waynegman

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Oct 16, 2009
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I gotta get this woman off my back...help.

my wife's pc is about a year old load of xp. The system is just performing slower. Long delays at times. I suspect it got infected though we use AVG all the time. We've looked for spyware and I'm thinking there is just some crappy mal ware on this system that needs to be detected and removed. Any suggestions on any free clean up utilities?
 
Solution
No problem, I understand.

All 3 programs I listed are completely free, no demos. There are options to buy the premium versions or donate if you'd like, but it's not required.

Malwarebytes is simply an antimalware program. It's not live protection. It only runs when you decide to run it. It's very good at cleaning an infected system (better than Avira IMO). Avira is real time protection to keep a system clean once you have it clean. But in addition to that, it has a good virus/malware cleaner. I use them in conjunction because no program will catch everything. Sometimes one will pick up something the other didn't. It's also good confirmation that the system is clean if Avira doesn't find anything else once malwarebytes is...
First, uninstall AVG. It's a little resource hungry and misses more infections than it should.

Download Avira, but don't install it yet.
http://www.free-av.de/en/trialpay_download/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html

Boot into safe mode with networking (f8 on startup). Download malwarebytes (+1 to jessica23's suggestion), install it, and update it.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
Do a full system scan and remove any infections.

Then install Avira, update it, and do a full system scan (while still in safe mode with networking). This will double check to make sure you're clean.

restart back into normal windows.

Avira will take the place of AVG. It is real time protection and updates.

When done, download ccleaner and clean up temp files and clean the registry.
http://www.ccleaner.com/

This should get the woman off your back.
 

waynegman

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Oct 16, 2009
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Do I really need the malwarebytes software. I thought it was free only to be a demo that will fix 20 of 580 items. $30 to buy an XP program when I'm looking to replace in the spring does not sound like a good longterm investment. I'm trying to hold on to my wife's system for awhile so I can keep budget for the i7 920 now. All $$ help right now staring at a $1400 bill. Call me cheap but I'm cutting what I can. How about the Avira by itself? The two steps seem a little curious as I bet the Avira folks I'm sure don't market as a two step solution....don't get me wrong I'm not dishing any crap here and doubting you, but I'd enjoy hearing what you have to say a little further.
 
No problem, I understand.

All 3 programs I listed are completely free, no demos. There are options to buy the premium versions or donate if you'd like, but it's not required.

Malwarebytes is simply an antimalware program. It's not live protection. It only runs when you decide to run it. It's very good at cleaning an infected system (better than Avira IMO). Avira is real time protection to keep a system clean once you have it clean. But in addition to that, it has a good virus/malware cleaner. I use them in conjunction because no program will catch everything. Sometimes one will pick up something the other didn't. It's also good confirmation that the system is clean if Avira doesn't find anything else once malwarebytes is finished.

Ccleaner is good for cleaning up junk and repairing the registry. It can basically do an all in one disc cleanup. My favorite feature of the program though, is the registry cleaner. Many times malware/viruses will infect programs/files and do damage in your registry settings. Ccleaner will repair those errors.

Each program serves it's own function. None will conflict with the others. They are all free. And they work very well.
 
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