The Digital Surgery (computer questions/problems here)

[Chromeman]

caller, there is a good description on how to get rid of PUP.optional.minibar here. Just skip the parts about posting the logs...

[caller]

Sorry, forgot to come back to this. All nasties now zapped - thanks for the advice.

[Chromeman]

[Pagey]

I have the free version of Avast but nothing else. Today I got a virus or two and cannot open any program. I cannot even upgrade Avast. So a trip to the computer man near traffic lights on canal road. When fixed what do I need to install to prevent a re occurrence?

[barrys]

I have the free version of Avast but nothing else. Today I got a virus or two and cannot open any program. I cannot even upgrade Avast. When fixed what do I need to install to prevent a re occurrence?

Keep avast, then install spybot and malwarebytes additionally.
I run these 3 programs and I'm online more than 12 hours a day - no viruses and no malicious malware so far

[caller]

Here are the mirrors for the official SB site: http://www.safer-networking.org/mirrors/

Thanks for this Buksi, as I still have some concerns about my mini-acer, I decided to use spybot - but which of the 11 free downloads am I meant to use, or is it all 3 of the 'main mirrors'?

[buksida]

I have the free version of Avast but nothing else. Today I got a virus or two and cannot open any program. I cannot even upgrade Avast. When fixed what do I need to install to prevent a re occurrence?

Keep avast, then install spybot and malwarebytes additionally.
I run these 3 programs and I'm online more than 12 hours a day - no viruses and no malicious malware so far

Ditto.

Malware is much more prevalent than viruses these days so you need a good scanner, Spybot does the trick for me. Additionally avoid using Internet Explorer and do not download or accept any toolbars or software you're not familiar with.

Caller, just pick any of those mirror sites and download it.

[hhfarang]

I use ZoneAlarm (firewall), Avast (antivirus), run Malwarebytes once a week and Advanced System Care 6 once a week. They are all free and have kept my computer clean until recently when I made a mistake. I went to a web page via a link sent to me from a trusted source. I even got a warning (from google???) about going to the site but thought it must be a mistake and went anyway. 5 minutes later for the first time in my computing life windows shut itself down saying the malicious software had been found and it was shutting down the operating system before it could do any damage. Then a black (DOS?) screen was shown dumping memory to disk for a few minutes before the machine powered itself down. I powered it back up and immediately ran malwarebytes and the other things I mentioned. A complete system scan by Avast found nothing, Advanced system care found the usual tracking cookie and registry stuff, but malwarebytes found 9 of those pup.(*) nasties. In all the years I've been using malwarebytes it has never found anything before. I deleted these and everything is good so far. Fingers crossed.

By the way, I sent a message to the person who sent me the site and the owner of the web site (a retail company site where I was shopping for a treadmill) about what happened and they were thankful, apologetic and said they would get their IT guys on it immediately.

So, in summary, pay attention to warnings and run malware bytes to find the worst of the nasties.

[Dannie Boy]

When I bought my laptop about 3 years ago, it came with one years McAfee antivirus protection which I have continued to renew but as it's due in a weeks time, would others recommend ditching it in favour of one of the free subscriptions?

[PeteC]

My only 2 satang worth is that the large antivirus suites like McAfee and Norton tend to slow down your computer. The Avast's of the world I think are advertised not to disrupt speed. Pete

[Chromeman]

I used to use Avast before, but a couple of years ago I switched to using the Norwegian anti virus program Norman Security Suite. I got the first year free from my bank. Quite happy with it, and they have a fast and good service if you need help. And it doesn't make your computer slow.

[Pagey]

Thanks for the replies. Finally got my cleaned laptop back tonight so installed spybot and Malwarebytes before doing anything else.

Buksi : I always use Internet Explorer and have all my favourites saved, what should I use instead ?

Thank You

[barrys]

I always use Internet Explorer and have all my favourites saved, what should I use instead ?

I've used Mozilla Firefox for a few years now and found it very good.
Just one tip: check the add-ons regularly to make sure that unwanted ones have npt sort of smuggled themselves in!

[Chromeman]

I always use Internet Explorer and have all my favourites saved, what should I use instead ?

There are several good options, and the discussions about what program to use between the various fan bases can be quite heated and bloody...

The most used web browsers today for Windows outside IE is Chrome and Firefox, and then the less used Opera.

I personally, have used Firefox for several years and is quite happy with that program. And if you would like to try out Firefox, here is a good explanation for how to import all your favorites etc. from IE.

[buksida]

Yep, agree with the above, Firefox and Chrome are much better (and safer) browsers than IE, which was probably the source of your malware infection.