Fighting Viruses, Spyware and Malware on a Budget

Someone recently left their computer with me and asked me to “fix it”. I was told the computer had some viruses that needed to be cleaned up. No problem. I don’t mind helping someone out. It usually only takes an hour or two to update someone’s virus software, run a full system scan and return it. Piece of cake.

My initial time estimate was quite wrong. It turns out this particular Windows XP PC was quite infected with a virus or two… Make that 1,000+.

After booting the machine, I quickly noticed that the version of Anti-Virus software, Kaspersky (a personal favorite of mine), was an expired 1 month free trial version. So much for simply updating and scanning. Time to fix this PC on the cheap.

Step 1: Uninstall the expired version of Kaspersky. START | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Find Kaspersky Anti-Virus | Remove

Step 2: Find a decent freeware virus scanner. These days you can find a decent free virus scanner; you can find a decent Spyware/Malware scanner. You cannot find a decent program that does both. I stumbled upon AntiVir Personal Edition, a free virus scanner. In the past I would have gone directly to http://free.grisoft.com/ and used a free copy of AVG. Unfortunately, I have found that AVG noticeably impacts system performance. The last thing I want to do is slow down the PC I’m working on. So off to http://www.free-av.com/ to download a copy of AntiVir.

Step 3: Once installed, I run a full system scan. 1,000+ cleaned infections later, the system appears to be virus free.

Step 4: Knowing full well that most free virus scanners do not adequately catch all forms of Malware/Spyware, I download a trusted, free, well know, scanner; Spybot Seek & Destroy. I have been a loyal user of Spybot S&D for many years now. It’s simple, it’s free, it works well! Once installed, Spybot cleans the machine of all Spyware/Malware flawlessly. One reboot later, and the machine is running Virus/Malware/Spyware free!

Lessons learned:

1. There is not a single virus scanner in existence (paid for or free) that will catch any/every virus/malware/spyware variation.
2. There is quality freeware available (for personal, non-business use) to fight the virus/malware/spyware problem if you have the time to find them and work through the sometimes non-intuitive user interface.
3. AntiVir does a nice job actively cleaning viruses (for free). The user interface is a bit kludgy, but it works well and fast.
4. Spybot Search and Destroy is perhaps the best anti-spyware product available. It’s free and the latest version (1.5) offers an excellent, always-on program called “Tea Timer” that watches your PC as you surf the web. Again, the user interface has something to be desired, but Spybot Search and Destroy works damn well. I will load this application on every PC I own.
5. Viruses, Malware and Spyware are a pain in the A**. Do not underestimate the amount of time it takes (as I did) to clean them up.
6. Pay the $50 (or so, per year) to Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec or whoever your favorite Security software vendor is. It will be money well spent. The commercial programs available do a nice job cleaning most virus/malware/spyware.