What are the must-have free spyware/etc. removal products these days?

Caramel Genocide

I've got Spybot and AVG. What should I be running? I'm generally not stupid with my interweb use, however I do like to protect against potential slip-ups.

t_catt11

Those are what I run. Keep them up to date, and life is good. The above play nicely with ZoneAlarm (you ARE running a firewall, right?).

TetraNitroCubane

One of the best tools out there right now is MalwareBytes AntiMalware. It's lightweight, effective, and updated regularly. You'll have to update and scan manually, but the program is free.

TychoCelchuuu

MWB + Spybot pretty much gets all your spyware.

wunderbar

I'd ditch AVG for AntiVir free or Avast! AVG has become pretty bloated since 8.0.

Thanatos

MalWareBytes and Spybot. Personally, I wouldn't run anything more intrusive than those two.

Caramel Genocide

Thanks folks! (and yeah, I do have a firewall)

Feldorn

speaking of firewalls, what are current opinions on windows built in firewall?

RBach

The Windows Firewall is fine and a 3rd party solution really isn't necessary.

Feral

AVG + Windows Defender

Avast! and Avira have too many pop-ups for me.

Malwarebytes is good, but it doesn't run do real-time protection.

Seattle Thread

RBach wrote: »

The Windows Firewall is fine and a 3rd party solution really isn't necessary.

The Windows Firewall is terrible and I'd go with something like Comodo instead.

RBach

What critical function does WF fail so much at?

Drez

I use Comodo Antivirus.

Seattle Thread

RBach wrote: »

What critical function does WF fail so much at?

Almost everything

Feral

I don't think a software firewall is generally necessary on desktop computers. As long as your computer is protected behind a hardware firewall or a NAT router, software firewalls are redundant and unnecessary overhead.

The exception would be if your desktop is on something like a dormitory network where there is free traffic between many other untrusted computers. Then yes you need a software firewall.

Software firewalls are also good if you're using a laptop on untrusted wireless networks.

But the average household desktop computer doesn't need one.

Torque Monkey

Malwarebytes has pretty much taken over the free market, but a few good supplemental programs below-

ComboFix
SuperAntiSpyware
HijackThis
CounterSpy
Trend Micro Rootkit Buster
McAfee Rootkit Detective

The only one I'd recommend from that list as a normal program to keep installed would be SuperAntiSpyware. The rest are very powerful programs, but you likely won't need them unless you need a very particular infection cleaned.

Drake

RBach wrote: »

What critical function does WF fail so much at?

Here's a nice comparison of different firewalls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_firewalls

JohnnyCache

I use avast and love it although you'll want to turn of the audio notice that yells "VIRUS DATABASE HAS BEEN UPDATED" at 3 am because you use your computer as a stereo and didn't turn it off/down when you went to bed.