Windows & DOS: Issues & Discussions

Hi All,

My old laptop has Windows XP. I reinstalled only last month and installed AVG free anti-virus. It's like every month, I get some kind of spyware or virus issue. which anti-virus software you guys using?

Thanks.

Do you apply AVG regular updates? Do you allow the AVG software to do a full system scan periodically?

Since we do not want to endorse or promote commercial products, a few things for you to think about:

How are you getting viruses?
Are you downloading zip or exe files from emails?
Do you click on unfamiliar website links?

Do you have your software set to:
run continuously?
or, at least regularly check for viruses, etc..
auto-update?

If your virus scanner is just deleting Tracking Cookies, don't worry about it.

After a re-install of Windows XP you must get the Microsoft Updates going again and apply all the updates. Make sure that you are on Windows XP Service Pack 3 (check with the winver program).

Make sure that the Windows Firewall is turned on if you don't have another firewall installed.

my wife loves to watch movies on the internet (free). When ever she goes to those website, next thing the PC will get full of spyware and adware. I will have over 100 I.E windows open trying to sell me some thing.

Are you running as administrator all the time? There's only so much an antivirus can do when you leave the door wide open. Run as a limited user and many spyware and viruses will be simply unable to install themselves on your computer. Some might get in, but they will only affect the single account.

Keeping separate accounts is also a good idea for this reason. Something which affects one limited account won't affect the other.

None at all, actually. I use a well-built OS, which doesn't need antivirus-software because its privileges management is planned consistently. I never had a virus in the 15 years i own PCs. I never had Windows on any of them, though.

I suggest you get such an OS instead of patching Windows with an ever-increasing effort into something which works sometimes.

Arguably the one requiring the least amount of understanding of its inner working is Ubuntu. You can get it from here.

I hope this helps.

bakunin