Virus Question With PC/Prevention Settings/Thoughts on MS Essentials & XP

Okay, been reading these threads for about a year now. I admit it, I'm a Toughbook Junkie. I use XP at work with Citrix and things seem to always work. My toughbooks also seem to work, but I'm always restoring them and or re-installing the factory image and then looking for drivers to make everything work again. My question is in regards to a co-worker that is using Xp at home for his wife ( an editor that does Lot's of word processing) along with their middle schooler using a new lap top with Win 8, and then there is my co-worker using a Slime OSX Dell that I made into a Hackintosh a while ago...They recently had a virus that was showing up when going to web sites and being re-directed. My question is, why did their virus program (ms essentials) not pick this up/stop the infection? The Hackintosh is clean, but the new win 8 lap top and the home pc both have an infection causing problems. They did not ask me for help until now, and it seems maybe too little too late. They are on microsoft now having paid $100 to do a scan on their home systems. My advice was to clean the system and get advice on enabling their virus and malware programs. I appreciate your thoughts on what I can suggest to them.
Thanks for all you guys (and gals) do. \
Regards,
Cleve

 

I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials and Norton Anti-virus (only the antivirus part, the full package is way too much bloat) for a while now and happy with the results. I also keep on my usb stick a copy of STINGER and Spybot portable, both stand alone and don't have to be installed. Usually most problems are solved helping someone who's anti-virus has been disabled by running stinger a few times then re-enabling there anti-virus. You can find the current copy of STINGER on Cnet's download section and spybot portable on portableapps.com.

 

From my systems:
Because of the websites: I would suggest OPERA as Browser with "Plugin deactivated", "no animated pictures", "all popups disabled", "Content blocker" filled with ad*servers, "Java script options" only "context menu enabled", WOT as extension .... and Opera has a nice e-mail client too!
On the system use OPENDNS as DNS-server-entry for ur Internet connectionh
I use AVAST as virus prevention with a weekly scheduled full scan with max heuristic...
Because of Hackintosh: I would double check the system with clamxav.

Why had they paid 100$? There are a lot of free AV-programs even in IT journals on CD or DVD.

 

Thank you onirakiss and ador...I have no clue why he did not call me first. I think someone hacked into their home network and they started not thinking clearly. I'll download the suggested usb programs. I believe they use ms essentials but do not know how up to date they keep things. The browser plug ins might be a problem. They are probably using internet explorer as a browser. I will be there for Turkey Dinner Thursday and have a look and be able to report back on whats going on better. I appreciate all your ideas.

 

I usually keep MSE 32 and 64 bit offline installers on a usb drive for this reason also. You can also download the offline updates to install.

How to manually download the latest definition updates for Microsoft Security Essentials

I have a lot of non-tech types on the rig. One this time I was at work was from india. He had just bought his first computer last he was off from work. This was his second time to come to work with it. He looked for me the first day out because he had problems with it. The trial anti-virus had run out and he had got a virus. One of the other guys from his village said he could fix it. He caused more problems than he fixed. I have a 32gb stick full of restore stuff/programs for this reason. Anything from anti-virus to video players.

On my browser I use firefox with flashblock addin. If you need more than that look at script killer, but you need to tweak the setting sometime on it and a few of the regular non-tech type may not like it.

McAfee Labs Stinger - CNET Download.com

Security | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives

 

Thanks Ador and everyone else above. I really like the portable apps link you mentioned: Security | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives
I went over there this past weekend and they had sorted out their virus thanks to Microsoft and $100. I brought my thumb drive over with Stinger and SpyBot and ran those along with CCleaner and cleaned out their registry. Things were extremely clogged with temporary files. I gave them all of your suggestions and also suggested that they read the reviews and be more observant of where they go to on the web. I'm still not sure how or why they got the virus but it's probably because they do not do a weekly cleaning and have some type of "web of trust" loaded with their browser. I'm thinking that Opera, FireFox, Chrome would maybe be better than the Internet Explorer they are running. Thanks again for all your input.

 

- Download Portable Freeware

Is another site. There is one more site that has a lot but I can't think of it right now.

Pendrivelinux.com is another good site to check out. Lots of stuff there if you look.

Remember every few months they update stinger. I think they have a updater built into it now also, when you first start it, it will ask if you want to update. I am set up to receive updates from Cnet when a new version comes out.

There is even a program on portable apps site to help you make your own portable apps from programs you like.

You can also get portable versions of ccleaner, defragler and recuva straight from there main web site. Just search for there "builds" page.

I stopped using internet explorer on my windows 95 pc in 97. It was replaced with netscape. Now I still use netscape, it's called firefox now, a version of it anyway.

Also look at thewindowsclub website for a copy of UWT (ultimate windows tweaker) it works on vista and 7. (not sure about 8) It puts a lot of the hidden setting in a easy to use interface. Portable, just right click and run as administrator.

TweakUI is for XP and is a great tweaking tool.


Anything else we want to hack or mod? lol

Say a prayer, I have a Dell belonging to a friend open to replace the broken power port. It may need it. (Don't worry, she is rocking a CF-T5 Dual core at the moment, lol.)