Anti virus / malware software? Malwarebytes Anti Malware?

[Chris Wilson]

I was disappointed to find a file I thought suspect was passed as OK by a fresh and updated install of AVG Free, under a clean install on a new hard drive of XP Pro with all updates on it from MS. I trusted it, ran the .exe file and got a terrible set of infections, the worst being that damned ping.exe virus and something eventually discovered to be Rootkit.ZeroAccess I thought I had rid of everything, then found I could no longer make Firefox my default browser, and was finding both blank and populated windows of IE8 launching. I need the laptop for work, and despite it being freshly loaded with a lot licensed automotive diagnostic stuff I decided to do a full (not quick) re format, and reinstall XP Pro from scratch. I then re flashed the BIOS with a fresh bios image direct from Dell, downloaded via a clean PC. With no internet connection I then loaded the Recovery Console files from a virgin MS XP Pro CD, and ran fixMBR and the command to rebuild the boot sector, which I forget. I am now at the stage where I can start installing my applications again, but should I reinstall XP pro again, knowing (hoping...?) the boot sector and MBR are now clean? What I also do not fully understand is if MBAM is an adequate standalone virus checker for viruses in general, or just for "malware" whatever that means, which I think could be different things to different people. I now find my trust in AVG (albeit it was only a currently updated free version) gone. If MBAM is not a sufficient tool for all round protection what should I be looking at please? Thanks and a very happy Christmas to all.

[Branners]

I think the last flavour of the month was Avast.

 

I personally use Microsoft Security Essentials which is free and seems to do a pretty good job.

 

I use MBAM if/when friends computers get infected as it seems to remove most things, not relied on it as my sole AV/Spyware solution before.

[johnny g]

Avast is pretty decent.

I use ESET, personally.

[Tricky-Ricky]

I switched back to AVG free last year, and have had no problems, was using Avira free before and had a similar episode to you with it,

so i am inclined to think that there are quite a few that can do an adequate job until that nasty one that they where not prepared for comes through, so in summery, its a bit of a lucky dip, i also use Malware bytes, with a good success rate.

[Chris Wilson]

Does ESET allow me to use it on both my desktop and my laptop, or do they consider that two users? I looked on their site and saw it was what was called NOD32, which I know my somewhat lesser known e-mail app will integrate with (The Bat). Cheers. What about the others, will they work on both, or do I need two licences, I know the MS one is free, I mean the other pay for ones? Thanks!

[creative]

Im a fan of avg.

 

I have avg2011 full version with malwarebytes full and zonealarm pro for my firewall.

 

MWB on its own is not an antivirus.

 

It sounds like you went the long way of re installing Chris. A format of the drive and reinstall windows from the disk is enough. Personally I would dual boot with xp for your car software and W7 for normal day to day stuff. Windows have/are dropping support for xp so using it as your normal OS might be a bit risky. I also have VMware with W7, xp and linux so I can test anything I have a feeling may be dodgy in a sandbox environment.

 

One thing I will do on my next install is get the computer to how I want it and clone the drive. If I have any problems in the future I can just use the clone image.

[manny]

I like Avast because i like the American lady talking to me everytime i switch my computer on.

[Pete]

It's quite unfortunate to get a virus after a fresh install and after updating your AVG etc.

 

I find virus checking software has become over bloated and too intrusive slowing many older machines down to a crawl so I tend to use Microsofts own free one as John said. It's also good to install Defender which is their malware detector.

 

I think the days of viruses attaching to the MBR are long gone - in fact viruses in general are pretty scarce across our ISP in general. Looking at the last 6 months of data we had about 130 viruses detected and that's across hundreds of thousands of emails.

It's all become about social engineering and getting you to install things that look friendly but aren't (as my dear father found out again yesterday). They either then try to steal your data or use you as a spam bot - these two things are worth real money in the right circles.