nero again, and see if I can figure out how to make ToDo write to DVD as well. I did not yet install the PC Tools firewall; my Zone Alarm is the pro version so I am not sure what is best to do here. I still have SpyBot but would like to remove it in favor of the Spywareblaster you suggested. Ideally, I'd like a tool that says "hey, there's a prob w/this file --- but if you delete it, you'll have no OS" now, THAT would be ideal for people like me that, if I quote a friend describing me "knows just enough to be dangerous". Enjoy your day, David. Julie:-D

 

Oh, SpyBot is DEFINITELY going, I can only hope that Spywareblaster does not allow me to delete an important system file like SpyBot did when the Internet Security 2010 virus hit my sister's computer - I may just defer to you if I should get rid of a file I am unfamiliar with, if that's OK. I hope that ZoneAlarm Pro is just as good as PC Tools firewall, but more importantly, that it is not interfering with ToDo backup and causing the verification to fail. I won't be back on that machine until Sunday. BTW, my friend's laptop was worked on all day by EDS, they removed/cleaned off the virus, rebooted and it returned. I'm thinking they had to disable system restore to get rid of it completely, from what I'm reading. But I guess they are moving all the data over to reinstall, etc. Thanks much for your help, David. Julie