Your graphically sparse help threads pains me.
Edit: prevention headers up
Edit: prevention bullet points up
Edit: visually engaging Mark II versions of the removal images are up, filenames start with IRGmarkII
Like this:
There's different types of viruses, and also different programs to remove them. There's no specific "best" one, just some which are better than others at specific things.
There's two main common types of infections. The first is "viruses", this generally includes viruses, worms, trojans, and malicious modifications to core system files.
The second is "malware", which generally includes spware, adware, rogue software, and malicious system settings changes.
The best way I know to keep them straight is to remember, viruses harm
your computer where as spyware tries to harm
you.
Often a scanner for one category won't aim for the other category due to the major differences, so it's recommended to have two programs. One antivirus and one antimalware, so they don't step on eachother's toes.
It's important to only keep one anti-virus program installed at a time. Antivirus programs aren't normal programs, they hook into core parts of the system; and expect to be the only things doing so. Having multi antivirus programs can actually cause them to perform worse, or actually damage your system under rare circumstances. Think of it as trying to fit two fat people through one door at the same time. It won't work.
Free
Avast! - Has a boot-time scanner which can be really helpful to remove infections, it will scan before windows even turns on.
Microsoft Security essentials - Good at staying out of your way unless there's an issue. Updates definitions along with Windows Update, but on older systems it can lag.
Avira - Standard antivirus, but the free version displays an ad when it updates. GREAT detection of unknown viruses.
AVG - Decent, but in recent years has started to lag and miss some infections.
Paid
Kaspersky - Big focus on Heuristics, so it can often catch infections before other AV programs can. Slow on updating though.
NOD32 - Low amount of false positives. Popular back in the 90s butnot the top dog anymore.
Bitdefender - Big focus on phishing protection, includes various other things such as parental controls.
F-Secure - Very fast and lightweight, but weak anti-malware protection.
Trend Micro - Website blocker, modern firewall, and a spam filter. Not the best malware protection.
Free
MalwareBytes - The measuring stick of malware removal. If you don't have it, get it.
SUPERAntiSpyware - Light on resources when scanning.
Spybot S&D - And old standby, but can be considered deprecated. The TeaTimer component should not be installed or used. Eats ram like a fat kid eats cake, so if you use it SAFE MODE ONLY.
MacKeeper - Uses Avira's technology, great protection software and includes a large number of other tools.
ClamXAV - a free virus protection software, what it lacks in fancy graphics it makes up in detection.
Sophos for Mac - free decent mac antivirus
Dr Web Light - Made by the company that discovered the Flashback infection, it's a great lightweight free software.
