No-bull antivirus software?

[Jay200MPH]

So I used to use AVG, but got completely fed-up with the way it inserts itself into all aspects of your system and would hide and run sneakily in the background even when you explicitly told it not to. Seriously, it was worse than the virii I used it to get rid of! What were they thinking?

Can someone reccomend me a comprehensive virus scanner (for Windows 2000/XP) which lets me start it myself, scan what I want to, and shuts down and completely removes itself from memory when I tell it to? Obviously I want a well-supported program with regular definition updates, but I don't want it to update automatically and I don't want it to do anything at all without me explicitly telling it to. One that runs from the command line would be awesome beyond words, but I'll put up with a no-frills GUI if I have to.

Does that even exist? Or am I dreaming of a bygone era when software engineers actually took some pride in their work instead of just blobbing more mustard onto their rotting sandwich-meat to hide the taste?

Help me out here guys!

- J

(Does this post sound maybe a bit bitter; angry? Tough. So am I.)

[Neverfly]

I use Spybot Search and Destroy with the Tea Timer on for the most part. Then I have Winpatrol running in the background.
I monitor ports manually and use several of my own programs and tools to also monitor the Registry including all hidden keys, and monitor processes, and a self sufficient cmd prompt utility that monitors all process user modules and kernal modules.

I have no anti virus software.

You have Avast! which is free... it isn't too horrible from what I've heard. But I've never tried it.

But almost ANY Anti-Virus scanner is designed to operate independently of its operator.

[sarongsong]

...Can someone reccomend me a comprehensive virus scanner (for Windows 2000/XP) which lets me start it myself, scan what I want to, and shuts down and completely removes itself from memory when I tell it to?...

Trend Micro's FREE online virus scanner

[captain swoop]

AVG is good, We (the company I work for) use AVG on all our installs and maintained systems, so far it's the only one that we know won't interfere with the system and the SOE dental and digital xray systems we install.

We uase Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware too.

[Jay200MPH]

AVG added a full minute to bootup and was taking so much processing time running in the "background" (hah!) it would make my poor old laptop overheat and die. Not only that but nothing I did would make it stop loading itself at system start and the automatic updates just turned themselves back on every time it ran. I don't care how good the virus defs are, it's complete garbage. It will never, ever touch another computer I own.

[Moose]

You may have a hard time finding one, Jay. Malware prevention is a bit like a battle. He who gets to the high ground first has the advantage. On a computer, taking the high ground means he who can get closest to the kernal first.

To some extent, you can't have an effective virus checker without having it come up early, and stays on at all times. After all, it's better to stop a virus before it gets written than to try and peel it off a file after the fact. After all, the file may have been lossy-damaged by the virus.

I share the same desire as you, to some extent, Jay, but the closest I've found so far is AVG (which added hassle recently) and Avast!, which I'm using now. They have very lightweight footprints, update often, play nicely with other security apps, and don't go out of their way to get noticed like just about every other virus program does.

(Geez, I'm writing poorly tonight. Ah well, it'll have to stand that way, I guess. Can't be bothered to fix it at the moment.)

[chrissy]

I use AVAST, it cleared all my viruses out, my PC was full of Trojans and my other anti-virus had a virus too, allowing popups etc, it scanned my entire system took an hour and cleared the lot, it works a lot faster as my other anti-virus slowed everything right down to a grinding stop.
It hasn't interfered with anything and works well in the background. I recommed it, plus it is free.

[Siguy]

Avast! is great. It's free, cleans well, has no crap, and isn't targeted by virus writers.

[Moose]

Oh, I should mention, Avast! doesn't seem to affect boot times very much. Not that I've noticed, anyway.

[chrissy]

It has speeded my PC up.

[jt-3d]

AVG seemed to get too bloated for me so I too dumped it for Avast. I can't say how good or bad it is but that's what I'm using now.

[mahesh]

I'm running AVG (v 8.0.175..the free version), but don't think have firewalls.
seems ok, but i'm apprehensive about its defence capabilities, after this summer's episodes.

i should bear AVAST in mind. thanks all ye good people.
and sarongsong thanks for link too.

[Neverfly]

Ok...
Here I was saying Avast! in my first reply... But thinkin', "Should I recommend that?"





Sheesh...

DANG! I'm GOOD!

[sarongsong]

You're welcome!
Also recommended (by my local baker): Multi Virus Cleaner 2008

[Veeger]

I agree with Jay's opening comments about bloated, in your face, antivirus software. I ususally scan on demand with SuperAntiSpyware and if I suspect something well hidden and malicious, I will scan with an online scanner such as Bitdefender. (though it is best to launch it before retiring for the night because it is slow). Use caution. Some online scanners will find viruses but then ask you to purchase the product to kill them.

Strangely enough, my work computer which is controlled by an army of paranoid, high-tech IT people has had more viruses and problems than my home computer which has nothing more than Firefox, Superantispyware and a rudimentary, low-key AV program supplied by my ISP.

[Alan G. Archer]

I switched from AVG Free Edition to Avast! Home Edition for my Windows XP SP3 PC. Before AVG, I've used Bitdefender, Trend Micro and Symantec paid products. My Fujitsu Lifebook A6120 notebook runs both 32-bit Vista Premium SP1 and 64-bit Ubuntu Linux 8.04 LTS in a dual-boot setup. I have had no problems running Avast! with Vista, and for now I'm using Vista's firewall. I could install Avast! Linux Home Edition, which is an on-demand scanner, but that is really quite unnecessary for a non-server system. Any networked Windows box, however, definitely needs an antivirus and firewall solution. It is also important to keep your OS and Internet related software, including media players, updated.

I use Kaspersky's online antivirus scanner from time-to-time for a second opinion.

For Windows antispyware, I use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and RogueRemover Free, a-squared Free, Spybot - Search & Destroy, Javacool Software's SpywareBlaster, HijackThis, SUPERAntiSpyware, Windows Defender (Vista), and Sysinternals RootkitRevealer.

I'm posting here this morning using Linux and Opera 9.61.

[mahesh]

Mr Archer...sorry i digress....
reminds me of this:
at a coroner's inquest, trying to establish a time line of events, the wife was asked what really happened to her husband. she says that her husband was on medication, see.
he had all these pills, different sizes, different colours. he had to take them twice a day! so after dinner the eventful evening, he sits in his favourite lounge chair, takes these here twenty pills. sits back and he lights a cigarette. this is when this almighty explosion.....

[Alan G. Archer]

That's only because he forgot to take his Bean-zyme...poor man.

[mugaliens]

You may have a hard time finding one, Jay. Malware prevention is a bit like a battle. He who gets to the high ground first has the advantage. On a computer, taking the high ground means he who can get closest to the kernal first.

This is certainly Symantec's (dodges thrown cabbage) approach, as Norton Antivirus (whew! that tomato was close!), in collaboration with Microsoft (ow! I took a carrot in the eye...) installs just one level closer to the Windows (Thweeeewww.... another close one) kernal that is allowed for any other program.

For the last several years, I had various complaints against Norton Internet Security. But for 14 months now, I've been running Norton 360, and it doesn't appear to share NIS' issues. I wouldn't say it's perfect, and it's presence is a bit (only slightly) more that I like. But it's a pretty decent and slick anti-virus/malware with a couple of neat built-in utilities, as well.

[Moose]

Heh. Yeah, but the all-in-one approach is necessarily flawed in that if your malware can bring down (or even identify) the one component, you've pwned that machine. If that approach also happens to have market share, you'll have pwned the world.

Using a defense in depth approach, with a semi-randomized cluster of 3rd party software that each concentrate on their one task, the compromise of one piece of software will rarely affect the other components, which means you have a fair chance at detecting the compromise when it happens. And within a large array of machines distributed among the various permutations, you end up with a sort of herd immunity. Like the Mac and Linux users enjoy.

See, if you have a race between armor and firepower, always bet on the firepower in the long run. It's never about "tamper-proof". That's simply impossible. Someone determined enough will always get through.

For a home user, however, where you'll never encounter someone _that_ determined to get into _your_ machine to the exclusion of all others, it's enough to be tamper-resistant and tamper-evident. Harden your machine just enough so that your neighbor's granny is the softer target. S'kiddies don't especially care whose machine they pwn as long as they get someone.

[captain swoop]

AVG added a full minute to bootup and was taking so much processing time running in the "background" (hah!) it would make my poor old laptop overheat and die. Not only that but nothing I did would make it stop loading itself at system start and the automatic updates just turned themselves back on every time it ran. I don't care how good the virus defs are, it's complete garbage. It will never, ever touch another computer I own.

Maybe there was some underlying problem, never seen any problems on any of our customer sites or my own works laptop.

[BigDon]

I use Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware and the paid for version of Zone Alarm. Plus a couple of other things. Then there is the LAN and modem security my brother put in place.

Here's a weird thing. If I don't get a hit on Spybot S&D in a month I blow it away, re-install it and I get a ton of hits on the next run. Are there Spybot killers out there?

[Veeger]

BigDon,
I can only assume you are keeping your Spybot up to date. Strange that you need to reload it from time to time.

I do know some malware will target the more popular products and try to disable them, but these kinds of attacks are not all that common, in my opinion. The most successful malware keeps itself very low profile. Stealth is where its at in the virus business.

eta: and very cleverly hooking the operating system with logon notification and system services buried in the svchost processes. They are very tough to defeat.

[boppa]

I used to use AVG but I (like many others) had the dreaded 100% cpu usage problem when AVG 8 was released. I have tried Avast, but personally I prefer Avira (the free version has a nag screen that pops up once a day and can be closed straight away- I find that acceptable, some people don't)
That in combination with Winpatrol and Superantispyware has kept my system under control with XP

my older 98se system relied on Adaware and Spybot s/d with AVG (I found that adaware seems to not be as useful on the XP system- stability issues)

btw Teatimer in spybot is notorious for causing problems, I left it turned off and rely instead on Winpatrol- which does much the same thing as well as quite a few other things much better than spybots teatimer ever did

I still use an older Zone Alarm for my firewall- the new version in the suite is a resource hog and the xp inbuilt one only monitors incoming traffic NOT outbound- a serious flaw imho as if something does get in then the xp firewall will happily let it talk out :-(

[HenrikOlsen]

btw Teatimer in spybot is notorious for causing problems, I left it turned off and rely instead on Winpatrol- which does much the same thing as well as quite a few other things much better than spybots teatimer ever did

The problem with teatimer is that you have to know the internals of Windows to know what is safe to forbid and what must absolutely be allowed to avoid breaking stuff.
It's a great tool, but very much not for the average user.

[Jeff Root]

Where can I get an explanation of computer security threats that is a
couple of levels deeper than a superficial overview but a couple of levels
lighter than detailed instruction manuals? I want to know:

- What are the vulnerabilities/threats?
- Where do they come from and how do they get in?
- How can they be prevented/detected/fixed?

I've used Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, and Me, but never had any kind of
virus detection or firewall or the like, and know nothing about them except
that they eat resources and CPU cycles ravenously.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Alan G. Archer]

I received an email with a .zip file attachment in my Thunderbird email client today. Since I was using Vista on my notebook, I forwarded the email to myself and then rebooted my notebook into Linux. I then opened Thunderbird and took a look at this attachment. The .zip contained an executable (.exe) file that was 20 Kb in size. I uploaded the file to www.virustotal.com and had them check it against thirty-six antivirus scanners. Thirteen of the scanners reported that it was a Trojan. Avast!, my resident AV scanner, reported no infection. AVG, Kaspersky, McAfee, and Symantec likewise missed it. However, AntiVir, Bitdefender, Microsoft, Panda, and TrendMicro caught it.

As for the subject line, it was "Re [3]: Request Ok."

The message:

Hello, photoget.

Friday, October 24, 2008, 09:27:47 AM, you wrote:

> > Hello, Office.

> >Hello.
> >Please send confidential "price list" of your
> >competitors with details of the activities.
> >Ready to pay many...


Your request is made #F64
See archiv.

Please remove the paper after consultation!


-- Best regards, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx

The email appears to have come from a person who does work for an engineering consulting firm not far from where I live, but the email's source indicates that it originated from Linda-a-velha, Portugal.

Prevx reported that the Trojan first appeared today in their community database originating from Spain.

Howdy, Jeff!

[Grashtel]

Can someone reccomend me a comprehensive virus scanner (for Windows 2000/XP) which lets me start it myself, scan what I want to, and shuts down and completely removes itself from memory when I tell it to? Obviously I want a well-supported program with regular definition updates, but I don't want it to update automatically and I don't want it to do anything at all without me explicitly telling it to. One that runs from the command line would be awesome beyond words, but I'll put up with a no-frills GUI if I have to.

Does that even exist? Or am I dreaming of a bygone era when software engineers actually took some pride in their work instead of just blobbing more mustard onto their rotting sandwich-meat to hide the taste?

I think that ClamWin is probably along the lines of what you are looking for, it is a free open source anti-virus/anti-spyware with no resident scanner and you can turn off its automatic updates.

[Fazor]

I use AVAST, it cleared all my viruses out, my PC was full of Trojans and my other anti-virus had a virus too, allowing popups etc, it scanned my entire system took an hour and cleared the lot, it works a lot faster as my other anti-virus slowed everything right down to a grinding stop.
It hasn't interfered with anything and works well in the background. I recommed it, plus it is free.

That's what I use. It can be annoying at times, but I found instead of fighting it I just set auto updates to a time in the wee-early hours, and then have it run a full scan 30 minutes later every day. I don't completely trust that it catches everything, but it's not bad.

[LotusExcelle]

I use Avira AntiVir. I've used it for years - its free and easy to use and... okay so on my system it doesn't put a dent in the CPU but even on my old system... the footprint is really small. Anyone else use it?