phobia

Someone help me get over my ungodly phobia of getting a virus, worm, etc..
Im starting professional school next month. I'm taking two laptops, my 4 year old toshiba and my new HP. I plan on just using the HP for school functions and online bill paying. The toshiba will be used for movies games, etc. The toshiba has been through my undegrad years and has seen its fair share of videos, games. I've always had norton and scanes/updated regulary. However I just tried a free version of AD-Adware (was recommended), and it found like 90 infections on my computer. I'm scared of transferring a virus from my toshiba to my new computer via modem or whatever. I get so paranoid when using my laptop for presentations that a popup will come up or something random like that.

 

That's because its ad-aware (great program by the way). That's normal, it finds "junk" files, and removes them. As long as they aren't critical files, you're fine. Even then, just quaratine, and clean up, and be worry free.

Pop-ups usually appear from worms/viruses, and if you're clean, YOU'RE CLEAN. Norton is not liked around here because it interferes too much, but it does the job. So don't worry.

Hopefully this might clear some thins up.

 

Most people use AVG or Avast for virus protection. They're both free and are good. You shouldn't really be getting any viruses unless you don't have any virus protection and you go to naughty/questionable sites or download questionable things.

 

I don't want to play the salesman here, but Linux would be the best alternative for you (unless you have/need Windows-specific applications). There are very, very few viruses/worms/trojans meant for Linux to begin with, and Linux is a more inherently secure OS to boot. Just a thought.

 

Futurepharm, did AdAware find actual infections or did it find cookies that were labelled as 'infections'?
Through my signature link you can find better antispyware programs like SAS and MBAM, you might want to give those a try.

Bog's advice to start using Linux, instead or besides a Windows OS, is one I can second wholeheartedly.
Ubuntu for instance is great to get started, just download a copy, burn it to a CD and just pop it in to see what you'll get.
Cheers.

 

AdAware flags browser cookies, which are pretty harmless. Then everyone thinks, OMG, this program's so great, it found so many problems! But they're not actual problems.

Now I don't know that they were all cookies in your case... maybe, maybe not... but don't assume everything it flags is really a problem.

 

i just have several things on there. Avast, spybot s&d, adaware, windows defender etc etc. If your that paranoid, get all those and dont go on any weird websites. The funny thing is my friend doesnt have any protectino stuff and all he does is a full system restore every 2 years etc. however he restores it like 5 times so nothing survives.

 

You might want to use Microsoft's Steady-State software. It is designed for public computers to keep them clean and easily reverted to a functioning state (as easily as restarting your computer).

It's free to anyone with a genuine XP or Vista license. Of course it's not an alternative to virus protection, but it's a great addition.

Steady State: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

 

Yeah, but what about after booting?