Computer?

[Rychek]

Here are a few links that you might find useful, based on the recommendations of others. I also recommend these utilities as must haves for general Windows maintenance.

Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Adaware: http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php

Hi-Jack-This: http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-...-10227353.html

[JimD]

Im supposed to load all that???

[coraline79]

almost any computer guy will tell you to use spybot search and destroy/hijack this/avg free antivirus to maintain the security of you machine. I have been using these tools for years without a single issue on my machines, and hijack this will digg you out of a hole for sure! Oh, I too hold a Bachelors in Information Systems, and have found firefox ran in a native unix environment to be, if anything, a hassle for the average user. IE is/was/will be the end all of browsers. Google Chrome was looking good for a while, but I think it got held up.

[tony]

spybot and adaware does nothing for you unless you purchase the full version, all it does is remove spyware and adware that you already have, not keep you from getting them. the best way to not get them is run firefox.

firefox vs ie

another review

[tony]

more fuel:

There are many web design elements that Internet Explorer is not capable of displaying.

This means that when creating a webpage, the designer must choose between using design elements that 70% of web users won't be able to see, creating two versions of a site--one normal version, and one stripped down version for IE users--or leaving out the design elements altogether.

By using IE, you are doing three things: 1.) Limiting what you are able to see on the web, 2.) Contributing to the percentage of overall IE users, 3.) Increasing the chance that a designer will not incorporate any new design elements.

Here is a simple test, try it in IE and then some other browser
http://www.css3.info/selectors-test/test.html

ill save you some time, here are the results:

Safari - From the 43 selectors 43 have passed, 0 are buggy and 0 are unsupported (Passed 578 out of 578 tests)

Firefox - From the 43 selectors 36 have passed, 0 are buggy and 7 are unsupported (Passed 373 out of 578 tests)

IE7 - From the 43 selectors 13 have passed, 4 are buggy and 26 are unsupported (Passed 329 out of 578 tests)

here are IE6 numbers in case anyone still uses it:

IE6 - From the 43 selectors 10 have passed, 1 are buggy and 32 are unsupported (Passed 276 out of 578 tests)

[Rychek]

The best way to prevent spyware and adware is to not get it in the first place. This means you have to know what you're doing and what you're clicking on. If you rely on prepurchased software to "keep you safe," you're setting yourself up for failure. Also, saying that Spybot and Adaware don't do anything for you unless you buy the full version is a fallacy.

Let's help the man get his computer working, not try to convert him to our personal ways of computing.

[tony]

i could care less what browser he uses. my life goes on just the same.

but you said yourself prevention is the key and spybot and adaware are removers. yes, they might get him up and running now but its only a matter of time til this cycle repeats itself.

yes, my wording was bad. but giving people a false sense of security because they have free versions of spybot and adaware are the worse of the two evils. i think both are great products for what they are intended for.

knowing what you are doing and what you are clicking on is also only a small part. many legit domains get hijacked every day for the purpose of serving up malware.

[Troutmasters02]

Spybot, adaware and regcleaner are great tools for keeping a healthy computer. You don't need to buy these things, they are free and work well. I suggest installing them asap.

[LoneStar]

Safari - From the 43 selectors 43 have passed, 0 are buggy and 0 are unsupported (Passed 578 out of 578 tests)

[coraline79]

Spybot S&D is the best spyware removal tool available..and it is free. When it has a problem removing something it will refer you to additional apps that will resolve your issue. The only drawback is it's not a monitoring tool. There is not a quality tool available at the retail level for monitoring, so don't be fooled. There is hardly an enterprise app that is worth using for monitoring. The more automated monitoring and scanning you have on your machine. The more likely you are creating the opportunity for attack.

If you want 90% security, run raid 5 for hardware redundency, and both a scheduled full/incremental backup. otherwise run the tools listed above on a bi-weekly basis, and you will be 85% secure.

The best wat to keep yourself safe on a local machine is to create and image of your machine using oneof the 50 simple tools out there. Store anything important on remote storage devices, and at the first sign of issues, reburn it with the image(that take about 15minutes, alot less time than messing around to try to find out what some DB did to your machine.