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Which free spyware/adware/popup blocker/antivirus to use? 2

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tearsmith

Technical User
Sep 7, 2003
34
US
All,

I have what I hope are simple questions...

Setup
5 home computers - 3 desktop 2 laptop
Main - Win Xp
Second/Third - Win 2000
Laptop 1 - Win 2000
Laptop 2 - (crashed right now, but using 98 when fixed)
Internet explorer (Bellsouth DSL)
Outlook Express
Norton Anti-virus (expired Dec 2004)
Westell Modem
Netgear router(supposed to have a firewall)

Questions -
1. I have read faq760-4962, good place to start. Do I run these procedures on every machine before I begin?

2. I am limited on funds (very, thus the expired Antivirus). Is there a free/cheap antivirus program out there? If so, do I install it on every pc?

3. I need a free adware/spyware program. I've seen names for many, but which are the best? I did a search on my c: and d: drive looking for all .exe files. There were over 100 returned. I know that I don't have that many programs installed, so how do I know which are bad?

4. What does "Hijackthis" do exactly?

5. Pop-ups are driving me crazy. My other 4 pc's have Yahoo! Toolbar on them and they never, never have popups. I downloaded it on my main PC, but the activeX control is disabled under Tools>Manage Addons> . I have tried to enable it, but it's greyed out and says that only the administrator can enable it. But who is the administrator?

Please let me know the best way to go. I have 3 kids on the internet daily and they constantly select OK without reading the box first, so I am sure stuff is there that should not be. I get popups offering to scan all the time, but I have never done that fearing that those ads were spyware or adware themselves.

Thanks,
Tearsmith
 
Heya!

We'll take this one at a time...

1. That is what you do when you've been infected and are preparing to remove the spyware/virus/malware program. It is a good guide to help prevent you from re-infecting yourself.

2. AVG, by Grisoft is a free antivirus program. As long as you aren't running this in an "enterprise" environment I believe that the freeware version of this can be used for your home. And yes, install antivirus to every system.

3. You'll always find more .exe files than you would expect. Don't worry overly much. As for spyware programs, the "Best" is very subjective for these. My suggestion is to run 2 programs...for free programs I would suggest picking two of these three.
Spybot
Adaware
Microsoft Beta

4. Hijack This! Lists out all processes currently running on your system and then will list any "suspect" entries it sees in the registry or other parts of your system. You'll have to research and know what each entry is prior to removing it.

5. I don't really utilize any Pop-Up blocker, I just utilize Windows XP's built in blocker. As for administrator, if you're not currently the administrator of your machine then who built it? If you did, you should have the administrator user name and password.

I would suggest that you setup each of your kids with a seperate account from yours with only user rights. This will prevent them from installing or changing any core system settings. In addition have the spyware and antivirus software loaded to each system, in addition to some kind of firewall.
 
aquias,

Thank you so much. I've gotten started, but questions...

#5. The system was built by sony and I bought it at BestBuy, so I didn't build it myself. I don't know where to go from here...help?

Also, about setting up the kids their own account, how do I do that?

Thanks,tearsmith
 
hi tearsmith,

After downloading, installing, updating and scanning with apps that aquias suggested (#3)

#5
download and install, this alternative to Internet Explorer is 'currently' a far safer choice and will end most of your pop up browsing issues.
For IE the google toolbar combined with SP2 does the job.
 
stopspyware - Per my first post, can you tell me how to get my Add-ons manager to allow the toolbar. I have downloaded Yahoo! Toolbar and love it on my other computers, but on the XP the ActiveX control says Disabled and won't allow me to Enable it. It says that this is only allowed by the administrator. My husband and I are set up as admins, but it won't ungrey for either of us. The system was store bought and came loaded with IE, OE, and XP. Sony Vaio is th brand. Can someone please tell me how to enable the adminsitrator stuff? I have tried everything.

Happo - the program you are suggesting, does it run along side of IE or does it unistall IE and run alone. Is it easy to use?

Thanks,tearsmith
 
Hey Tearsmith,

Run through these steps for me.

1. Start Menu
2. Control Panel
3. User Accounts

On this screen you should see all accounts that have been added to the system and it should tell you if you are an administrator or part of another group. It is also in here that you can add new users to the computer.

This link is all about creating home user accounts


If you still do not have admin access, this may be a problem with the OEM image of the system. On the Windows XP forum we had a long discussion about this several months ago. Things to try

1. Re-install the OS from a restore procedure
2. Contact the store and ask them about possibly doing a new installation of the software.

Those are the best options, unless you have a full install of XP and can do it yourself.

Now,

Happo does bring up a good point. Mozilla (Firefox) is a much more secure browser than Windows Explorer. It has many additional features and add ons. There are a few things to consider though.

1. Mozilla has a very different feel than IE. It does take some getting used to.

2. Not all websites will display properly with it.

3. There are a lot more features and things to customize (at least in my opinion) in Mozilla.

4. It is much more secure than IE (Coded that way and less hacks target it than IE)

There are some very big Mozilla users (I use it in conjunction with IE) that can give you a much more thorough explanation than I.

In regards to your question, Mozilla installs "Next to" IE. You can run both programs on your system at the same time.
 
Aguis,

Thank you for your suggestions. I think I will give Mozilla a try for a bit. I can always remove it if I don't like it, right?

Also, I do have a new WinXP disk. I can do a full installation. Here's the questions...
1. If I put the disk in the drive, it opens automatically, and begins asking the install questions all programs do. Will it just install itself over the other, or do I need to remove the other first and then install. If so, how do I do that?

2. Will any programs or files or anything be lost or changed if I reinstall?

3. Once I install it, do I need to reset the 4 user accounts I have now, or will they still be there?

4. How do I make sure that the new install gives me administrator rights. I checked the User Accounts just as you suggested and my husband's account and mine both list as admin accounts, but neither of us can enable the ActiveX control.

Thanks,Tearsmith
 
It sounds, to me, as if there is a problem with your system image. I haven't seen it personally but I've seen more than a few posts about new machines with problems very similiar to this.

The first thing I would try is to create a new account with administrator rights and see if the problem persists.

There are two ways to do an installation. The first is in an "In place" installation. You merely install Windows XP over itself, for this you keep all of your personal files intact but have to re-install some/all programs and recreate current profiles.

The other is a "Full" install, this is where you completely replace Windows XP, all files, and all drivers. Personally, I recommend this over any other form of install because it clears out almost all possible corruption or problems.

Prior to doing either there are a few things to ensure.

1. You have a driver disk for your system, this will allow you to install all hardware that XP is unable to do so.

2. You have all program disks so you can re-install any application that is/was currently on your system.

3. You have a backup of ALL personal files. If not they will be lost.

Now onto the next piece of this.

To do a full install.

1. Place the CD into the CD ROM and reboot.
2. When prompted to, press a key.
3. Follow this link...

You will have to re-create all profiles and, by default, the first profile created will have administrator rights.
 
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