Advice For Keeping computer as new

ShoulderChip

Hi, I ran into a lot of virus problems there, which were so bad they required a complete re-install of Vista.

so I have just installed Vista Ultimate, and my 2ghz processor with 2gb of Ram is running pretty damn quick, just looking for advice on how to keep it this way, and to stop any future viruses, spyware etc coming on board.

I was thinking of signing up for the Kapersky Free trial with a view to purchasing it (the overall internet security one) is this my best bet?


If indeed this solves the problem is there anymore advice you can offer me, I guess I will in a short amount of time be installing a lot of programms onto it,

Google Chrome
Firefox
Winamp
Utorrent
PeerGuardian
etc.


anything that you would do if you got the chance at a new computer?

thanks for your time.

cpu-dude

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Hi, I ran into a lot of virus problems there, which were so bad they required a complete re-install of Vista.

so I have just installed Vista Ultimate, and my 2ghz processor with 2gb of Ram is running pretty damn quick, just looking for advice on how to keep it this way, and to stop any future viruses, spyware etc coming on board.

I was thinking of signing up for the Kapersky Free trial with a view to purchasing it (the overall internet security one) is this my best bet?


If indeed this solves the problem is there anymore advice you can offer me, I guess I will in a short amount of time be installing a lot of programms onto it,

Google Chrome
Firefox
Winamp
Utorrent
PeerGuardian
etc.


anything that you would do if you got the chance at a new computer?

thanks for your time.

Well first thing I do on my computer is install Firefox with Ad-Block Plus.

Secondly, I remove all references to Internet Explorer and set Internet Options to have a proxy of 127.0.0.1 with port 80. This way, the only traffic that will come through correctly (via a browser) is through Firefox, Internet Explorer will just instantly say cannot find server which is exactly what you want (because it's trying to connect through your computers address or localhost - not going to happen).

I personally don't use an Anti-Virus but if I have to, I would use Kaspersky or AVG alright but don't have it too strict, it's not necessary. Just set it to run a scan every forthnight (which is plenty) with a real time scanner and your good to go.

I use the same setup above (without an anti-virus) and I haven't got a virus since I used Internet Explorer some few years ago - it's where everything gets in.

Did a few Acid3 tests today, you won't believe the results.

Firefox 3 - 72 / 100
Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 - 95 / 100
Google Chrome - 100 / 100
Internet Explorer 6 - 4 / 100
Internet Explorer 8 - 20 /100

leninbenjamin

ShoulderChip wrote: »

Hi, I ran into a lot of virus problems there, which were so bad they required a complete re-install of Vista.

so I have just installed Vista Ultimate, and my 2ghz processor with 2gb of Ram is running pretty damn quick, just looking for advice on how to keep it this way, and to stop any future viruses, spyware etc coming on board.

I was thinking of signing up for the Kapersky Free trial with a view to purchasing it (the overall internet security one) is this my best bet?


If indeed this solves the problem is there anymore advice you can offer me, I guess I will in a short amount of time be installing a lot of programms onto it,

Google Chrome
Firefox
Winamp
Utorrent
PeerGuardian
etc.


anything that you would do if you got the chance at a new computer?

thanks for your time.

I don't know how you use torrents, but getting a virus bundled into a torrent is probably the biggest risk you face. Take care with them, and scan them with Avira or something similar as they come in.

in terms of performance, other things you could do would be disk clean-ups once a week, run CCcleaner every now and then, and Defrag every now and then. And just avoid installing programs that set themselves to run at start up.

Overheal

With torrents, the pirate bay keeps tabs (Pink or Green Jolly Roger's) next to Trusted and VIP torrents. If youre going down that route, only use those trackers.

At the end of the day an Internet Security Suite can help you from a sudden and unplanned failure. I keep Norton I.S. myself and it has saved me the odd time. But no matter what you do on a PC, performance will degrade over time. You should still always be prepared to reformat and reinstall at least every year. An oil change in your car, tbh. It just needs to be done. At least with Internet Security youll at least get to choose when you want to reformat rather than have it forced on you.

another +1 for occassional ccleaner scans. And get a 3rd party defragger like defraggler or Perfectdisk (I just use free trials of it). Firefox with Adblock+ and/or noscript stop the vast majority of internet bloat.

unnameduser

my biggest downfall in the past was installing progs to test them out, I could test 10 or more programs a day. Needless to say the installations and moreso uninstallations lead to poor performance. So now I have a bog standard desktop that i remote into just for testing programs.

Apart from that, if anyone else uses your computer make sure they don't have admin priviledges, keep an eye on startup progs.

One final tip, I create regular disk images so that if I facing a reinstall I can simply reimage rather than install and reinstall all 3rd party progs.

Amalgam

Overheal wrote: »

With torrents, the pirate bay keeps tabs (Pink or Green Jolly Roger's) next to Trusted and VIP torrents. If youre going down that route, only use those trackers.

I have found infected material with the Golly Rogers, not trustworthy.

---

OP, I would use a browser like Firefox and install NoScript and AdblockPlus.

Purchase and use a program like Acronis True Image so that you're not constantly having to start from scratch if you hit a wall due to dodgy software or other problems.

Your attitude. Keep an idea of risk. Are you sure it is worth installing a game or clicking on an easily downloaded .exe you know nothing about?

People ramble on about the internet as if it's some sort of Tsunami of badness ready to feel up your computer. What you find a lot, helping others, is that it is often a 'user' problem, not necessarily a virus that has slipped in, but an eagerness to double click anything and everything within reach.

FruitLover

DO

NOT

RUN

AS

AN

ADMINISTRATIVE

USER

Blazer

FruitLover wrote: »

DO

NOT

RUN

AS

AN

ADMINISTRATIVE

USER

They always do though..don't they :pac:

JæKæ

As regards torrents, you're usually ok if you keep to sites that require a login. It's the free, open ones like btjunkie and mininova that are not well regulated.
Sites that require login and Invite-only sites like What.cd, Waffles.fm, bitgamer.com, goem.org, thebox.bz, are all reliable.
VLC player is a good app for videos-it doesn't require any codecs. This is a common way of spreading viruses too.
Spybot is good for keeping spyware at bay. It has a part that monitors for registry changes if you are paranoid about free download exes