Viruses.

[furrypaws]

And the antivirus programs that are supposed to be helping me.

First things first, I barely use the Windows side at all. My sister uses the Windows on the other computer nonstop, installs a bunch of those "fun" programs that change the mouse graphic and such. That computer is perfectly fine; mine is a mess.

Long story short, my computer pretty much got every virus under the sun. All of 'em. Privacy Center, check. Other fake antivirus program thingy. Check. Bird Flu. Check. I can outsmart Privacy Center thankfully to not have to do anything with it but shut it down, but man, is it a pain. So, I get an antivirus program off of one of my dad's work computers (of course, he has a Windows-phobia for this very reason, so he's not much of a help in this department). I think it's pretty old; ESET 4, or something like that. I let it go through the only computer, and the only thing it finds, is...




itself.



No, I'm not kidding. I really am bothered by this. I've tried pretty much everything outside of manually removing the thing, but I don't think I could manage that. I'll just ask now; is there anything I can do aside from saving my PSO/U data and just wiping the whole thing? I'm looking for good antivirus programs under $50.
Anyone find it funny that those are the only two things that concern me? :P

All help is appreciated. Rarrrgh.

[SpikeOtacon]

Woah no need to spend any money! There's a lot of great free alternatives out there that are very well maintained by their respective communities.

While not anti-virus specifically, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware can find and remove a ton of infections of the spyware/trojan variety. It's fast, lightweight, and often updated. This one is a more recent addition to the fight against horrible programs that want to see you suffer, and it's an impressive one to boot. I'd suggest installing and trying this one first to see if this can clear most, if not all of your infection issues. Because unlike most anti-virus programs it doesn't hook into the OS and slow the system down.

AVG and Avast! are both more traditional anti-virus programs and have free versions (as well as some paid editions but the free versions will do almost everything you need without issue).

Other programs of note are Spybot Search & Destroy (which is an older program but is pretty quick at what it does) and hijackthis! (which is a pretty powerful app, but requires some know-how on what to "delete/fix". You can always use this automatic log scanner which you can copy your hijackthis log into and it will give you some idea of what needs to be fixed by the program. But it's still a little dangerous. Use at your own risk/love of adventure.)

It's funny you rant about this today, my little brother invited his friend over today without telling me that I would be working on fixing a virus infestation on her laptop. So much for relaxing on a Sunday, eh?