[idrawstuff]

I've been pretty lucky these last seven years. I've only had to deal with two, maybe three viruses in seven years that I couldn't fix with a Geeks-to-Go or Bleeping Computer walk through.

I'm dealing with a recurring XP Total Security/AntiMalware Doctor infection at the moment, but it looks like I've got a handle on it now. This is probably one of the more complicated infections I've dealt with in a long time. But I can't help but notice that over the years, the tools of the trade have changed. Once upon a time you could be running any decent free virus scanner and either AdAware or Spybot, and you could handle 99% of the infections out there on your own. Once in a blue moon, MAYBE you might have had to post Hijack This log for a review.

These days, the tools are much different. Malware Bytes to compliment your virus scanner, Super Anti Spyware, OTL, rKill, GMER, Gooredfix, Combofix.... things are a lot different now, but it's nice to know that the tools for the "do-it-yourself" community have kept up with the ever advancing viruses.

I guess my question is: what's the best protection to run? I've still got Tea Timer running in the background of both my home and work computers, but is that still really doing me any good? Still using Avira at home. And when anything comes up, just picking up the tools I need on a situation by situation basis (and then uninstalling them afterwards so I can make sure to have a fresh install next time).

Also, why DOES Malwarebytes do such a good job of getting malware that most AVs miss?