spybot

[pintail]

i wonder if any of the computer techs on here recommend where i can download spybot, there seem so many places offering a free spybot download but didnt know which site is best, ive been told spybot is a good free anti virus programme to have, cheers,

[CaptainBeaky]

afaik, Spybot is anti malware, not anti virus.

[Munzy]

As above, it's anti-malware rather than anti-virus. It does have a useful tool which monitors the registry to ensure programmes don't add themselves into the startup sequence themselves. When you find a computer getting slower and slower to boot it's often because years of downloaded programmes are all booting up automatically. Spybot will prevent this for you.

 

http://www.safer-networking.org

[bullet1747]

not to take over wots the difference in malware and virus , I'm not a comp geek I know how to switch on and use PW

[phaedra1106]

Spybot was one of the better anti malware programs but MalwareBytes would be a better choice. CNet downloads is a safe place to download from, they have a top 40 Windows downloads page here,

 

http://download.cnet.com/windows/most-popular/3101-20_4-0.html?tag=rb_content;main

 

Also worth downloading and running CCleaner

Edited December 23, 2013 by phaedra1106

[Chris Bb]

As above, it's anti-malware rather than anti-virus. It does have a useful tool which monitors the registry to ensure programmes don't add themselves into the startup sequence themselves. When you find a computer getting slower and slower to boot it's often because years of downloaded programmes are all booting up automatically. Spybot will prevent this for you.

 

http://www.safer-networking.org

 

But how do you sort the good guys from the bad? Which are necessary and which aren't?

[Munzy]

It's more a case of what do you need running from start-up... usually very little. Messenger, Skype, Google Earth, Print Manager, Acrobat etc etc. Probably don't need to start automatically.

[pintail]

just now downloaded spybot from the one that was recommended, thanks for all your help

[aris]

A great program for ridding yourself of stuff at startup is HijackThis:

 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

 

It is not user friendly though - but allows you to rid yourself of most stuff. It's not anti-malware - just helps you regulate your IE plugins, startup programs, etc.

 

I like to use ComboFix to rid machines of really nasty malware. You should run it in Safe Mode (with networking) from a USB key, and it takes a while to run - but it seems to get rid of the nastiest of nasties which don't get removed by the usual anti-malware programs. I use this as a last resort - and also isn't user friendly. It needs networking to update itself when it starts up.

 

http://download.cnet.com/Combofix/3000-8022_4-75221073.html

[Chris Bb]

It's more a case of what do you need running from start-up... usually very little. Messenger, Skype, Google Earth, Print Manager, Acrobat etc etc. Probably don't need to start automatically.

 

How do you find out what's running in the background?

 

I used to know such things.........................

[Munzy]

CTRL + ALT + DEL and view Task Manager will show running programs (although I think you can hide a program from this). If using Spybot you want to check the start-up programme list.