[stevejay]

Hi everyone, i have posted a few times in this forum but have had to re-register as i cant remember my username, password or which email address i used D'oh!! anyway you guys have been amazing in the past helping me out and this is me callng on you all again.

My dad has just bought a new laptop and has asked me to install some security and maintenance software for him, mainly in view of the fact that my own laptop runs like a dream and mostly always has
I have installed on mine
.Avast anti-virus
.Spybot search and destroy
.Ad-Aware

Just wondering if there is anything else i should be installing on mine or my dads new one.

All hlp is as always, very much appreciated
Steve

[hrlow2]

Welcome to TSG.
Start with a good Firewall. Some good free ones available.
Then beef up your antispyware. My personal choices are WinPatrol, SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBlaster, SpywareGuard, and MalwareBytes.

[blues_harp28]

Hi welcome back
As said above these two are a must.
http://www.superantispyware.com
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

[perfume]

Hello Stevejay,
Welcome! The popular freeware firewall everybody give high grading here is "Comodo Firewall Pro". In my experience with it, i found it asking for permission--allow,deny,limit,etc too frequent for comfort. A little irksome. Now i've shifted to KIS2009 and it's cool, but shareware!

Comodo has now come out with a free Comodo Internet Security Suite2009! But then, you'll have to uninstall Avast. Free download from: http://www.bestsecuritytips.com/news...toryid+682.htm

I agree with hrlow2's basket of security arsenal,except Malwareblaster about which i have no knowledge about.

A good tool to clean your pc would be Ccleaner.It's worth it and free. To make life easy install Auslogics Disk Defrag (Free) from the same stable of Ccleaner(Piriform). Ciao.

Dear hrlow2,
Never heard of malwareblaster,sniper! Tell us more about it!

[hrlow2]

My mistake. Should have been SpywareBlaster. Got ahead of myself.
Also, Comodo Internet Security gives the option of installing or leaving off the AntiVirus portion.

[stevejay]

Originally Posted by hrlow2

Welcome to TSG.
Start with a good Firewall. Some good free ones available.
Then beef up your antispyware. My personal choices are WinPatrol, SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBlaster, SpywareGuard, and MalwareBytes.

all of them or just one...... please would you be kind enoughto summarise the thread as i am now baffled as to exactly what to install

[stantley]

You need one firewall, one anti-virus, and several anti-spyware.

1. Firewall - Comodo can be difficult to work with, try Online Armor instead.

2. Anti-virus - You're familiar with Avast! so go with that.

3. Anti-spyware - Get SuperAntiSpyware and MalwareBytes to run periodic scans and get SpywareBlaster. All of these programs need to be updated manually, so do occasional updates.

[hrlow2]

You could also add WinPatrol to the list.Can manage Startup, Cookies, Scheduled Tasks and other options with it.

[perfume]

Stevejay,
I think we will summarize it here:

1)Firewall, choice 1) Online armour, 2) Comodo Firewall Pro,

2)Avast A-V

3)SAS

4)MBAM

5)SpywareGuard and/or SpywareBlaster

6) Ccleaner

7)Auslogics Disk Defrag (Optional, but i found it very useful)

[stevejay]

thanks to each and every one of you, you have, as always been more than helpful

Steve

[bluecurt]

u should hav at least 1 firewall(comodo firewall).av(rising av free edition),spybot search and destroy and ccleaner.it's enouf for u.

[rbalaji]

Check here for some good reviews of freeware that you might want to consider for your computer.