[256 RAM]

It is completely obvious to me that the intentions were to cleverly incite a flame war about Windows and Linux. It started out with a seemingly innocent (and legitimate) question and then dragged on with continued questions to instigate a flame war and culminate with the intended promotion of Linux.

Sorry guys, again. I didn't want to offend anyone. I'm just experiencing a tough time here in Canada, immigration and everything. I am a qualified specialist can't find job here for almost 2 years. As for my posts I described everything as it was. I didn't want any war. Those viruses were on my wife's partition. But I don't like the style of this forum and the attitude of as you said knowledge people who obviously didn't read my posts, towards regular people . How many times you want me to thank you? Until the end of eternity? Why are all these people trying to teach me? I said: windows is a very weak OS in sense of defense. It's true. I installed opera comodo, and everything. I don't like this stuff. My wife doesn't like it either. Who likes, maybe you? Maybe you make money selling this stuff to people? Those knowledge people you mentioned never tried linux and they think that the whole world is spinning around Microsoft. It is not true. They are not knowledge people.

[256 RAM]

That was me who said the last word. Windows should be improved because its defense is unsatisfactory.

teach your wife how to use Linux or take advice already given to you

What a mentor style! Who you, teacher? And you expect me to be polite? What do you think about yourself?

I will teach you how to use Windows. It's your happiness that I can't speak English. The can of spiders...

[256 RAM]

Don't come into any forum telling people who are trying to provide you with advice and answers to your questions to crash into trees because you do not live in a perfect world where PCs are immune to any malicious infection. You asked for security software, we provided you with freeware answers, and that's the end of it.

Sorry, guys, for being rude. I had no intention to offend anyone. I greatly appreciate your help. Especially Jeremy was very helpful. He explained a lot of things I didn't know.

This is my last post. I know that Windows people are very hostile to other OSs. I can say so because I was a Windows user myself. I though that Windows XP were the best OS in the world until I caught those viruses. Then I started to search for a solution and discovered that all viruses are written only for Windows and actually this problem can be solved in a very simple way. In order to forget about viruses existence it is sufficient to make the system unwritable for a unauthorized user. Why Microsoft didn't make such a patch? I assume that it is not beneficial for someone. Try something like Linux, it's free, and you will see how safe you will feel.

[256 RAM]

Seatbelts are annoying too. But if you refuse to wear those you should not complain that your airbag wasn't effective enough when you crash into a tree.

Being insecure will will be al lot more annoying when you have to reinstall windows. Ms cannot be held responsible for that.

OK guys, I finish this topic. I am not going to reply insulting messages any more. You can do anything to your Windows you want, protect, unprotect, secure, unsecure, prepare yourself to crash into a tree, whatever.

[256 RAM]

I agree with Jeremy, keeping you computer clean from threats is more a mentality.

No, I disagree. If Microsoft sells OSs, they should be protected. Windows XP have no protection at all. Why should I bother my mentality? Maybe I am a mentally handicapped? Comodo is a good firewall, but it is annoying. I don't use windows, but my wife keeps asking me each time what she should do, allow or disallow. Do you think it is nice? If I give you money, protect me physically, not mentally, not virtually, not because it is my business to protect myself by myself, otherwise next time I will buy something from a different guy who offers nicer OSs.

[256 RAM]

The difference between free and commercial software will not escape you from the fact that if you open IE6, go to a porn site, click "Yes, I want that bouncing, flashing free laptop because I am the 999,999th visitor!" and then tell your firewall that it's okay for whatever is trying to access your system to do so, you will get a trojan or worm or spyware. If you do, you have to manually run a scan with Ad-Aware and Spybot.

You cannot hide behind the illusion that simply having this software installed means you are invincible.

I know using the software and security measures I recommend to others keeps you safe because I do not get infected. I have visited rated R sites in the past and downloaded EXEs from torrents, but as long as I take the appropriate measures, I'm fine.

Opera

Ad-Aware / Spybot

Kaspersky

Comodo

Router

Thank you, guys for your help. I really appreaciate it. I installed Opera, Avast and Comodo, and I will think about a router, though I don't like the idea that I have to have all this stuff that occupis resources and memory of my computer because Microsoft didn't bother to make Windows XP a reliable and safe OS. That's why I prefer Linux, though it's a **** difficult and user unfriendly OS. In Linux I don't need to worry about any measures and can visit the dirtiest porn sites that are made of viruses exclusively and stay clean and shiny because it is safe.

[256 RAM]

OK, guys, I see there no free protection solution for Windows.

I knew that. I just wanted to make sure.

- Use SP2

- Use NTFS

- Use a freeware anti-virus (Avast or AntiVir)

- Use a freeware software firewall (Comodo Firewall Pro)

- Keep your OS updated

Unfortunately I have to confess that I used all that stuff and it didn't help.

I don't know the reason. And actually I don't want to know it.

I just want to be sure that my files will stay safe.

Thank you, Jeremy, for Comodo. It looks really cool.

I will think about a router.

[256 RAM]

But like Jeremy said, it's the opposite of what you should do to keep your system save. If you really don't trust AVG free (it kept me clean for years) then try Avira personal edition. Free as well and a great detection rate!

The only good security advise that is still missing in this topic is to login as a restricted user. But that is useless since you choose to format your drives in FAT32. That's also the opposite of what you should do for security sake.

Thank you, noguru, for your advice. I know all that stuff from the Microsoft web-site. Actually you can't check anything if it's true and have to believe these guys. Windows are a very weak (if not to say unsatisfactory) OS in the sense of protection. I know a lot of people who have turned away from Windows to the OSs that provide better protection. I myself prefer to use Linux as much as possible. That's why I made FAT32 file system. I can access Windows from there.

[256 RAM]

Check Trend Micro or ESET. Probably ESET would be a little bit better. There is a free download you can get to try it and see how it works for you. And the cost for it is pretty low. Hope it helps.

Thank you, Jakebo. These commercial fellows tend to hide information about prices and everything. What can those programs do? And How much do they cost? If I want to protect my Windows, I need to install firewall, antivirus, anyspyware/malware, attach a router, right? That is complicated and costly. Is there a single program that is cheap and effective and can do everything mentioned above? Interesting: frankly, I didn't read the Microsoft lisense I agreed with, is there anything written there about virus protection? Maybe to sue them?

[256 RAM]

You want an anti-virus appropriate for 256 MB of RAM and you install Norton? Norton is garbage. Remove it with this tool. Also, you should be on SP2, not SP1. The updates can be configured to download and install automatically without user intervention. What you're doing the exact opposite of what you should be doing in order to maintain order on your PC.

Maybe Norton is garbage, actually I didn't like it because it was slow. And that SP2 didn't help either, as I said, because I caught so many viruses on it. But it doesn't matter now because I reinstalled Windows completely. I reformated hard drive to FAT32 and made a fresh installation from CD. And actually I didn't notice any difference between SP1 and SP2 except that SP2 didn't speed up my computer. I want to protect what I have now and I don't want to install other garbage.

[256 RAM]

If you're directly connected without any hardware based protection considering the growing threat of malware online these days, you need to at least get something. For example, a basic D-Link router is not expensive.

Thank you, Jeremy, I will try one, but first I need to figure out more about them.

[256 RAM]

CCleaner is a godsend as far as I'm concerned. It can save a lot of HDD space consumed by junk/temp/cache files many users don't know even exist and can remove the typical tracking cookie that Ad-Aware reports. It sure makes a defrag easier and quicker.

I know about CClener. It removes back-up files. But in a couple of days megabytes of them appear again.

[256 RAM]

I've been using free (or even no) AV and firewalls and I've had maybe 6 viruses in 10 yearssince more than 10 years now, with IE. I think most people really wonder how you get up to 2963 viruses (and I guess you reinstall quite often). Again, no offence, but this must be linked to user's behaviour.

I don't know how. My computer started working slowly. Those AVG Free and Ad-Aware showed nothing. I installed Norton Antivirus and it detected 2963 viruses. I had SP2 installed. Actually I don't like the idea of patching, and those automatic updates are very annoying. So I reinstalled Windows XP Home SP1a v2002 completely. Now I want to figure out how to protect them, since 256 Mb of RAM is not enough for a better antivirus.

[256 RAM]

Try running CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/ before scanning that should clean out the junk.

Joe

I know about CClener. It removes cookies. It simplifies antiviruses/malware scan but doesn't actually helps.

[256 RAM]

Sounds like you go to some pretty crappy sites if you pick up that many problems. Avoid file sharing sites too! Be careful with instant messenger programs and accepting files there. Do you have kids using the computer? If so you may need to do some other things to limit where they go.

Joe

Actually I did not. I am using Linux. My wife likes Windows. But she is a teacher and a very decent person. And we have no kids. It's surprising for me , too, how that could happen.

[256 RAM]

Thank you,Jeremy. I will follow your advices. Only I need everything for free. I think that the guy who produces and sells vulnerable OSs actually should take care about the rights of customers. Why I should I pay more than I did already?

Do not use Internet Explorer.

Do you know a way how to uninstall internet explorer completely?

Use either a hardware or software firewall, or both. You could use a second machine between your cable/DSL modem and your PC, run Linux or SmoothWall on it. If you're on wireless, I'd recommend a Linksys WRT54GL Wireless Router with the Tomato firmware. If you're on a wired connection I can't recommend much else than what I personally use which is a D-Link DI-604.

This I don't understand. I can say only that my computer is connected to internet directly. Maybe this connection can be called LAN, I don't know.

Thank you, Jeremy. You recommendations sound more reasonable than the ones above. I would be much obliged, if you explain a bit more about those rooters, what they are and how to use them.

[256 RAM]

All the best protection software in the world is FREE.

AVG 7.5 FREE

AdAware SE/Personal

Spybot search & destroy

Spyware Blaster

Windows Defender

AVG 7.5 FREE Anti-Spyware

Cheers!

Andromeda43

I used this combination already together with spamihilator.

It didn't save from 2963 viruses and considerably slowed down the speed of my computer so that I had to wait for 5 min to open Outlook.

Maybe it would be wiser to uninstall Internet Explorer completely?

[256 RAM]

I've got an old 450 Pentium II with 256 ram. I use Avast free, Avg free also worked except for a conflict, Zone alarm free, and Spybot Search and Destroy. I use this as a second machine to go online with if I have the other one tied up. It's good enough to surf and email with but wouldn't expect a whole lot more. I've kept software to a minimum.

Joe

I used all that stuff and managed to catch thousands of viruses that only Norton Antivirus could detect.

Is there a way do defend myself completely?

[256 RAM]

Hello!

I have an old box with 256 RAM. And I don't have money to buy expensive commercial software.

Haw can I protect my computer from viruses, spyware and malware for free?