I spy...you spy...but do you have good ANTI-SPYWARE?

There are expensive programs and there are free programs. But the most important programs are the ones that WORK!!!

Please tell us your anti-spyware programs and solutions. If they happen to be free or cheap...BONUS!!

Thank you! Kamala

The two I tust and use are:

Malwarebytes

Spybot - Search and Destroy

Both free to use for unlimited time, but you can register them to support the authors.

I used to use AdAware, but they seem to have softened their definitions to include very little.

The two I tust and use are:

Malwarebytes

Spybot - Search and Destroy

Both free to use for unlimited time, but you can register them to support the authors.

I used to use AdAware, but they seem to have softened their definitions to include very little.

I have used both of the above, but been burned by malware twice in the last three weeks. I also have a license for Mcafee too, but that seems to have done little to stop these attacks also. Pretty soon I will just have to re-image my computer and start over.

What do you mean reimage your computer? Is this the same as our discussions we've had in this thread?

If so could this be another benefit to the aforementioned thread???

What do you mean reimage your computer? Is this the same as our discussions we've had in this thread?

Yes, that's what he means, and what i meant when I wrote it in the other thread. You reformat you hard disk, destroying everything on it , than load windows and whatever drivers & programs you regard as fundamental to your system. Once that's done and it's running perfectly you use a special program (I said I use Norton Ghost) to take a facsimile image of everything on the disk, and store that image somewhere safe - obviously not on the hard drive you've just imaged! Then if you have serious problems later on you simply reformat the hard drive again (first copying off any data you want from it) and then load up the image. Much quicker than replacing the OS, drivers etc piecemeal, but has the same effect.

I said in the other thread I use Bullguard for firewall and anti-malware protection. It's not free, I think it costs around $40/year. But since I've been using it I've had no problems, and with every alternative solution I've used in the past (McAfee & Norton amongst others) I've ended up with problems the "protection" didn't pick up. I've now used Bullguard for 4 or 5 years, and I anticipate continuing to use it.

for anti spyware in addition to the PC cillin i use for AV it also has a anti-spyware component to it. I also use Spybot S&D as well.

I also use a ghosting software to rebuild me laptop as doing it manually takes between 12-16 hours to do with all of the specialty software I use, and typically only takes about 90 mins to rebuild everything instead of 12-16 hours. I typically do this twice a year because windows over time slows down to the point the system is non-functional.

What do you mean reimage your computer? Is this the same as our discussions we've had in this thread?

If so could this be another benefit to the aforementioned thread???

Yes, but I was able to get past the virus doing a system restore to a previous windows update and it appears to have taken care of it.

I didn't want to have to do a full re-image only as a last resort.

Yes, but I was able to get past the virus doing a system restore to a previous windows update and it appears to have taken care of it.

I didn't want to have to do a full re-image only as a last resort.

You were very lucky then. Some viruses either sit idle for a long time, or insert themselves into the system restore so they are there after you use it. I turn my system restore off to save resources as it has only disappointed me.

Ghost and ACRONIS True Image type tools are invaluable to backup individual partitions or entire drives. I have images of my C: drive (My main OS drive) in both Ghost and ACRONIS formats.

One thing most people do is have one huge partition for their C: drive. So if you lose it, you lose everything. Partitioning your hard disk into several pieces A) reduces the size you have to back up B) mitigates data loss and C) Reduces the time for disk maintenance on each partition.

My Windows systems typically look like:

C: 20GB NTFS - OS (WinXP only)
D: 10GB NTFS - PAGEFILE and TEMP files ONLY
E: 90 GB NTFS - DATA (My Documents, Music, OpenOffice, third part software install files, etc.)

F: 120 GB NTFS - Bulk storage (Movies, Game installs, large files and Ghost / ACRONIS images)

G: 1.5 TB NTFS External backup drive with all of the above backed up.

This was the solution I found that worked. I had tried various programs like spybot, spy doctor and Malewarebytes and none of them worked. I even found a list of edits for what to delete out of the registry using regedit and that didn't work either. But the system restore seemed to work on this one for now.

But it was the 2nd time this year I've been hit with similar malware. Basically it takes over your computer, tells you there's a virus on your computer and then redirects your browser to a website where you can buy their anti-virus software. The first attack occured on New Years, and now this one to a different site two weeks later.

There may still be something else latent on my computer that I am missing or what was the source of the original attack. I did have visitors over the holiday that had a kid who was big into anime that used my computer which could have been the source.

But the next step is a full recovery to the original settings. Then reloading all of my software after that. Lots of fun!

Ok so it seems that one should not only have a good plan for anti-spyware but also a good data recovery plan that includes data backups such as we have talked about in this thread as well as a more comprehensive division of your primary c-drive into smaller components like Simon has talked about and then the ability to completely swap over to a mirrored set up of your programs and data like being discussed in this thread.

And YES...I am using these discussion to set up a full fledged ongoing data back up plan, a full fledged data recovery plan and a full fledged disaster recovery plan using all of these tools.

p.s and do let me know if I've missed a critical step...we should discuss that as well so others can do as I am working to do.

I read somewhere, and I've been trying to find where, of undesirable issues arising with "excessive" partitioning. I do know I was advised NOT to have separate partitions for system and for data. I suspect it was somewhere on the EASEUS website, but I've not been able to find it. The issue may just have been loss of available storage, but it may have been more serious concerning head movement times. I do know that the ideal is to have two separate physical hard drives so long as they're used optimally, but in most laptops that's not an option.

I read somewhere, and I've been trying to find where, of undesirable issues arising with "excessive" partitioning. I do know I was advised NOT to have separate partitions for system and for data. I suspect it was somewhere on the EASEUS website, but I've not been able to find it. The issue may just have been loss of available storage, but it may have been more serious concerning head movement times. I do know that the ideal is to have two separate physical hard drives so long as they're used optimally, but in most laptops that's not an option.

Anything to excess is a bad thing and you can always find a counter opinion no matter what the topic.

Keeping data away from your OS is prudent because one day you will be formatting and reinstalling and may not be in a position to recover information on that drive. Personally, I would rather use Ghost and recover a single partition in 10 minutes and get on with my life than format, reinstall the OS, do all patches and SP's, then install all my programs again over several days and be missing everything on my desktop.

Article on partitioning

Microsoft article on partitioning