[Confuzified]

I am currently running Trend Micro Security Suite as well as Malwarebytes, Spyware Blaster and SuperAntiSpyware on my laptop.

I am wanting to get rid of Trend due to having so many hassels with it. I would appreciate any opinions or recommendations on free Anti-virus, firewall and anything else people think that I should possibly run to help make my laptop safer. I do rely a lot on the Trend Site Advisor to help me make decisions when searching via google as well as web sites so if there is something similar to help make my surfing habits easy I would appreciate any suggestions on that too.

[perfume]

Dear Confuzified,
First off, once you firm up your mind to remove T-M, visit this site : Link :http://esupport.trendmicro.com/4/How...icro-Inte.aspx

Scroll down the page and you will get to this: "Uninstall using the TISSuprt.exe file". This is sort of the uninstall tool TM has provided you. Unless a previous A-V is COMPLETELY uninstalled from your PC, it will be very difficult to install a new one! There is a help section at the bottom of that page ,if necessary.

My personal experience with free A-Vs is essentially limited to using AVG(free) for a while, went thru' hell and saw the light and installed Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 2009! From what i have read about the user experiences of different free A-Vs in this forum, i have seen members highlighting either Avira Antivir or Avast!

I would plump for Avira Antivir, as i suppose (correct me) it has the advantage of "pro-Active defense" that is, repelling the malware from entering the system. Website to download the free version : http://www.free-av.com/en/products/index.html . Once you are there, you may also consider downloading and installing Avira AntiRootkit Tool

After installing, restart the computer and then, turn off the default Windows Firewall, before installing a third party free firewall. Very senior members have helped me narrow down the search to Zone-Alarm firewall (FREE), as the configuration is reduced to a minimum! Here is the link to Z-A : http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en...e-firewall.htm

These are the ones you have asked, but as a bonus, i would urge you to shift your browser of preference to Mozilla FireFox 3.5.2 , as IE8 has so many holes, you might as well swim with Firefox(FF) which too has holes, than sink with IE! Website to download FF : http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html

It is a good policy you have to check the website before opening it! Keep the TM checker in place! You can download another site advisor which does not clash with the one you have and that is the WOT( Web Of Trust). Download link : http://www.mywot.com/ .It has a download for IE too!
Best wishes!

[Confuzified]

Dear Perfume,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate not only the links but the fact that I can understand it. I do use FireFox as my browser since I am aware of IE not being the safest.

One question in regards to Trend Micro site advisor. If I uninstall Trend, doesn't that also take the site advisor component away? Either way, I will download WOT and use that.

Thanks for the help.

[perfume]

Glad to be of a little help! If you lose TM link checker, the one which is very popular and accurate is Dr. web link scanner. Download site : http://www.freedrweb.com/browser/

[Confuzified]

Thank you for the help. I uninstalled Trend this morning and installed Avira. I have posted a thread in the Malware section since Avira found a virus and/or unwanted program. I also downloaded and installed Zone Alarm and WOT. I did lose my Trend Site Advisor.

Thank you once more for the help.

[Elvandil]

If you have all of those running at once, your machine will be slowed down and you will not be well protected against threats. Too many real-time apps is worse than none and they may fail to detect threats. Stick with just one anti-malware and one anti-virus. Use the scanners from the others from time to time, but do not run them all the time.

[Confuzified]

Dear Elvandil,

Thanks for the reply. To make sure I understand, I can run Avira and ZoneAlarm all the time because they are anti-virus and firewall. Should I just run one of either MalwareBytes or SuperAntiSpyware all the time and use the scanners of both from time to time? I check Spyware Blaster once or twice a week to check for updates. Can I use both WOT and Dr Web link scanner all the time when using the web?

[Elvandil]

It's probably best to use just one real-time of each. Most of them load drivers so that they have kernel-level access to files in order to control them for deletion and quarantining. Those drivers can conflict and leave no protection at all as the result. The other time there can be problems is if more than one tries to "scan on open", or "close", or "access". If you have 2 apps trying to scan the same file "on open", then you may end up with neither getting exclusive access to that file and really scanning it. So then you can change the settings in some, like Avira, and have that one scan on "close" instead. But not all have those settings and it's just better to stick with one good one.

There are plenty of scanners that can be used occasionally without interfering with the real-time scanners.

Free anti-malware:

Dr. Freeware Boot CD Avast Scanner (also has partitioning tool, file recovery, drive cloner/imager)
Dr. Web Cure-It
Comodo Anti-Malware
Threatfire Free Edition
MalwareBytes trial
A-Squared
PrevX CSI Free Version
Spybot S&D
RunScanner
Ad-Aware
SuperAntiSpyware
Spyware Eliminator
Emco Malware Destroyer
Spyware Doctor
All-Seeing Eye (Monitors system - pretty annoying at first until all safe processes have been approved, but settings can be changed)
Arovax Anti-spyware
Trend-Micro Rootkit Buster
F-Secure Blacklight
Bootzilla (Bootable anti-malware CD with many other tools.)

"Instant" Anti-virus (No installation--just download and run the scanner):

Dr. Web Cure-It
McAfee Stinger
Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool (This one installs but offers to uninstall after the scan. A fresh download contains the most recent virus definitions.)
PING with Clam (A bootable disk imaging CD with added anti-virus)

List of freeware security software
Guide to Free Security Software (ScanComplete Site)

Virtualization Solutions (Malware attacks become impossible because either the browser or the whole operating system are isolated from the real system):

SandboxIE (Virtualizes IE, Firefox, or any other browser and works on most other programs, too)
VMWare Browser Appliance (Runs in the free VMWare Player. The Player also will run any of 100's of preconfigured operating system and appliance images downloadable for free from VMWare, and you can even make your own VM's to run in it with the open-source VMmanager)
Artificial Dynamics Safe Space (Similar to SandboxIE, safe browsing and protection from malware and hackers)
Fortes Grand Virtual Sandbox
Microsoft Web Sandbox (Open-Source) (In development but usable)
Returnil Virtual System (The Premium version allows you to save all changes inside the virtual OS to the real system, but even the free version has a virtual drive where items can be saved outside the virtual container)
Windows Steady State (Now supports Vista, too)

[Confuzified]

Ok. So, I should just have one anti-malware on my computer such as SuperAntiSpyware and uninstall MalwareBytes and Spyware Blaster? Are they all real-time apps? Forgive me if these are stupid questions but I am completely lost hence my screenname. I just want to confirm that I have understood your last reply.

[Elvandil]

You could just turn off the startups for the others so they don't run all the time. You can then use them to scan once in a while. Check their settings to see if you can stop them from running when Windows starts. Or turn them off with any of many startup managers.

Startup Control Panel
MZ Startup Manager
Startup Control Panel (Exe version for Vista)
Emsa Startup Manager
EM Startup Manager
WheresJames Startup Manager

Startup Programs Reference

[perfume]

Originally Posted by Confuzified

Ok. So, I should just have one anti-malware on my computer such as SuperAntiSpyware and uninstall MalwareBytes and Spyware Blaster? Are they all real-time apps? Forgive me if these are stupid questions but I am completely lost hence my screenname. I just want to confirm that I have understood your last reply.

Dear confuzified,
Do not, i repeat do not, uninstall either of them! The free versions you have, have no "real-time" function! The Dr web link scanner i suggested is ONLY for checking the links, before you open them! Keep Avira and do not forget to update manually!

[Confuzified]

Perfume and Elvandil,

Thank you both for responding and clearing up my confusion.

Elvandil - I will look into the start up programs and do as you suggested.

Perfume - Thank you for the help. I was confused about what made a program "real-time" and now that I know that the free versions don't, I have learnt something new today. lol. I am really liking Avira and since I was so used to updating Trend manually I will continue with that practice with Avira as well.

Thanks once more.

[perfume]

Dear cofuzified,
Glad that you have clarity! Remember the list of free A-V scanners ,Elvandil provided and once a week, scan with one of them. Heard that the conficker virus is back! Best wishes!

PS: Ideally, book-mark the page containing Elvandil's response for later reference!