An ounce of prevention > pound of cure

[Dillon 1st MRB]

First off, you get crap on your systems. It happens. You install a program, you uninstall a program. You get layer upon layer of crap. So how do we get rid of this crap? Well, I use Crap Cleaner. This can actually take a few minutes, but its worth it. Just know that it can delete all of your cookies, so you may have to log into a couple of websites from time to time. But as it cleans through your registry, its worth it. And you can choose to not let delete your cookies.

Crap Cleaner at Majorgeeks.com

The next thing I find important to have is a better disk optimization program. The one that comes with Windows is fine and dandy, but there are better options out there. My favorite is Auslogics Disk Defrag. It has two modes: defragement and defragrament w/ optimize. Run this once a week (once a month for you lazy bastards out there), and things that can often get fragmented (like DODS maps), will no longer have this issue.

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Okay, so you fucked up and you have a problem. You hit the gay animal porn site, and now mom is going to find out because you keep getting an Ashton Kutcher look-a-like "standing behind" a sheep that keeps baa-ing. Its fine. We've all been there. Well, not really, but your predeliction for Old MacDonald's 4-H entry is something between you and Flossy the Sheep. So how do you get rid of the embarrassing stuff? Well, folks, there isn't a magic bullet out there, but there is something damn close. Its called Malwarebytes and I haven't found anything it can't get rid of yet. When I worked in a college and students would bring me their unusable computers, it could fix any issue with virii, trojans, or worms. Think you might have a problem? Run it. It takes a couple of hours, so maybe run it overnight.

Malware Bytes

Finally, you got your computer 7 months ago and guess what? Your anti-virus is expired. Those bastards! How dare they pull this sort of crap. Is this a bait and switch? Feeling screwed? Well, quit bending over and taking it from the trojans. There is some very good anti-virus software out there. Believe it or not, the highest rated free software out there right now is made by Microsoft. I am not going to tell you that your Anti-Virus is bad (unless it is) or that you need to switch to MS. I prefer Microsoft's AV over every paid product but NOD32 and Kaspersky. I hear great things about Norton 360, but I have not used it yet. If you want a good AV that is not a resource hog, Microsoft Security Essentials is worth a try.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Edited August 14, 2010 by Dillon 1st MRB

[Jasko]

C Cleaner is another great program to use for cleaning your registry as well as uninstalling prgrams.

I use Mydefrag for disk defragging and optimization. Mydefrag can also consolidate free space as well as flash memory drizes like a SSD.

[Dillon 1st MRB]

ccleaner is crap cleaner. I used it back before they went with a more "acceptible" name.

[Jasko]

Also Microsoft Security essentials is probably the best free antivirus I've ever used and only uses a running 4.5 megs on my machine.

[Jasko]

Avast lets sooo many trojans through its not even funny, and avg is retarded because their free edition isn't nearly as good as it used to be, not to mention avg themselves does not offer their free version anymore. The only two antiviruses i would pay for are kaspersky and NOD 32, but I don't really see a point in buying an antivirus. Another good free one is Avira, but it can cause game crashes.

[Sarsons]

I like AVG

[Janke 1st MRB]

Avast lets sooo many trojans through its not even funny, and avg is retarded because their free edition isn't nearly as good as it used to be, not to mention avg themselves does not offer their free version anymore. The only two antiviruses i would pay for are kaspersky and NOD 32, but I don't really see a point in buying an antivirus. Another good free one is Avira, but it can cause game crashes.

http://free.avg.com/ca-en/homepage

Search AVG Free on google, not that hard, I installed it 2 days ago on an old laptop.

I use a combination of AVG and Avira AntiVir, as well as Spybot and AdAware. Avira catches all the big threats, and AVG is better for shit like Spyware/Adware.

[Dillon 1st MRB]

http://free.avg.com/ca-en/homepage

Search AVG Free on google, not that hard, I installed it 2 days ago on an old laptop.

I use a combination of AVG and Avira AntiVir, as well as Spybot and AdAware. Avira catches all the big threats, and AVG is better for shit like Spyware/Adware.

Using two anti-virus programs is definately not a good thing to do, IF both of them are staying active. You really could consolidate into 1 AV program and malwarebytes. Try it, you'll love it.

For the record, malwarebytes has replaced spybot, adaware, hijackthis!, and Windows Defender for me. Its simply amazing.

[Tragedy]

Hmmm very helpful post, i never even herd of C-Cleaner so thanks =]

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

Very helpful, Dillon. Thanks.

[Janke 1st MRB]

Using two anti-virus programs is definately not a good thing to do, IF both of them are staying active. You really could consolidate into 1 AV program and malwarebytes. Try it, you'll love it.

For the record, malwarebytes has replaced spybot, adaware, hijackthis!, and Windows Defender for me. Its simply amazing.

I've heard this before, but never had conflicts between the two. I also find Avira is faster at picking up shit that tries downloading itself from embeds in webpages.