Feel free to post any other programs that seem reputable but actually are crap...
"PC-Optimizer" was recently installed on my system, because vista' defragging utility is so hoot even compared to the XP one that i had to use something else. With it came a couple of spyware programs, one called 'favorit', which i can't find anywhere on my computer and am hunting for the executable day and night, and the other was located in app Data:Local.
'Favorit' appears in youre add/remove programs menu, but without a location, so you'll have to find it some other way, as the uninstaller doesn't work either.
TO REMOVE:
The executable one in APP data runs as a process, so its easy to find the location in task manager. delete the process and you can delete the executable, and all asscoiated files. This is the process that actually causes the pop-up windows it seems. It runs as a startup process, so you CAN disable it in CCleaner.
Next, i suggest you install Malware Bytes. A relatively new program i think but this seems to be getting raves. It picked up a couple of bits of spyware my Kaspersky hadn't even after a full deep scan. This program (when run on full scan), SHOULD pick the virus up. The free version of the program should remove it. I think ill keep Malware Bytes running alongside my Kaspersky installation.
EDIT:
Yep, that seemed to kill it. Windows had an error when trying to un-install, and said the program may have already been removed. Sounds like job-done to me *touch wood*
Someone edited my above post... despite the vulgarity filter?
For future reference, install Contig.exe as a Defrag program along with it's PowerDefragment UI program.
Work well and doesn't contain spyware or the likes.
Try iobit smartdefrag, thats a virus free defragin' program. Works great.
sudo apt-get upd- sorry, what?
And for those people not using a Unix based OS?
All windows defraggers use the same defragging functions. What is different is the algorithm of attack.
In Windows Vista, the defrag system is supposed to actually run on spare cycles, particularly when the system is not in use. This sucks for removable drives though since they usually are never connected long enough plus I think Vista ignores them for defrag purposes.
I don't trust the following programs by default, and neither should you:
Driver Cleaners
Defraggers (defragging doesnt do as much help as you think)
Registry Cleaners (which can screw things up)
RAM Optimizers
These kinds of things helped a lot back in the Windows 98 days, but are not as useful nowadays. I've troubleshot countless systems with these types of programs on them, and some of them were loaded with trojans. Based on the number of scam programs out there, I would advise caution when downloading them. Always do your research, or these neat programs can turn out to be more of a problem then a cure.
i NEVER download driver updaters or the like. No way. THe only registry cleaner i will ever use is CCleaner.
RAM optimizer, i don't use these either. Defragger worked wonders for me because my laptop was a digital mess, it has helped, but ill just stick with Vistas next time, even if it doesn't have the pretty squares.
My last defrag look 2 days straight. And I used a third party one that had a much more efficient attack algorithm (and frankly was much more pleasing to watch).
Quote from: TheJamsh on July 26, 2009, 01:03:48 PM
i NEVER download driver updaters or the like. No way. THe only registry cleaner i will ever use is CCleaner.
RAM optimizer, i don't use these either. Defragger worked wonders for me because my laptop was a digital mess, it has helped, but ill just stick with Vistas next time, even if it doesn't have the pretty squares.
Ccleaner helps a little bit. Defragger also seems legit (based on my google searches).
A good rule of thumb is that if you see a neat utility advertised on a website, do a google search on its name. If the first page of results warns of it being a malicious program then dont download it.
As far as malware in general goes, a lot of it is common sense. Don't click things that you aren't sure about and all that stuff that is spouted endlessly.
As a slight OT, when Google finally get Chrome sorted the frick out with addons and various other blunders, won't that make a huge difference with the sandboxing when it comes to malware? Not that it makes a difference, as 80% of the population are ignorant or don't know much about computers and still use IE (6!!!), but for those of us who do know a thing or two it looks pretty promising. Any insight?
My Windows machine runs just the built in firewall, AVG and Spybot search and destroy, the latter of which I've always liked. Scan spybot weekly, AVG every month or so? No, it isn't secure, the firewall is a joke, Nod32 is better blah blah blah, but I couldn't care less to be honest as it has what, 4 programs installed on it? Because of this, I can't give any insight into defragging as I have no need for it when I have 15gb used of 250gb.
Quote from: Nielk1 on July 26, 2009, 01:27:32 PM
My last defrag look 2 days straight. And I used a third party one that had a much more efficient attack algorithm (and frankly was much more pleasing to watch).
Yeah, my Vista machine is currently doing the same to one of my partitions. I'd say I've put in ~ 3-4 days worth of defragging. Actually leaving my computer on for the first two and of and on with defragmenter running for what ever else amount of time has been given to the program
Quote from: Raven on July 27, 2009, 01:31:07 AM
As far as malware in general goes, a lot of it is common sense. Don't click things that you aren't sure about and all that stuff that is spouted endlessly.
As a slight OT, when Google finally get Chrome sorted the frick out with addons and various other blunders, won't that make a huge difference with the sandboxing when it comes to malware? Not that it makes a difference, as 80% of the population are ignorant or don't know much about computers and still use IE (6!!!), but for those of us who do know a thing or two it looks pretty promising. Any insight?
My Windows machine runs just the built in firewall, AVG and Spybot search and destroy, the latter of which I've always liked. Scan spybot weekly, AVG every month or so? No, it isn't secure, the firewall is a joke, Nod32 is better blah blah blah, but I couldn't care less to be honest as it has what, 4 programs installed on it? Because of this, I can't give any insight into defragging as I have no need for it when I have 15gb used of 250gb.
This guy, My boss posts about every two weeks in our local courier something interesting about what we do at work.
scanned document of this weeks article.
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p107/squirrelof09/random/CouriorJournal-July2209.jpg
Heh, yup, 99% of the time its the dumbass behind the computer thats the issue.
Quote from: Raven on July 27, 2009, 04:40:12 PM
Heh, yup, 99% of the time its the dumbass behind the computer thats the issue.
Ah, the old 1D10t bug. :P
Keep in mind that 90% of the "free" scanners on Google are phonies or put spyware ON your comp to FIND it, then charge you for the full version to get rid of THEIR crap.
In fact, I can only really name 3 free scanners that are reputable, and everyone here should know them. :P
MBAM
HijackThis
AVG
Not so sure on the last one since its a free version
EDIT: Ah! CCleaner? Or does that not count?
I DID check out Pc-Optimizer before i downloaded it. That and CCleaner. They are the only two programs i have ever DL'd for things like this. Kaspersky is great for keeping crap out of my system as well though, and picks up on most things before i even DL it.
I've managed to rid myself of this, but it took an hour or so of hunting around for dodgy looking EXE's and whatnot. That was all done manually.
Quote from: squirrel on July 27, 2009, 02:26:36 AM
Yeah, my Vista machine is currently doing the same to one of my partitions. I'd say I've put in ~ 3-4 days worth of defragging. Actually leaving my computer on for the first two and of and on with defragmenter running for what ever else amount of time has been given to the program
This guy, My boss posts about every two weeks in our local courier something interesting about what we do at work.
scanned document of this weeks article.
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p107/squirrelof09/random/CouriorJournal-July2209.jpg
Can you tell me where that guy is so i can throw a brick at his computer that will be a virus for him:P.
Pc- Optimizer has done much damage to many computers that it was on and i restored what i could and took it off. I dont recommend anything registry or system related except ccleaner and thats as far as i go.
Quote from: AHadley on July 27, 2009, 06:53:21 PM
MBAM
HijackThis
AVG
Not so sure on the last one since its a free version
EDIT: Ah! CCleaner? Or does that not count?
The best free ones ive used and that I will continue to use are ran and updated weekly in this order.
Spywareguard (only for xp and lower)
Spywareblaster
Spybot Search and destroy
I used to use Ad-Aware 2008 and newer alot but it hasnt found anything in two years so i took it off.
MBAM
SuperAntispyware
Dr web cureit
RootRepeal.
Hijackthis
AVG
AVG is safe, I use it. As is spybot search and destroy.
Wraith... What kind of system are you running?
Quote from: squirrel on July 27, 2009, 08:48:19 PM
Wraith... What kind of system are you running?
Windows XP Professional.
Sorry, I meant, what are the specs of your computer... processor, ram, etc.
I thought you shouldn't have more than one virus scanner as they conflict, ditto with the spyware scanners.
Slightly over the top I feel o_O
Quote from: squirrel on July 28, 2009, 04:20:38 AM
Sorry, I meant, what are the specs of your computer... processor, ram, etc.
Specs of pc are 2 gb of ram
Intel Pentium 4 processor with HT dual core
Geforce FX 5200 Nvida
320 gb WD HD 7200 rpm 16 mb cache
Runs great and might get another gig of ram or a gig.5
Quote from: Raven on July 28, 2009, 11:58:22 AM
I thought you shouldn't have more than one virus scanner as they conflict, ditto with the spyware scanners.
Slightly over the top I feel o_O
AVG is only a virus scanner and resident. Yeah i know its alot but many of the programs dont find everything and also forgot to add in RootRepeal.
Spywareguard (only for xp and lower)
Spywareblaster
Spybot Search and destroy
I used to use Ad-Aware 2008 and newer alot but it hasnt found anything in two years so i took it off.
MBAM
SuperAntispyware
Hijackthis
AVG
Fully agree with those
Haven't used :
Dr web cureit
RootRepeal.
Generally two "real time scanners" or "resident shields" shouldn't be used together if they aren't meant to coexist. Some companies may design their product to coexist with other AV companies, but very few if any do.
Antivirus
Antispyware
Antirootkit
Firewall
and then mostly browser enhancements that block advertisements/scripts/other vulnerabilities.
I've seen malware(generally not a virus) get past pretty much every antivirus on the market today. However there is an old wise saying that goes something like... an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
It's much easier to fight these attacks by fixing the holes in Firefox/IE, closing/disabling what we can't fix, blocking/filtering what we can't disable/close, and then hopefully nothing will be left for the real time scanner to pick up. I'd much rather have twin firewalls, a blacklist of malwaresites blocked, killbits for installation sites for malware, advertising blocks for ads that come with malware, java/javascript filters for blocking those vulnerabilities, and then not have an AV at all... than to have none of that and just have the #1 antivirus.
Update windows, office, and every program you can without hurting your functionality. Then put a router between you and the internet. Next, get spywareblaster for some preventative killing, noscript for firefox, adblock for firefox, iespyad or something similar for website blocking, and you'll be in decent shape. This will at least work for a personal/home computer... Business may need to seek other options.
You can have 2 antivirus or 2 antispyware programs installed on a computer, you just need to make sure only one is "actively scanning" at a time.. be it scheduled scans, or the real time scanner/resident shield.
Course this is all just my opinion and I'm probably wrong, but I haven't had a virus/spyware/worm/trojan in eight years.
Whenever I get rid of malware I also do the following to a machine
- Install Windows Updates
- Install an Antivirus (preferably ESET NOD32, if the customer is willing to pay for it -- else AVG)
- Install a set of antispyware apps (MBAM and Ad-Aware)
- Install Spybot S&D (turn off resident protection) and run Immunize
- Install Firefox
- Install Firefox Extension: Adblock Plus
- Install Firefox Extension: Mcafee Siteadvisor
- Install WinPatrol (which monitors and alerts of important system changes)
This provides a high level of protection without impeding the machine too much. I typically like to forgo the installation of a software firewall if a router is already doing some of the firewalling duty, since adding a 3rd party software firewall complicates things when it comes to getting certain apps/games to run and I like to make everything as simple as possible for my clients.
I haven't used Spybot S&D or winpatrol in many years, but they were very good programs back in the day.
I didn't list antivirus/antispyware, because that's just something almost assumed :) Although I don't care for most of their resident shields/etc, and prefer noscript/adblock/spywareblaster/spywareguard, and other tools to avoid installation of malicious programs, rather than wait til its installed and try(and usually fail) to fight it. That could be my inexperience though, but I've never seen an antivirus alone handle a newly installed malware before it got rooted and took extra time cleaning... IE... knocked it out of the sky before it did any damage. Cleanup may have been quick and not much of a problem, but I'd rather intercept and blow the things out of the sky than be ready to repair very quickly and get rid of the fire/toxic/etc(comparing to a nuke for instance). An Antivirus, an Antivirus + Antispyware, or even in most cases... a full internet security package... usually aren't enough for security.
I'll usually clean a computer then:
Followup with MBAM and Superantispyware scans
Turn off/Turn on system restore to delete infected restore points
Delete the cache for Internet Explorer
Remove outdated Java
Install new java
Update windows(actually do this earlier)
Install spywareblaster, iespyads or mvpshosts, spywareguard.
Install AVG or paid antivirus
Install firefox with adblock(noscript helps alot, but is usually too annoying for most to use)
Plug firefox and pitch it to them
Tell them to run MBAM/Super every now and then and keep everything updated. I typically disable the autoloading/resident parts of the two.
S'kinda sad that those are the extents users have to go through. Sorta makes you wonder about the human race when there are people out there who just make this junk up and spread it around for the sole purpose of raping peoples machines.
What kind of *Ammo*ed up individual do you have to be? No friends, fat, a virgin, no social skills or contact, lives with their parents but stays in their room/basement at all times and because their life is so god damn hard with their running water, over-availability of food as shown by their appearance, parents and a roof over their head, they resort to that.
Death isn't something I wish upon people, but when I really think about people like that I come close.
hahaha. Raven you pretty much nailed it there... :lol:
Quote from: Raven on August 03, 2009, 11:32:33 PM
S'kinda sad that those are the extents users have to go through. Sorta makes you wonder about the human race when there are people out there who just make this junk up and spread it around for the sole purpose of raping peoples machines.
What kind of *Ammo*ed up individual do you have to be? No friends, fat, a virgin, no social skills or contact, lives with their parents but stays in their room/basement at all times and because their life is so god damn hard with their running water, over-availability of food as shown by their appearance, parents and a roof over their head, they resort to that.
Death isn't something I wish upon people, but when I really think about people like that I come close.
I'm half of those, but I don't create malware! honest.
Quote from: Vid on August 04, 2009, 04:01:35 AM
I'm half of those, but I don't create malware! honest.
Well, the only one for me is that I live with my parents, but I'm 17, I'm allowed to :)
As long as you don't create malware, you're fine by me and I shall let you live xD
A friend of mine tried but the infections came back on him and fubared his machine. Whats funny he didnt learn the first time so it happened again so he quit trying.
Your friend is a douche.
:-D
No kidding. :-D
I believe he was one of the people who helped with beta testing.
I'm check on two, but I don't write malware, unless you mean batchscripts made years ago to shutdown a computer at a specific time and to open the calculator a few hundred times. Simple and yet amazingly funny :lol:
The simple batch scripts are the most evil... classmate put a deltree c: batch on another classmate's computer at college. This was during the 15min break(2hour class). He came back, double clicked the icon without even checking what it was... and... well he was reinstalling his OS the rest of the class. Granted we reinstalled the OS about 20 times during that class, so it wasn't a huge loss.
ouch.
AVG free is good, and what I put on any system I set up for people who don't know what an AV program is, or why they need one, etc.. "and it's ID10T, as in "eye-dee-ten-tee". :)
My current favorite is McAfee, though, and I can no longer live without their "Site Advisor". Pops up little circles next to sites in either IE or Firefox that clue you in to the safety of clicking on one. Works with all search engines, gives detailed info on specific sites if you ask, and best of all is totally invisible otherwise.
Generally speaking so far McAfee puts zero load on my poor old, underpowered Athlon. I had Symantec Security Suite and it was a pig, dragging my system to it's knees even when I was using it. Just updating itself automatically slowed me to a crawl, where McAfee is even polite enough to put itself on pause when it detects that I'm gaming.
Very cool.
-Av-
I like site advisor, but isn't it available for free without the full mcaffee package?
The real issue is, people are finding more and more holes that they can sneak stuff into a computer through without having to actually have you download and run something. People have become accustomed to everything being automated and don't like clicking yes/no security dialogs and other annoying security features.
We can't wait until the virus/spyware is on our system(from a webpage, email, direct attack, or P2P file sharing). We have to stop it before it gets to us. Well fortified routers stop most direct attacks, while siteadvisor, noscript, adblock, windows updates, and spywareguard/blaster handle most of IE/Firefox vulnerabilities. Email scanners come on most antivirus packages, HTML emails can be disabled in the email program usually, and you can disable the preview pane and delete emails from people you don't know.
In years past, Mcafee was a little bloated and ate resources like symantec. I'd be happy to hear that its not as memory hogging now.
McAfee actually destroyed one of my old computers. It went absolutely insane and took over everything, locking access to files and forcing the computer into its lovely quarantine mode where you couldn't do anything but boot into safe mode. Coupled with the fact that they want me to pay for that hoote, they can go and screw themselves. :)
Though it is good to hear they seem to have fixed a few issues like its hunger for resources...
AVG seems ok with the resources so I'm fine with it, and yeah symantec is a resource-hogging piece of rubbish.
Though I haven't had to use these programs in ages, I boot into windows only to play games, and as far as I remember I actually uninstalled AVG for some reason (I think I was removing the simlock on my phone and it thought the program was malicious and kept putting it into quarantine...) so its completely unprotected. All it does is play bz2 and EvE online though, so, whatever. If it gets a virus, I start again, no biggie.
Noscript is veeeery useful, and firefox runs on any windows or linux OS machine I have. Once google sort out their issues with Chrome, that'll take over though as to me it shows huge potential.
As for my macs, Safari 3 may be a bit unsecure, apparently, but its almost as fast as chrome and I like some of the newer features (that have blatantly been stolen from chrome, mind) so I flick between Safari and Firefox, depending on which one is faster at the time. I would never but Safari on windows though, it just has the added bonus of integrating into OS X a bit better than Firefox does. And it seems to have less memory leaks now than Firefox too, which is always nice.
I'm a fan of putting AVG on a customer's computer. However, I am not a fan of AVG for any of my personal computers/family computers...
QuoteAVG seems ok with the resources so I'm fine with it, and yeah symantec is a resource-hogging piece of rubbish.
AVG and it's resistant shield hogs resources in version 8.0 and up. It kills a system with only 512 Ram...
I thought that was just my imagination. My Dad's PC (Celeron D with 2x 512mb 266mhz ram) had been getting slow lately. Thought it was just the PC showing its age on the components, so I disabled the AVG resident shield and linkscanner. It sped up some after that, but I still thought it was the components, not a change in AVG. All he does is do flash games/web surfing/email.... so its been alright for now.
Quote from: Raven on August 09, 2009, 12:59:54 PM
McAfee actually destroyed one of my old computers. It went absolutely insane and took over everything, locking access to files and forcing the computer into its lovely quarantine mode where you couldn't do anything but boot into safe mode. Coupled with the fact that they want me to pay for that hoote, they can go and screw themselves. :)
Though it is good to hear they seem to have fixed a few issues like its hunger for resources...
AVG seems ok with the resources so I'm fine with it, and yeah symantec is a resource-hogging piece of rubbish.
Though I haven't had to use these programs in ages, I boot into windows only to play games, and as far as I remember I actually uninstalled AVG for some reason (I think I was removing the simlock on my phone and it thought the program was malicious and kept putting it into quarantine...) so its completely unprotected. All it does is play bz2 and EvE online though, so, whatever. If it gets a virus, I start again, no biggie.
Noscript is veeeery useful, and firefox runs on any windows or linux OS machine I have. Once google sort out their issues with Chrome, that'll take over though as to me it shows huge potential.
As for my macs, Safari 3 may be a bit unsecure, apparently, but its almost as fast as chrome and I like some of the newer features (that have blatantly been stolen from chrome, mind) so I flick between Safari and Firefox, depending on which one is faster at the time. I would never but Safari on windows though, it just has the added bonus of integrating into OS X a bit better than Firefox does. And it seems to have less memory leaks now than Firefox too, which is always nice.
Argh! McAfee! A terrible antivirus! TBH i've had more problems with various versions of norton, but mcaffee just bloated and slows down computers quite noticably.
Quote from: Vid on August 09, 2009, 05:57:52 PM
I thought that was just my imagination. My Dad's PC (Celeron D with 2x 512mb 266mhz ram) had been getting slow lately. Thought it was just the PC showing its age on the components, so I disabled the AVG resident shield and linkscanner. It sped up some after that, but I still thought it was the components, not a change in AVG. All he does is do flash games/web surfing/email.... so its been alright for now.
if AVG is working for you then keep it but if it gives you problems, you should try out Avast antivirus -- its free and has good proactive detection.
I personally prefer ESET NOD32 Antivirus, because its fast and lightweight, but it's not free.
AVG looked like your run of the mill antivirus scanner, and I used it when I put it on dad's machine. Later I found Avast and have been using it. However avast's interface is somewhat... different than AVG, Norton, Mcaffee.
Eset impressed me alot, but not enough to warrant the money for it.
If you can give norton a quad core with 6gb of memory for vista or 4gb of memory for XP(I know it will only use 2.5 - 3.5gb), then I might think of using Norton if it wasn't for a gaming machine/anything I wanted to be fast at all. However I still like the idea of using "blocking" software that has a MUCH smaller footprint on the computer than either mcafee or norton and in my opinion does just as good a job.
Quote from: Vid on August 09, 2009, 07:34:54 PM
If you can give norton a quad core with 6gb of memory for vista or 4gb of memory for XP(I know it will only use 2.5 - 3.5gb), then I might think of using Norton if it wasn't for a gaming machine/anything I wanted to be fast at all. However I still like the idea of using "blocking" software that has a MUCH smaller footprint on the computer than either mcafee or norton and in my opinion does just as good a job.
A quad ore isn't your run-of-the-mill machine though. They're for people that do intensive graphical work and gamers. Having to have that kind of power to not notice an antivirus program is a sick joke eh?
Yeah you're right on the blocking software.
I really, REALLY don't like McAffee or Norton. They're terrible. And overpriced. If you're going to pay for one, get NOD32 since its probably the best one and isn't exactly hurtful on the wallet.
For some reason, AVG keeps picking up the same MSN-based thing over and over again, hidden in a text file ("C:\Documents and Settins\Anthony Hadley\Local Settings\Application Data\Windows Live Messenger\trigger-_-finger@atdmt.co.uk" or something like that) and refuses to 'heal' it, saying the file isnt found... i can move it to the vault, but it just pops up again
submit the file to virustotal?
And for norton/Mcaffee, I exaggerated a little....
They really only need a single core all to theirselves to not notice them too much. For a single core machine though, I wouldn't wish them on anyone. Basically if you have a dual core machine and put norton/mcafee on it, you just transformed it into a single core machine. :) That is if Norton/Mcafee play good.
Hogging up a whole core is still diabolical :lol:
This is why I stick with the anti-virus I invented. Myself.
Quote from: AHadley on August 10, 2009, 07:51:30 PM
For some reason, AVG keeps picking up the same MSN-based thing over and over again, hidden in a text file ("C:\Documents and Settins\Anthony Hadley\Local Settings\Application Data\Windows Live Messenger\trigger-_-finger@atdmt.co.uk" or something like that) and refuses to 'heal' it, saying the file isnt found... i can move it to the vault, but it just pops up again
Navigate to that spot and delete it manually?
Quote from: Vid on August 10, 2009, 10:27:59 PM
submit the file to virustotal?
And for norton/Mcaffee, I exaggerated a little....
They really only need a single core all to theirselves to not notice them too much. For a single core machine though, I wouldn't wish them on anyone. Basically if you have a dual core machine and put norton/mcafee on it, you just transformed it into a single core machine. :) That is if Norton/Mcafee play good.
Well, thats not completely true. Multi-core machines seldomly take advantage of both of their cores, and only tend to do so when there is a huge amount of activity going on at once. 2 CPU hogging activities will each get allocated to a core without having to 'fight' over the processor time (and thus slow your computing down). Whereas if there was only 1 CPU hogging activity it would most likely bog down the first core and the second core would still be available for use, like a single core machine that had nothing running.
So yeah, if you are heavily multitasking, and norton/mcaffee just happens to be hogging your last core, then your computer would start to slow down much like a single core machine would.
Also, they don't run ALL the time, they just have an algorithm to run at the most inconvenient time.
Deleted it manually, it's come right back again.