Comprehensive List on Protection from Viruses & Malware/Computer Maintenance Software

I noticed the sticky thread about this is way back from Windows XP days. It's time for an update since there are other newer products since then. Here is a list I came up with. Feel free to add more to it.

Free Anti Virus Programs
Avira Free

AVG free

Avast! Free

Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Safety Scanner Stand alone scanner, expires after 10 days and needs to be redownloaded. Good if malware as disabled your anti-virus.

Panda Cloud AntiVirus

Free AV Rescue Discs (When your system is crippled from malware/viruses, use this to clean it up)
Avria AntiVir Rescue System

AVG Rescue CD

Bitdefender Rescue CD

Microsoft System Sweeper


Free Malware Removal Programs
Malwarebytes

Ad Aware Free

Spybot Search & Destroy

Kill Malware Processes
RKill


Free Firewalls with HIPS support
Comodo Firewall

Online Armor

Outpost Firewall

PCTools Free Firewall Plus

Private Firewall

Free Firewall non-HIPS/Basic
Zone Alarm


Ad Blocking
Adblock Plus Stop ads and pop ups on Firefox & Chrome. It's widely used.

NoScript Block all types of scripts from running in your web browser.

Erase/Wipe Temp Files & Free Space
CCleaner Both for Windows and Mac

Eraser

Registry Cleaners
Comodo System Cleaner

Glary Utilities

File Recovery
Recuva

Wipe Hard Drive
Darik's Boot And Nuke wipe all data from hard drive so it can't be recovered.

Lol I use 7 programs/plugins on your list.

Freeware and donationware ftw.

good list.

GM

I also use or have used many of them...most are quite useful. Very Cool of you to "Update" the list
S & F

ps. check out this list
157 of the most useful Websites on the Internet

I use MS Security Essentials, it's been very effective for me.

I also use adblockplus, Eraser and CCleaner .. there's also another tool called unlocker that allows you to right click and unlock a file or folder when windows is reporting that it can't be deleted since it's in use.

May I also suggest that an excellent emergency tool is ComboFix? This utility is priceless for fixing a machine that has been hit by a rootkit malware.. it's saved many computers I've been asked to work on, especially those hit by the annoying fake anti-virus malware that prevents you from launching a command prompt or task manager.. I just boot into safe mode with internet support and then run combofix.. it will download and install microsoft recover console and then run through several stages of scan and repair.. it's never failed to fix a problem for me.

As an IT professional I'm embarrassed that I didn't know about ComboFix. I'll download it tonight.

But I want to add one thing I consider critical: Make a disk image of all your machines--your own and all your users' machines. Do it early, while they're still squeaky clean. And update them any time you make a system change (add new software or hardware).

I've battled some badware for days, only to lose the war and have to reinstall from scratch. Some of the new "fake antiviruses" will also thrash your system so bad that, even if you get rid of the virus, the computer won't restart. Sometimes you can dig down deep and repair it--losing a couple more days--but sometimes not. You can end up wasting a week, where if you had an image you could replace it in 20 or 30 minutes. Highly recommended....

reply to post by Ex_CT2


ComboFix tries to identify modified system files to replace/repair them.. I've not had a situation so far where I couldn't recover but I'm also sure I've not ran into every variant also!

Yes I recommend the same, image your drive.. I use Acronis for that purpose and a two terabyte drive to store it on ( space is cheap! ) I learned my lesson after a drive died and I had tons of music projects get trashed as a result

Hiren's BootCD 14.0

I'll second Combofix, excellent program.


brill