At last a question!

The person asking has a computer taken over by malware. They tried to recover by adding more antivirus programs but that only adds to the frustration.

I would appreciate it if you would add your voice to an on-going disagreement in my household. My boyfriend has just added a new anti-spy ware, anti-adware program to our computer and it now seems to be operating terribly, specifically, it shuts down every time we try to use the internet. (However, this is a point of contention b/c he seems to think it was operating terribly before he added it – hence the reason he added it – but, I think it operates much MUCH worse since the new program was installed.)

We already have McAfee, and the I think the new program is called AVG. Every time he runs a scan, it reports back that there are numerous pieces of adware or spyware (anywhere from 14-150). He thinks this is the reason to keep loading on protection programs and keep doing scans and quarantines. My opinion is that it’s nearly impossible to avoid ad- and spyware, so why keep adding goofy programs that are supposed to protect us from viruses, but really only seem to screw up our computer. Who’s right?

My thanks

Well I think you may have a couple problems. First, while it is a good idea to have some anti-virus and anti spyware programs installed you can have too many. I am guessing that the McAfee software came with the computer and unless you are paying them it is basically not working. I suggest you uninstall it as the AVG software will report parts of McAfee as a virus, due to the ways antivirus software works. Only use one antivirus program at a time.

If you system is still slow and/or AVG, a good antivirus solution, still reports a virus/malware infection then it is time to rebuild the machine from the scratch. Copy your data to a USB drive and break out the recovery disks. When your system is infected, unlike our immune system, the anti virus and spyware programs can not always remove the infection. The only way to ensure a clean system is to start over and immediately install the anti virus and anti spyware solutions. Read over my pages on security, Thou Shalt be Safe and Secure and Second Line of Defense. If you follow these guidlines and adjust your surfing habits then you may avoid having to rebuild your system for a while.

Thank you for writing.