[ddtolbert]

Hi I wanted to ask you if mine is overkill. I have Symantec Antivirus, AdAware SE Personal, Spybot S&D, Spywareblaster, Windows Defender, Egeo Machine Cleanser, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, CCcleaner, Recuva,. I know some of them do different things but are some of these the same things. If I have too much of the same I would like to remove so that I will clear some memory.
My husbands computer has the same things added but he uses AVG. And if any of these in your opinion are not good programs would you please tell me that.
Thank you for your help. I really appreciate all of you that help us. I love this site.

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Having multiple Anti Virus with Real Time protection is bad. Same goes with Anti Spyware programs. As for the registry cleaners, I personally don't reccomend/ and or support them since they have a bad reputation of messing up your system. I also have had bad experiences in the past. Also downloading
SpywareGuard 2.2 by Javacool isn't a bad idea. It provides a real-time protection solution against spyware and works great along SpywareBlaster. It is a free program, and s highly reccomended since your anti spywares do not have Real Time Protection.
No one program has yet demonstrated the ability to find and remove everything. Using several different scanners is great for insurance.

My List of reccomendations
Use symantec Antivirus and SpywareGuard as your Real Time Protection.
Keep AdAware SE Personal, Spybot S&D, Windows Defender as scanners only.
Also keep SpywareBlaster.
It is up to you on whether you would like to keep the Registry Cleaner.
Make sure to also use CCcleaner every so often to free up space.
A firewall is also highly reccomended. Using just Windows firewall can be suicide since it just ahs one way protection. I reccomend Comodo.
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com

I am also going to post my standard prevention speech from my malware removal training.


Reset and Re-enable your System Restore to remove infected files that have been backed up by Windows. The files in System Restore are protected to prevent any programs from changing those files. This is the only way to clean these files: (You will lose all previous restore points which are likely to be infected)
1. Turn off System Restore.On the Desktop, right-click My Computer.
Click Properties.
Click the System Restore tab.
Check Turn off System Restore.
Click Apply, and then click OK.
2. Restart your computer.


I reccomend downloading the following programs, to keep nasties of your computer to begin with.
The following is a list of tools and utilities that I like to suggest to people. This list is full of great tools and utilities to help you understand how you got infected and how to keep from getting infected again.

Spybot Search & Destroy - Uber powerful tool which can search and annhilate nasties that make it onto your system. Now with an Immunize section that will help prevent future infections.

AdAware - Another very powerful tool which searches and kills nasties that infect your system. AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy compliment each other very well.

SpywareBlaster - Great prevention tool to keep nasties from installing on your system.

SpywareGuard - Works as a Spyware "Shield" to protect your computer from getting malware in the first place.

IE-SpyAd - puts over 5000 sites in your restricted zone so you'll be protected when you visit innocent-looking sites that aren't actually innocent at all.

ATF Cleaner - Cleans temporary files from IE and Windows, empties the recycle bin and more. Great tool to help speed up your computer and knock out those nasties that like to reside in the temp folders.

AntiVirus Program An AntiVirus program is a must! Whether it is a free version like AVG or Anti-Vir, or a shareware version like Norton or Kapersky, this is a must have.

Firewall A firewall is definatley a must have. I reccomend Comodo.

Windows Updates - It is very important to make sure that both Internet Explorer and Windows are kept current with the latest critical security patches from Microsoft. To do this just start Internet Explorer and select Tools > Windows Update, and follow the online instructions from there.

You must stay on top of your updates at all times, for the above mentioned applications.

It is vitaly important to stay on top of your critical updates provided by microsoft.

And finally a little reading. How did I get infected in the first place ?

Good luck and safe surfing

[MoNsTeReNeRgY22]

Having multiple Anti Virus with Real Time protection is bad. Same goes with Anti Spyware programs. As for the registry cleaners, I personally don't reccomend/ and or support them since they have a bad reputation of messing up your system. I also have had bad experiences in the past. Also downloading
SpywareGuard 2.2 by Javacool isn't a bad idea. It provides a real-time protection solution against spyware and works great along SpywareBlaster. It is a free program, and s highly reccomended since your anti spywares do not have Real Time Protection.
No one program has yet demonstrated the ability to find and remove everything. Using several different scanners is great for insurance.

My List of reccomendations
Use symantec Antivirus and SpywareGuard as your Real Time Protection.
Keep AdAware SE Personal, Spybot S&D, Windows Defender as scanners only.
Also keep SpywareBlaster.
It is up to you on whether you would like to keep the Registry Cleaner.
Make sure to also use CCcleaner every so often to free up space.
A firewall is also highly reccomended. Using just Windows firewall can be suicide since it just ahs one way protection. I reccomend Comodo.
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com

I am also going to post my standard prevention speech from my malware removal training.


Reset and Re-enable your System Restore to remove infected files that have been backed up by Windows. The files in System Restore are protected to prevent any programs from changing those files. This is the only way to clean these files: (You will lose all previous restore points which are likely to be infected)
1. Turn off System Restore.On the Desktop, right-click My Computer.
Click Properties.
Click the System Restore tab.
Check Turn off System Restore.
Click Apply, and then click OK.
2. Restart your computer.


I reccomend downloading the following programs, to keep nasties of your computer to begin with.
The following is a list of tools and utilities that I like to suggest to people. This list is full of great tools and utilities to help you understand how you got infected and how to keep from getting infected again.

Spybot Search & Destroy - Uber powerful tool which can search and annhilate nasties that make it onto your system. Now with an Immunize section that will help prevent future infections.

AdAware - Another very powerful tool which searches and kills nasties that infect your system. AdAware and Spybot Search & Destroy compliment each other very well.

SpywareBlaster - Great prevention tool to keep nasties from installing on your system.

SpywareGuard - Works as a Spyware "Shield" to protect your computer from getting malware in the first place.

IE-SpyAd - puts over 5000 sites in your restricted zone so you'll be protected when you visit innocent-looking sites that aren't actually innocent at all.

ATF Cleaner - Cleans temporary files from IE and Windows, empties the recycle bin and more. Great tool to help speed up your computer and knock out those nasties that like to reside in the temp folders.

AntiVirus Program An AntiVirus program is a must! Whether it is a free version like AVG or Anti-Vir, or a shareware version like Norton or Kapersky, this is a must have.

Firewall A firewall is definatley a must have. I reccomend Comodo.

Windows Updates - It is very important to make sure that both Internet Explorer and Windows are kept current with the latest critical security patches from Microsoft. To do this just start Internet Explorer and select Tools > Windows Update, and follow the online instructions from there.

You must stay on top of your updates at all times, for the above mentioned applications.

It is vitaly important to stay on top of your critical updates provided by microsoft.

And finally a little reading. How did I get infected in the first place ?

Good luck and safe surfing