Virus Checkers buggering my performance

Wormey

So, I got sent a link by an acquaitance i hadn't heard from in ages from a site called video bb, which caused my computer to crash when i clicked it - not crash, but keep making the error message and saying it was going to restart my omputer in (timer) - I hard shut down before that happenned because that didn't look right to me.

That wasn't the problem -The problems was that I then started downloading all the recommended freeware for spy and ad remobal and virus checkers (i already had Mcaffe and Windows defender)
but other sites recommended using some in conjunction.

So, after installing Syybot
a Malware removal program (Malware Bytes)
Sandboxie
Ad Aware
AVG
Avast


Which has just fucked my System Functionality completely - slow assed loading on startup - i even did a system resore to shortly after installing the second product and is still slow as anything)

What can I do to improve performance AND be safe from viruses?

Zeon

Unless your computer is used for some top secret sensitive government spy work, you dont need 3 antivirus programs and 5 spyware programs running at the same time.

Remove them all, use Windows Defender and Windows Anti-Malware. Theyre free, and theyre good.

Rainbulimic

Never use three anti-virus programs at once. Remove two of them and just keep which ever you trust the most.
Personally I like avast.

TetraNitroCubane

Malwarebytes, Ad Aware, Windows Defender and Spybot, are 'on-demand' scanners, and having all of them installed will be fine (only one of them will be running at a time). Sandboxie is an excellent program, and shouldn't impact system performance at all.

McAffee, AVG and Avast! however, are all resident 'on-access' scanners. Having more than one 'on-access' anti-virus scanner installed at once is a bad idea. They will conflict with each other, and drag your system performance down. I'd recommened uninstalling all but one of them. You might have to uninstall all of them, and then install the one of your choice.

I also respectfully disagree with Zeon's advice. While you should only have one 'on-access' anti-virus scanner, these days an anti-virus solution alone is not enough. Having at least one additional malware scanner (usually MalwareBytes), and a proactive solution like Sandboxie is an excellent idea. Also, Windows Defender and Windows Anti-Malware have been supplanted by Microsoft Security Essentials - which is a free 'on-access' resident anti-virus scanner. If you decide to use it, you'd want to use it instead of AVG or Avast.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Get rid of everything.

Then download Microsoft Security Essentials.

Then get Malware Bytes.

That's all I use, they run in the background completely un-noticeably (Steam uses considerably more system resources), I have them set to do detailed scans once per week at 3 a.m. on a Monday morning, and I haven't had a virus in years.

matt has a problem

chrishallett83 wrote: »

Get rid of everything.

Then download Microsoft Security Essentials.

Then get Malware Bytes.

That's all I use, they run in the background completely un-noticeably (Steam uses considerably more system resources), I have them set to do detailed scans once per week at 3 a.m. on a Monday morning, and I haven't had a virus in years.

Pretty much this. Microsoft realized that building their own antivirus would be beneficial to their OS, and did a really fine job of it. And Malwarebytes can NIFO anything thrown at it.

Valaena

Also, when that box pops up that says Shutdown in 'blah blah' , if you create a new shortcut on your desktop, and in the location type 'shutdown.exe -a' and name it Abort Shutdown or whatever you want. And when the notice of a shutdown pops up, run the shortcut, and that should stop the shutdown.

Edit: oh lord I looked back on that at it is a jumbled mess. If you care, I can make it a little clearer, but I second everyone else saying MSE and Malware Bytes

Hahnsoo1

I second the MSE and Malwarebytes, but that won't protect you from everything. If you are REALLY having problems with malware, viruses, and trojans, you are probably practicing a lot of unsafe web browsing (either that, or you are using cheap USB drives with chinese trojans, but that's another story). A solution like the NoScript plug-in for Firefox will pretty much prevent the problem before it starts. While it's a pain to flag every web site that you read as "allow/forbid" as you are browsing, you won't ever have to worry about clicking a link and eating yet another piece of shitty malware.

TetraNitroCubane

Hahnsoo1 wrote: »

I second the MSE and Malwarebytes, but that won't protect you from everything. If you are REALLY having problems with malware, viruses, and trojans, you are probably practicing a lot of unsafe web browsing (either that, or you are using cheap USB drives with chinese trojans, but that's another story). A solution like the NoScript plug-in for Firefox will pretty much prevent the problem before it starts. While it's a pain to flag every web site that you read as "allow/forbid" as you are browsing, you won't ever have to worry about clicking a link and eating yet another piece of shitty malware.

Both agreeing and disagreeing with this sentiment, here. I agree (very strongly) that an Adblocker and a Script Blocker, as well as a Plugin/Flash blocker, are all essential for browsing securely. You can get these for any major browser, not just Firefox, and they increase your security greatly.

I disagree that these problems stem from 'unsafe web browsing'. There's no such thing as a 'safe' website anymore. Most of the malware attacks these days are being launched from trusted websites. Examples include the New York Times, National Geographic, and Google Image Search. It's not just porn and piracy sites spreading the malware anymore, and I wish this myth were debunked.

Hahnsoo1

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

I disagree that these problems stem from 'unsafe web browsing'. There's no such thing as a 'safe' website anymore. Most of the malware attacks these days are being launched from trusted websites. Examples include the New York Times, National Geographic, and Google Image Search. It's not just porn and piracy sites spreading the malware anymore, and I wish this myth were debunked.

To me, unsafe web browsing is using a browser with Javascript enabled. *grin* I think we are talking about the same thing, here, but we have different definitions.

Thanatos

I virtually guarantee that your problem is that you're running the TeaTimer add-on that comes with Spybot.

Disable/uninstall that, and all of your problems will disappear.

I mean, what everyone else is saying is also true, but this will fix your specific problem.