Vista & spyware

The older Ad-Aware SE 1.06 is fine in Vista, dont know what they broke in the 2007 new version tho, but its now not an application I would recomend due to it making a fuss over tracking cookies to scare the user, CCleaner is not anti-malware all it does is clean the junk from your PC.

As you have real-time malware scanning in Norton 360 you should not add any other realtime scanning applications, you can add on demand scanners as in Ad-Aware ( when 2007 version is Vista ready ), A2 etc plus you already have as part of Vista Windows Defender which real scans.

But what I would definatly add to your system is Spywareblaster, it doesnt scan or run but it does add known bad web sites and blocks bad ActiveX from running.. this is purely preventative.


Spywareblaster ( free )
http://www.majorgeeks.com/SpywareBlaster_d2859.html

A2 ( free )
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4281
Great complimentry scanner which scans and finds much more than many retail Antivirus software.

 

Yes Ems, you should as its a superb free tool to prevent the nasty activeXs, malware, dialers and known bad websites from ever installing or loading their payload via your browser be that IE or FF.

What this software does is to add known bad sites to the blocked site lists, you can view this list easily, by in IE going to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy tab and click Sites.

and FF you goto Tools > Options > Privacy tab and click Exceptions


This software you have to manually update once a week, or you can support the developer Javacool and pay for the version that autoupdates, they also have some other good tools in

http://www.majorgeeks.com/MRU-Blaster_d4184.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3045.html

Both work in Vista fine too.

 

TBH I dont think you'll need the other tools, just get Spywareblaster as that will compliment what you already have

Sadly we can go way overboard on anti malware tools, so best to have a nice small core set of apps.

 

Yes 3.5.1 is latest version, the updates generally are once a week at the weekend, so best to check for updates on a saturday. The updates are just updating the definition files for new bad websites.