do i have too many virus programs???

trigger_mike

hello, do i have too many virus programs running on my computer? im running:
AVG Free
Ad-Aware 6.0
Mc Afee 2004
Spybot
Ace Utilities
Counterspy
Internet Sweeper
and Zone labs Security
Do i need all these and are they slowing down my computer?
Any help will be thanked. mike :xmassign:

mr_fishbulb

You should only have 1 anti-virus running as 2 can interfere with each other. So get rid of McAffee or AVG. If McAffee is the 2004 version, are you still getting updates?

Likewise you should only have 1 software firewall running. As you have Zone labs then make sure the windows firewall is disabled (if you have XP).

zacspeed_2

Crikey - I'm amazed your PC runs at all with that much stuff slowing it down!!!
All you need;
ONE antivirus
ONE anti spyware prog (I reccomend spybot S&D it has it's own registry cleaning tool if you take the time to look for it)
ONE firewall (as mentioned above - if you have XP with SP2 - use Windows firewall - otherwise Zone Alarm is OK)
BTW - Spybot works well if you run it whilst in safe mode.

trigger_mike

thanks i've removed avg free and counterspy starts up quicker already! i had a stage where i was having loads of pop ups and stuff and got a bit carried away trying to stop them, had the same problem once before and tried removing the dodgy looking files and removed system 32, cost me £117 to fix!

CIS

What did they do for the £117 ?, just re-install windows ?.

I would normally charge people about £20-£25 to reinstall and clear off any virii etc

trigger_mike

reinstall windows xp and i also think they fitted a large mermory chip as they said that was half the problem with the computer to much power but small mermory or something!

CIS

That would have cost them about £25 , so on £117, they probably made about 50 profit. If I suggested that price to some od the people I work for they would refuse, its ridiculous that some campanies charge that much for a reasonably quick job.

wolfman

trigger_mike wrote:

hello, do i have too many virus programs running on my computer? im running:
AVG Free
Ad-Aware 6.0
Mc Afee 2004
Spybot
Ace Utilities
Counterspy
Internet Sweeper
and Zone labs Security
Do i need all these and are they slowing down my computer?
Any help will be thanked. mike :xmassign:

Simply put, yes.

All you should need is:

- AVG
- CounterSpy
- a free firewall (Kerio Personal Firewall, ZoneAlarm, Sygate)
- and HiJack This (for seeing what is running on your machine during startup etc...)

Ditch everything else. If you feel like spending some money, buy Nod32 and use that instead of AVG.

intel

wolfman wrote:

Simply put, yes.

All you should need is:

- AVG
- CounterSpy
- a free firewall (Kerio Personal Firewall, ZoneAlarm, Sygate)
- and HiJack This (for seeing what is running on your machine during startup etc...)

Ditch everything else. If you feel like spending some money, buy Nod32 and use that instead of AVG.

Ahh just one more thing, Is Sygate still relevant, and is Kerio better than ZA.

tigermatt

zacspeed wrote:

ONE anti spyware prog...

I recommend using two anti-spyware programs as a fail safe (just in case one program doesn't pick something up). Only run one anti-virus program though.

tigermatt

mr_fishbulb wrote:

make sure the windows firewall is disabled (if you have XP).

I think in most cases, ZoneAlarm install automatically disables Windows Firewall.