One program to rule them all?

iwb

Although I am fairly pc savvy, I haven't kept up with security a whole lot. I use Firefox and Thunderbird. I run Zone alarm and AVG and check my pc using Spybot and Adaware. However, I tried another program called Spysweeper the other day just after clearing my machine with the above and it still found 'malware'. I didn't buy it for $29.95 until I know that it is worth buying or not.
Is there any one program or suite of programs that will reliably do the whole job, including preventing this malware and adware sh1t embedding itself in the first place?
Many people ask me for advice but as I don't have the knowledge myself and can't quite keep my own machine clean, I am not much use to them. In fact, if there was a sticky or other permanent resource available I would point people to it.

Dingatron

I think your pretty well covered with what you've got. I'd update firefox to 1.0.1 and just make sure that you keep all the apps upto date. Theres also a spyware tool from microsoft which is pretty good and was availible as a beta version a while ago. You could look at getting the professional versions of AVG etc which have more features.

iwb

Thanks for the speedy reply. What about something that stops the malware etc. in the first place, before it is loaded on the computer? I think Adaware paid is supposed to do this for adware but there are other types of nasty things out there also that it won't cover I think.
Ultimately, as I said, there needs to be either one program that will do the trick, or someplace where a guy can go to find out the best regime to follow to keep a machine free of crap.

MrVestek

iwb wrote:

What about something that stops the malware etc. in the first place, before it is loaded on the computer?

Spybot Search & Destroy can do this. It's in one of the menu options, you'll have to root it out but it's in there if i'm not mistaken.

Good luck.

Capt'n Midnight

Wrong forumn - advise on picking off the shelf software is not a security issue.
A new type of threat might be

have a look at the windows forum

Oh yeah the security bit, many "me too" anti malware products are copies of free ones so I'd avoid any paid ones that aren't from major players. Since many of the major players have for years done nothing about spyware but claimed that thier AV products were able to kill 99.5% viruses I'd also avoid them too and spend the money on some Backup media CDR's etc. .

iwb

Thanks Cap'n Midnight. I am wondering what this forum is actually for though. I didn't really want advice on picking off the shelf software. What I am really after is the best security solution I can get and more importantly, one I can recommend to others less au fait with computers.
I believe that this is a security discussion and not necessarily windows specific as those with Mac or Linux OS'es will have the same requirements. Collectively, we could come up with these solutions through discussion and create a sticky, wiki or another appropriate method to point people towards.
Thanks also to Achilles. I will take a look.

dogs

iwb wrote:

spyware

iwb wrote:

those with Mac or Linux OS'es will have the same requirements.

No.



While not a complete cure-all, a little pre-emptive user education would defeat a lot of spyware -- and help with a lot of other security problems too.