Tarun

Also worth reading so you don't misuse the Hosts file like some sites recommend: http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Blocking_Malware_and_Advertisements_Safely

avast or Microsoft Security Essentials are the best freebies, honestly.

ClamWin AV...? That's horrible honestly and the detection rate is atrocious. I would very highly recommend ditching it for something better (yet still free) such as avast or Microsoft Security Essentials.

Thanks cluberti.

Please download my Anti-Malware Toolkit and get the package that matches your OS. Then follow the directions in the PC Cleanup guide. After that, please post a HijackThis log.

Please download my Anti-Malware Toolkit and get the package that matches your OS. Then follow the directions in the PC Cleanup guide. After that, please post a HijackThis log.

I saw it quite often on the machines I worked on and even on machines that had 512MB RAM for XP.

I have yet to try MSE, but I've heard it does a great job. AV Comparatives seems to have avast and MSE on the same levels in most aspects. avast scores slightly higher in a few but that does not rule out the quality of MSE. I've never cared for AVG and I've tried it many times in a VM. Bloated, resource hog and it has poor detection rates and performance. avast and MSE both outshine AVG easily. Lately AVG has been the Norton/McAfee of the free AVs.

It's not a problem with the board/forum software, as I run the same forum software on my website and it works fine. Keep in mind that BBCode tags do not work inside code boxes. It appears to only be an issue here and recently an addon broke several BBCodes and more. That may again be the issue here.

Please download my Anti-Malware Toolkit and get the package that matches your OS. Then follow the directions in the PC Cleanup guide. After that, please post a HijackThis log.

Don't worry, we're aware and are looking into a fix for this issue.

I believe 32 bit programs will run just fine on 64 bit. I'm sure winrar would (but I prefer 7zip myself). As far as HTML5, the OS doesn't really matter. It's the browser that renders HTML. So IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc would just need to have a software update when they release support for HTML 5.

As far as the files go, which sort of files are we talking about? I believe only applications (*.exe, etc) would be the only possible issue. But most programs have 64 bit versions available. Admittingly I'm still learning about 64bit (and want my next PC to be 64 bit). If you go for a true custom built, I'd recommend posting in the hardware section. Let people know you're in the UK, and your max budget, along with what all you really want out of the system. You may be able to get parts from NewEgg, TigerDirect or a similar online retailer. (Not sure on this though).

I would think a dual or quad core would be sufficient (quad if you want to try and future-proof) and 64 bit is a huge plus. If you go with Windows 7 I'd say have at least 3GB of RAM. Hard drive size is ultimately up to you, though I personally would go for 750GB+ (due to massive amounts of MP3s, etc). If you do any gaming a higher end graphics card helps. I know it can help if you use Photoshop or similar graphics intensive editing applications. As far as manufacturers go, the laptop we just picked up for my grandfather was an Acer for under $500. He had a Dell before that died and since working in a tech shop I've never cared for Dell. I'd say Acer is a good bet (can't think of some of the other top ones), but I wouldn't touch Compaq, Dell, Gateway, or HP. I'm not sure if Yahoo Pool is Java or Flash based, either. But from my experiences (on a single core P4 3.4GHz with hyperthreading and then my grandfathers new dual-core) Flash/Java runs a LOT better on the dual core. As far as Office goes, if you wait a bit until Office 2010 is out you'll be very happy. These are based on my opinions, etc for getting a new computer. When I go for a new PC I tend to get something better than top of the line to make it last many years. My current PC is over 5 years old and only had a few minor upgrades.

I hope you have a system running something other than Windows 98, or else surfing the web isn't going to be very enjoyable for you very soon (if not already). A lot of software on the web no longer supports IE6, and Firefox has vastly improved in the 3.x series. The forum software MSFN uses (IPB3.x) no longer has any support for IE6, though I'm not sure how far back they go with Firefox. I highly doubt 1.x is supported, and 2.0 most likely isn't supported either. Other sites such as YouTube and others are continuing to make advancements that are making browsing faster and more efficient. Silverlight and Flash are definitely breaking grounds and improving. HTML5 is coming soon along with new CSS and special <audio> and <video tags. Firefox will be supporting Direct2D (which looks quite nice and helps render pages quickly), but you need Vista at a minimum and hardware that supports DirectX9c. At the bare minimum running XP would help immensely. It's a much more secure and stable OS. The NT kernel and new securities implemented (Especially with Vista and up) do a lot to help stop any potential risk of malware infection. Heck, you could probably get an affordable Windows 7 computer just as easily. I recently picked up a nice Windows 7 laptop for under $500. It's a lot easier to keep a current (XP, Vista, 7) computer running and up to date than it is to try to keep the 9x kernel all patched up and using hacks and patches to try and run most of today's standards.

The latest version of SAS is 4.35, you're quite behind when it comes to updates. It'd be worth getting and using the latest version.

See illegal material? Hit the Report button. That's why it's there.

Did the scanners find and remove anything? This should go: O15 - Trusted Zone: http://software.kuaiche.com

Please download my Anti-Malware Toolkit and get the package that matches your OS. Then follow the directions in the PC Cleanup guide. After that, please post a HijackThis log.

Please download my Anti-Malware Toolkit and get the package that matches your OS. Then follow the directions in the PC Cleanup guide. After that, please post a HijackThis log.

There's a big reason why it's slower... You're on Windows 98 and Firefox 2.0 when it looks like your computer could easily handle XP. I'd recommend upgrading your OS.

Why the concern about Gender and OS? Even if you give information about them it wouldn't make much difference. The OS would be the more important of the two, as it can help when assisting with computer related issues.

Looks good xper. I did notice Board Panel isn't up there but I'm sure that will be back. There is a small typo in the footer Recommandations should be Recommendations. For those complaining about the skins. Give it time to get used to it. As a fellow webmaster I know it works out a lot better than previous skins and is much lighter on end users which means bandwidth saved and many more perks.

Sure, go ahead and post a HijackThis log.