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Spybot
Sun 4-Apr-10
6:48 pm
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Toffeeapple
North Bucks

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Does anyone here have this on their computer, or anything similar?  It was suggested to me that my computer might be running slowly due to spy/mal ware and the thing to do is download Spybot.  Not being a boffin, I'm reluctant to do anything without referral.  Your input would be appreciated. Cheers

I'll try that again!

Mon 5-Apr-10
9:52 am
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tascar
Plelauff, Brittany, France

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Hi TA, I use ad-aware and have been using it for years, I turn off the real time monitor as it can slow the system at times, I just run a check once a week and its clears any unwanted files, but you can set it to schedule it to run when you want it to.

 Hope this helps.

Mon 5-Apr-10
10:07 am
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Danny
Scarborough, England
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Hi TA - no, I do not know about Spybot but I have just done some reading up on t'Internet and it seems to be a good thing in general.

Slow running can indeed be sometimes caused by unwanted stuff running in the background but there could also be harmless reasons.

If you install something like Spybot, the results could possibly be a little baffling for the non-technical minded. I hope it has a means of highlighting only the really important stuff so that you can ignore the rest of the list.

Do you have any ant-virus software installed? Or a software firewall?

Never knowingly underfed

Mon 5-Apr-10
10:51 am
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elrohana
North West Leeds, UK

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Hi TA, my t'other half (IT person) have also used Ad-aware for years.

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy, and taste good with ketchup.

Mon 5-Apr-10
7:54 pm
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mike.
Coventry

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I used Spybot for years on my old computer - like tascar I turned off the real time monitor, not just to stop it slowing the system down but because it could throw up lots of warnings about programmes changing system settings. I'd recommend running a scan every week or so.

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Mon 5-Apr-10
8:25 pm
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tascar
Plelauff, Brittany, France

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I recommend ad-aware for the malware and avast for the anti virus. Both are free and both work very well, set up your firewall as well and nothing will get through unless you make that choice.

Main thing is the word FREE, they are both supported very well so I can't see why anyone would pay for something like Norton.

These are good products that have served me for years, can't always say the same for Windows, yes I'm on Vista but the support is a bit iffy at times and the updates are very iffy, just had one, 1st April that screwed my system for three days till I found out it had screwed my WiFi mouse, removed it and system now Ok.

Sorry for going off on one but at times Windows have a lot to take on board.

ad-aware and avast I have found are great and free, try them both worth using. 

Mon 5-Apr-10
10:33 pm
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Toffeeapple
North Bucks

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Thanks guys.  Still confused though.  I'll get back to you on this one, it needs some TA thinking time.  Yawn

I'll try that again!

Tue 6-Apr-10
11:36 am
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Toffeeapple
North Bucks

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Danny said:

Do you have any ant-virus software installed? Or a software firewall?

I think so, I have AVG Security that I pay for, Google Chrome seems to have a firewall too.  I clicked on a blog today that I've visited previously and Chrome warned me that I might harm my computer if I continued, so that seems to be useful.  Do I need more protection?  Confused

I'll try that again!

Tue 6-Apr-10
8:32 pm
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devongarden
Devon, UK

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TA, I used adaware and AVG free edition when I used a PC.  Clam-win (not sure if it has a hyphen or not) was the last one I used, and I think was good and easy - I am NOT an IT person, and tend to depend on offspring to keep me on the right lines with computers. Whistle Sometimes using more than one av at the same time causes problems.

I now have a Mac, and use ClamXav. DS recently installed an adblocker on Firefox, which cuts out all the annoying ads on hotmail and a lot of them on other sites. Laugh

Wed 7-Apr-10
2:37 pm
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Toffeeapple
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Thank you for your input Barbara, I shall wait until my daughter returns from North Carolina before I do anything, she is far more knowledgeable than I. 

I'll try that again!

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