For those people still struggling with MS Windows ...
Recently I was asked to assist a colleague who had ignored security upgrades, Virus software notices and performance issues. Microsoft Windows is quiet smart in that it will try to install the latest security updates, unless of course there is a problem. Then it will complain and stop. This was the case in the situation my colleague now faced: Security patches could not be applied due to existing viruses. Looking at the logs, these error messages first appeared at the end of April! The first thing I did was install Windows Security Essentials:
The release of Microsoft Security Essentials has changed the landscape of antivirus software. We've finally got a completely free application that protects against viruses, spyware, and other malware without killing system performance like some of the "suites" tend to do.
In my personal experience, it barely slows down the machine and rarely affects my work and during a deliberate attempt to download some viruses (for testing purposes), it immediately found and blocked them from doing anything. You don't have to take my word for it, however.
Not only did AV-Test.org find that it detects 98% of their enormous malware database, but AV-Comparatives (a widely known anti-malware testing group) found that MSE was one of only three products that did well at both finding and removing malware, including the leftovers. It was also the only free product to grab their "Advanced" rating, the top honor for an anti-malware solution.
The more tech-oriented readers will probably note that MSE does not do any fancy heuristics to detect viruses that aren't in the database already, which is a feature offered by some paid solutions. In my opinion, this feature is usually unnecessary and a massive system drag if combined with a healthy dose of not installing questionable nonsense.
Over the next two days W.S.E. found and fixed the following:
- Virus:Win32/Alureon.F
- Trojan:JS/Tracur.C
- Trojan:Win32/Alureon.CT
- Trojan:Win32/Hiloti.gen!D
- Trojan:Win32/Punad.G
Now, I have no idea whether I got them all, as root kits are notorious hard to remove. But may I stress that some of the above are extremely nasty, particularly when private information is present on the PC. In addition to fixing these issues, I also noticed that the firewall was switched off! This had allowed many of the Trojans, Viruses and Malware to do there stuff unhindered. I also removed software that had lingered after trials, product installations and plain old junk. To do this, I used these excellent Open Source and Free tools:
- CCleaner - to clean registry and remove temporary files
- TweakNow RegCleaner - to clean and pack registry and remove temporary files
In summary, don't ever ignore MS Windows upgrades! Ensure the at least MS Windows Security Essentials is installed and running. Don't ever ignore MS security warnings. And, finally take note when the system starts performing badly ... or just switch to Linux or OS X ...
ReferencesMicrosoft Security Essentials
lifehacker - Stop Paying for Windows security, Microsofts security tools are good enough
CCleaner - Clean Windows PCs
TweakNow - registry cleaner
