Computer issues help!

[MichaelE]

The only thing I use on my XP machines is Zone Alarm. I've been using that for years. It doesn't try to take over the system and memory usage is low.

My Win 7 Pro machine is using Windows Security Essentials and Zone Alarm Internet Suite. Still low memory usage and no computer takeover.

Norton is among the worst for commandeering your system, hogging memory, and generally making a nuisance of itself while you are trying to do something.

The first thing that that gets un-installed on a new machine is the 30 day free lure-in of Norton that manufacturers bundle with the rest of their bloatware.

[onyx'girl]

I've been using avast and adblock(both free) for the past two years on my laptop with no problems. Google chrome is my browser. So far so good?

[kr16]

Call Microsoft tomorrow they will remove viruses for free. They go in remote and fix it.

[GatorBytes]

Do you have the little home icon with a dropdown arrow? Click on that and then add or change homepage or remove and then that will show you what program is defaulted to...remove it or all

[kr16]

Download TDSSKiller.exe and run it find it on google

[Liesje]

Originally Posted by Castlemaid

Ad-aware is malware? I thought Lavasoft was highly respected and safe!

I used to have it as a spyware remover on my old computer, recommended to me by a computer geek. Geez! Can't trust anyone nowadays!

So any tips on how to get rid of it? I run Windows 7 and Microsoft essentials.

Honestly it's been years since I've gone near it. I would think it's safe but who knows what is bundled WITH it. That's usually the problem. Also, why do you need it? If there are already problems on the computer any new malware could just compound it.

Have you run MSE in Safe Mode? When I'm doing virus/malware removal I'm always in Safe Mode. Running Windows normally you will not be able to touch anything bad.

The most common places I find crap are AppData/Local/Temp in the user's folder and Program Data on the root of the drive (both of these are normally hidden). But a lot of malware also installs browser add-ons, might put in a manual DNS server, change the host file, etc.