MX-3.com

A few months ago, I was lucky ( ) enough to be attacked by about 1800 viruses at once, when I mistakenly opened an e-mail I was trying to delete.
At the time, I had the Norton Anti Virus installed, which did NOT detect any of them, did NOT stop them, and, once I scanned my computer, did also NOT recognize them, and, of course, did not disinfect them.
So I went to CompUSA, and bought an Internet Security Suite which proved to be an excellent tool every time I felt like crashing my computer, and a book: "Hacking Windows XP" by Steve Sinchak.
In that book he recommends these 2 anti virus softwares: Spybot S&D and Lavasoft Ad-Aware.
They're both very aggressive, they're both free, and they complement each other beautifully.
I ran Spybot first, and it detected, IIRC, something like 1680 viruses or so. It disinfected almost all of them, except 115 that I had to do manually. Then, after 2 weeks deleting those 115 by hand, i ran Ad-Aware, and it found and disinfected another 260.
Ever since, thanks to an immunization tool on Spybot, I'm completely virus free.

Malwarebytes is a great program. I dumped Adaware for it and it's done an excellent job. If you ever have a virus/malware issue go to Trendmicro and do their FREE on line scan. I do it about once a month. No one single virus scan or malware scan gets everything IMO.

On my laptop I run the following programs:

AdAware
Spybot: Search and Destroy
Spyware Blaster
MalwareBytes
Avast! Antivirus

I recommend all those FREE programs. They do a lot better then most "pay for" programs you can get.

This computer always run great, and as long as I do them once every week or 2, I usually never have any viruses/adware/spyware.

So yeah.. definitely use those!! You won't be disappointed.

The new Adaware is a bit bloated...

I use Spybot S&D and the Lavasoft adware and they are top notch so get a +1 from me.

Also +1 for Avast, seems to be the best FREE AV out there at the mo. Some people recomend AVG too, I've never used it but some say it can be a bit bloated.

I also use Comodo which is a FREE personal Firewall. Can be a bit of a PITA sometimes as it'll throw up warnings for everything if you try to run updates or download programs, but at least I know it's working and checking stuff.

Currently Virus free and have been for the last year using this set up

For the slightly advanced user, hijackthis is also great. Novices can also use it, but you should post the log on a forum dedicated to the program so people can help you!

Never used antivirus, only had 1 virus in last 8years. I personally don't believe in anti virus software.

spybot and adaware are the best. I always use them. Week ago a computer at work got infected and I ran it in safe mode and installed spybot and ran it. Deleted spyware/trojans and computer runs great after that. Of course it wasn't my job (Im a painter) but I was able to do it so I did it.

IMO, each has its own ups and downs.

If I'm workigg on a PC and I suspect spyware...

I install spybot S&D and update it on a flash drive. I also load Hijackthis! on the USB as well. I boot into safemode, run Hijackthis! and remove anything I think could be a culprit. I then run spybot. That usually takes care of 99%. I then run Malwarebytes or adaware if I still suspect something.

If I can, I'd rather format then deal with spyware removal on an older PC. Its less time consuming, especially with a automated install disk. (Nlineos.com)

I totally agree!

There are time when Spyboy, Ad-Aware, Malwarebytes and HiJack this just isn't enough. Some are just that stubborn.