Best "free" anti-malware software

Hi all,

this is probably redundant but what would you all recommend as far as "free" anti-spy/adware software? Most of the time I use Windows Defender but I am not sure how effective that really is.

Any recommendations would be welcomed.

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Comments

Phliplip112

I like spybot S&D

RTmarc

Defender is perfectly fine. It is nothing more than a re-badged GIANT anti-spyware app that Microsoft bought a few years back. GIANT was one of the best available.

Megadeth4168

That is a tough question to answer. The reason why I say that, is because I use a number of different programs, each one with detection capabilities the others don't have.

I like a lot of them really.

Ad-aware
Spybot
Super Antispyware
A squared
Ewido (now avg)

I compliment these with a variety of tools, registry hacks and specific malware removal fixes.

One tool that really comes in handy for me is Ultimate boot CD for Windows.

jmanrta

One tool that really comes in handy for me is Ultimate boot CD for Windows.

if I were to make a UBCD in Windows XP, you don't happen to know if it would boot on a machine running 2000?

vCole

malware bytes is pretty awesome.

dynamik

jmanrta wrote:

if I were to make a UBCD in Windows XP, you don't happen to know if it would boot on a machine running 2000?

It boots off the CD, so OS you have installed isn't relevant. However, some of the functionality of the tools might vary depending on what OS you're working on.

RussS

Created an UBCD for server 2003 with all of the necessary SCSI drivers slipstreamed and it has saved the day a time or two when a server has died.

Andretii

If you dont go to the pron websites you wont need one.
lol

Who am I kidding!
The internet is for pron

averyjas

+1 for malware bytes. It saved my bacon the other day with an admin's laptop that was completely hosed with malware.

msteinhilber

averyjas wrote:

+1 for malware bytes. It saved my bacon the other day with an admin's laptop that was completely hosed with malware.

I suggest malware-bytes as well, this in conjunction with ComboFix seems to take care of the majority of the spyware issues I see crop up (mostly Win Antivirus type stuff lately).

Mike-Mike

I use Super Antispyware and Malwarebyete's AntiMalware

it_consultant

Super Anti and Malware bytes are the best scanners, without a doubt. I use MS Security Essentials - actually I have the beta of Forefront Endpoint 2010 running right now. It has saved me from having to use Super or Malware bytes!

erpadmin

Sites like bleepingcomputer.com have definitely helped me out when I was in a pinch. I didn't necessarily upload my files for them, but I was able to go through their methodology to find what I was looking for and kill the malware...Malwarebytes and Super Anti are definitely "the bestest." (To quote a help desk colleague...

).

BTW, I think the guy that brought this thread back to life is a spam artist...both of his sole posts mention his product....and he just created his TE account.

SephStorm

MBAM and MSE(Microsoft Security Essentials) will do you pretty well. In addition I suggest Threatfire for behavior based threat detection and removal, and Avast as your traditional AntiVirus.

krusty83uk

Andretii wrote: »

If you dont go to the pron websites you wont need one.
lol

Who am I kidding!
The internet is for pron

You forgot to add certification material ha

Hyper-Me

MSE and MWB.

earweed

Asa for me I prefer Spybot S+D and Malware Bytes

Devilsbane

Malware bytes, hands down.

jmanrta wrote: »

if I were to make a UBCD in Windows XP, you don't happen to know if it would boot on a machine running 2000?

That is the beauty of a boot disk, they will boot on any system. They don't access the HDD so it doesn't matter what is running on it. I've seen XP machines in 98 and vista/7 machines on XP with no issue.

Edit: You do run into some limitations. For insance, windows 98 doesn't support NTFS. So while I can boot up into 98, I can't even see that there is a hard drive. You could also potentially run into other compatibility issues like that. A windows 95 boot disk likely wouldn't know what to do with a modern computers vast amounts of CPU and RAM and could error out.

XP boot disk on a 2000 machine probably wouldn't have any major issues.

chmorin

Malwarebytes and spybot.

subl1m1nal

Best thing to do is load up a windows disk, reformat, and reinstall.

But, sometimes I prefer to attempt to remove because the PC reinstall would be too tough.

I like the following in this order:

System Restore
Malwarebytes
ComboFix
UBCD4win + SuperAntiSpyware

I also like spybot, but it takes a long time to scan. I've also heard good things about Microsofts Malware Removal tool (gets updated via windows update periodically).

wd40

Windows 7 Ultimate with User Account Control Enabled + Working with a normal user account.
+
Avast
+
Comodo Firewall with Defense+ enabled "it is annoying but it works!"
+
FireFox + NoScript+ Adblock Plus.

I just ran Spy Bot and it found 0 threats. "I ran it some months back and used the "immunize" option.

There was a thread about not needing an Anti-virus with windows 7 but I could not find it.