Virus/firewall question

[Orrex]

First of all, anyone who recommends getting a Mac or Linux wants to make sweet, sweet love to Newt Gingrich all night long.

Anway...
Running Vista on a Compaq & using Firefox, mostly without incident. Seem to have contracted a virus, however, so I'll need to do some scrubbing when I get home from work. A few questions:

I'm using SpyBot. Does this offer active protection, or is it only on-demand scanning? I feel foolish for not knowing this & should obviously have checked previously, but here we are.

If SpyBot doesn't have an active protective function, can you recommend a good one?

The virus alert came up when I got numerous "permission" requests to access user accounts, all of which I refused. However, when I tried to reboot, Windows Defender popped up with some kind of "Vista 2012 update" firewall warning. I don't believe that I've downloaded anything for 2012 yet, so I became suspicious.

Any thoughts, bearing in mind my earlier comment about Newt?


Thanks!

[HopeHoops]

1. Malwarebytes is the best I know of for nuking things your virus software doesn't catch.

It is most likely something that you agreed to allow the computer to install - fake update message boxes or attachments to e-mail.

Windows Defender is pretty useless (caveat: the Win7 protection works really well as does Windows update).

Malwarebytes has a free version that so far has worked really well for me (the kids keep getting stuff). They also have a pro-version you can pay for (and I intend to soon) that has active scanning.

[Orrex]

3. Thanks very much!

I'll check out Malwarebytes when I get back online @ home.

[HopeHoops]

5. Here's the link...

http://shop.malwarebytes.org/lpa/342/3/7268/index_b.html?_kk=malwarebytes&_kt=77dafa20-d875-4e0a-b98a-54dc2c93bd02&gclid=CPTSrezGk60CFUOo4AodBFaLmQ

[redqueen]

7. There's another one called SuperAntiSpyware

that's good. I use both of those to run scans in addition to my firewall.

Also, there's a virus called ZeroAccess that I'm shocked I haven't heard more about. It's seriously bad and once it gets in, it is undetectable by most scans.

[douglas9]

8. My Vote Too

http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html

[FSogol]

2. Spybot is about 5 years behind Malwarebytes.

Windows Defender blows too.
I also use the free version of Spyware Blaster for active spyware protection.
Malewarebytes for removing problems and AVG for active virus protection.


<Snicker> Vista,! </snicker>

[Orrex]

4. SpyBot has done okay for us so far, but if it's behind the curve then perhaps it's time to update

Honestly, Vista's given us very little trouble. I still prefer XP, but Vista is what came on our (now) somewhat(!) out of date system.


Thanks for the second vote for Malwarebytes. I'll definitely check on it.

[HopeHoops]

6. The Vista version blows, but the Win 7 version seems to do a damn good job.

I've also got Norton 360 running on it, so between the two nothing has gotten through on the Win 7 box. Vista's a hacker's wonderland.

[Orrex]

10. Thanks for an excellent suggestion

I was planning to boot in safe mode, restore, and then run a new scan.

I'll look into adding NoScript and the aforementioned protections later this evening.


Thanks!

[Orrex]

13. System restore & virus scan seem to have been effective!

Still going to upgrade my protection, but it's nice to be back online!

[elifino]

12. Active anti-virus protection

I have been very satisfied with AVG (free version)at home, it updates daily and offers good protection. If you do get a virus. Malwarebytes and McAfee Stinger(do a google search for stinger, down load the free virus removal tool). Other products I can recommend are SpyBot and Adaware.
We use McAfee where I work in the IT group. We have several thousand computers, virus and malware are a daily concern.