Helpful Tips for a Safe and Stable System

[hellnoire]

This is written up for everyone who has no clue how or what you need to do to have a nice, stable system.

1. Run an Antivirus
2. Run an Anti-Malware
3. Run a Firewall or configure Windows Firewall correctly
4. Do not download warez or other illegal programs
5. Do not download from shady sources

Now, I'm going to explain each one.

Running an Antivirus is a simple one. You have many choices and many selections. They range from over $50 a year for protection, to free of charge. They each have their pros and cons, but they do their job just the same. Choose ONE and stick with it unless you have a lot of problems with your current one, in which case, uninstall it and install a new one. You should never run two antiviruses at the same time. Doesn't matter if one is on-demand and one is a live scanner, or if both are live scanners. They can and will conflict.

If you've managed to run two antiviruses in tandem, good for you. But if you get infected, then the two of them can get in each other's way, preventing you to have a workable solution, or worse still, the two might conflict in such a way they prevent your Windows system from booting, even if your computer is considered 'clean' by both.

That being said, if we ask you for a HijackThis log, and we see two antiviruses on there, we will demand you remove one. This is common sense 101, and should have been the case from the get-go.

Best Choices in Antiviruses:
In reality, try them all and see how you like them. Each person is different and no one solution will solve everyone's issues. This is a general recommendation, nothing more.

• Avira Free or Premium Editions
• ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus
• Kaspersky Anti-Virus
• Norton Anti-Virus
• Avast Anti-Virus
• Panda Cloud Antivirus

Keep in mind, this is a short list. There are more out there, try them and see how you feel about them. Check our Useful List to see more selections.

Running an Anti-Malware is, while not a must, is highly recommended. Unlike antiviruses, they do not conflict as much as antiviruses do, unless they have a real time scanner. If that is the case, be warned that they don't all play nice with each other. For this, there is no clear cut case of yes or no, but you should try them out and see for yourself.

Best choices in Anti-Malwares:

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware [MBAM]
• Super Anti-Spyware
• Spybot - Search and Destroy
• LavaSoft Ad-Aware
• Spyware Blaster [Blocks before it comes in]

Running a Firewall is one of the easiest things you can do. If you're running Windows XP SP2, Vista, or 7, you have one built right in. A simple Google search can help you set up your built-in firewall.

Failing that, there are other choices too. Comodo, Online Armor, and PC Tools Firewalls all provide free versions of their firewalls to customers, so they all are recommended. And they are also not very heavy on a computer system along with a learning mode, so they are able to be set up and configured without any problems.

The other ones should be clear-cut, as they are simple recommendations that will keep you clean for years to come.

Any other suggestions can be added onto this post.

[leofelix]

Hi hellnoire,
Thank you for your advice.
I would suggest to reccomend to keep Windows always up to date as well as Sun Java JRE, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player and the default browser to the latest builds.
Many threats can exploit vulnerable systems and software and infect them.

Disabling autorun is another good advice in order to avoid some nasty infections.

Surfing the web with a sandboxed browser could be another good idea to keep Windows safe (using sandboxie or shadow defender is not difficult).

I'd suggest to install WOT or SiteAdvisor on one's own browser and possibly an adblocker (some people suggest to use a patched HOSTS file, which might slown down browser and system although)

Among the antimalware and firewall/HIPS I would add a 'system monitor' like WinPatrol


Above all performing system backup images with Macrium Reflect Free or other similar programs like Ghost or Acronis True Image is the first line defense in my opinion since if something goes wrong you can restore your system whenever you want.

A small note: MalwareBytes' antimalware pro is developed to work fine alongside the most of antivirus as well as HitMan Pro 3.5 (30 days working trial and no real time protection) and PREVX 3.0


Users should also pay attention when installing software: they should read the EULA and uncheck possible undesiderable toolbars or other PUPs included in the setup file.


Cheers

[Bluedot]

1. Run suspicious files in a sandboxed environment.

2. Keep VirusTotal and HijackThis handy just in case

3. Do a registry clean up and disk cleanup at least once a week. CCleaner and Advanced System Care are the best in my opinion, though there may be others.

4. The final and the most important thing: While running or downloading any file or visiting any webpage, be careful.

[leofelix]

@ Bluedot, I respect your opinion,
I only want you to know that IoBit Advanced System Cleaner is adware

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Advanced-WindowsCare.shtml

Reasons why this program is marked as ad-supported:

· The software is trying to install Yahoo Toolbar and will attempt to change your default search engine. However you can uncheck this at installation.

True, but IoBit Advanced System care will change your main browser search engine and home page even opting out their toolbar.
It will also install "software informer" and other undesiderable softwares when updating it.
(or at least that's what I got when I checked last time that I tried ASC)

CCleaner offers a slim version (with no toolbar) and a portable version as well, and it is less aggressive when cleaning registry.

Cleaning registry can be very dangeorus, if you do not know what you are doing

http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2007/04/do-i-need-registry-cleaner.html

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A part of that, I would add:
1) perform regular disk defrag
2) do a scan disk from time to time

Since computers easily capture dust and ash, clean your CD/DVD readers with CD cleaners, clean your keyboard and monitor with special detergents (do not use water),
do use Air compressed for electronic equipment from time to time in order to get a stable and well performing computer

[Murphy]

Hi,
Thank you guys for these informations / suggestions .
Perhaps .... sometimes also a-squared Anti-Malware is a good choice .
Best regards !

[grr]

Thanks for nice post...Kudos to all

How about adding:
Spyware Terminator

[hellnoire]

This is meant to be a community collective post, not just 'hellnoire made a sticky, let's suggest' So suggest what you'd like, so long as you stand by it, that's all that matters.

[leofelix]

Private firewall 7


Privatefirewall is FREE of charge.


Product Feature Privatefirewall:

Windows 7, Vista 64 bit support

Windows 7, Vista 32 bit support

Zero-hour anti-virus protection

Zero-hour spyware protection

Zero-hour malware protection

Behavioral hacker protection

Personal Firewall

Website/IP filtering

Advanced Application Security

Basic Application Security

Process Security

Registry protection

System Anomaly Detection

Email Anomaly Detection

-------------

ThreatFire FREE

http://www.threatfire.com/about/

Behaviour blocker (not exactly a HIPS) plus rootkit scanner (it cannot replace and antivirus or a firewall of course)

Minimum System Requirements:

* Windows® 7 32-bit and 64-bit, Windows® Vista™ 64-bit, Vista™ 32-bit, Windows XP SP1, SP2 or SP3 (Home, Pro & Media Center Editions), Windows 2003, or Windows 2008.
* 20 MB of disk space
* Some program functions require a connection to the Internet and a web browser.

[Bluedot]

@leofelix: Yes you are right about IoBit. CCleaner is better, I myself is thinking about changing to CCleaner.

I would like to make some more suggestions:

1. Avira free and Comodo firewall make a FREE but powerful combination.

2. Always try to run PORTABLE versions of softwares. That way your registry will remain healthy. (The credit for this tip goes to Raymond)

I will frequently hop in to make a few more suggestions. Right now, only these two came to my mind.

[safeguy]

I mentioned this somewhere else on this forum but let me copy/paste it here for others to take note of:

My security approach is to KISS :

1. Use a residential AV that suits you and your needs. Be sure that you know how to configure it and make sure it stays up to date.
2. Leave the Windows Firewall turned on (default) unless you're using a 3rd party firewall
3. Most people would advise to use a 'safe' browser - that would probably mean NO IE. But then again, read this. As far as I'm concerned, you may use whatever browser you like as long as practice safe browsing...that's far more important in my opinion.
4. Use a Limited/Standard User Account
5. Leave the UAC on with its default settings even though you may find it annoying

There are many other tips that I can state here but trust me, security is not something to be paranoid about but rather tackled with in ease...not all of us are born or trained as geeks

And yeah, the above tips mentioned by the rest here applies too