This is a follow up to Soren's listing and to be used along with the programs he listed above.
A-Squared[/u]
Trojans differ from viruses in many ways, and many trojans are not detected by virus scanners, so you need a dedicated trojan scanner as well. I personally use and recommend A-Squared to scan for trojans. It is one of the best free trojan scanners out there.
During the installation of A-Squared, you will be asked to register a free user account. You should do this to both allow you to complete the installation, as well as let you download further updates to A-Squared. The account process is simple and there is no catch, (
although I recommend unticking all the boxes at the bottom of the account screen before creating your new account).
Each time you run A-Squared, select the 'Update a2 Online' option, then click the Next button. The program will download all the latest updates - each one is incremental so all of them need to be downloaded.
a-squared freeSpybot[/u]
This is another spyware scanner that works great in conjunction with Ad-Aware SE personal. While both individually are good, together they can't be beat. They tend to search for different types of spyware and adware, and almost always locate stuff that the other missed.
Spybot Search & DestroyWindows Defender (Beta 2)[/u]
Well, depending on if you are running a "legal" copy of Window's XP (easily discovered by windows
Genuine Advantage which is no harm to your system if it isn't legal or genuine when the check is done, but if it is you can get little offers such as Windows Defender), you can take advantage of this free utility offered by Microsoft. It also checks for different types of malware that may be missed by Ad-Aware and Spybot (that little extra cushion of protection never hurts) and can give you information on where they may be located - though still being in the beta phase it may not be able to remove some of the newer malware. However, it does give you the exact location of the offending item (usually located somewhere in
System Volume Information\_restore) and you can go in manually and remove them. It is updated often (though the only way to properly update it is if you have Automatic Updates turned on in the security center which is located in your control panel).
Windows Defender (Beta 2)Update all of these each time you use them, and I'd recommend scanning regularly with all of them roughly once a week (perhaps more or less often, depending on how much you are online and how active you are on different sites). There is no set pattern to scan, or what program you should use first, but I've had the best results performing scans in this order:
- Ad-Aware SE personal
- Spybot Search & Destroy
- A-Squared
- Windows Defender
- AVG Anti-Virus
The reason I scan in that order is because I've scanned with AVG before all the others and nothing was detected when the scan was finished. However, when I then ran Ad-Aware a virus was discovered by AVG (by Ad-Aware scanning through particular registry folders and awakening the virus) and thus prompting another scan by AVG to make sure there were no other viruses to be found. So I just scan with AVG last to save time.
Disc Defragmenting[/u]
This goes hand in hand with Soren's recommendation to clean your disc. Defragmentation is good to do usually whenever large files or programs are added or removed from your computer. As information is written to, and deleted from, your hard drive, parts of individual files will become fragmented and physically spread out all over the hard drive. This increases the time your hard drive takes to access information when using Windows or any application. The greater the fragmentation of the drive, the greater the stuttering and loading pauses you will also experience in games for example.
The default Windows defragmenter is good to use and generally serves the purpose of cleaning and defragmenting files. To access the Windows Defrag utility, go to Start>Run and type "
Dfrg.msc" (without quotes) and press Enter, or look for the Disk Defragmenter icon in your Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools menu. Make sure there are no open applications or games running in the background and then in the Defrag window simply click the Defragment button to begin defragmentation. Do not do anything else while this process is being completed. It may take quite a while to complete so be patient. The longer it takes, the more good it is doing your drive. If tweaking a new install of Windows, make sure to run Defrag immediately after installing the system drivers and core software as this will move all the important system files to the start of your hard drive where drive access is fastest.
PageDefragIf you are looking for a little more advanced defragmentation, I may recommend a free defrag program called PageDefrag. It is fairly simple to use, and upon launching it you can see at a glance how many fragments your major systems files are in - to be optimal they should all be in 1 fragment each. To run a defragment using PageDefrag, launch the program and click the 'Defragment at next boot' option, then reboot. This will defragment your major system files, which can only be done at boot time - something which the regular Windows defragmenter cannot do. However even the author of PageDefrag suggests you use it in combination with other defragmentation software, such as
Contig, which is also released by the same author.
PageDefragContigDiskeeper Lite (version 9.0)[/u]
While a toned down version of Diskeeper 9, this version is still better and more precise in defragmentation of your harddrive than the default Windows Disk Defragmenter. Diskeeper is produced by the same company that provides the Windows Disk Defragmenter utility, and in fact the standard defrag that comes with Windows XP is actually a cut-down version of Diskeeper, which renders it completely compatible with the operating system. It's use is fairly intuitive and you'll note there are many other features that are available (though greyed out in the lite version) that can help you to keep your harddrive working optimally.
This is a sort of "hidden" version of Diskeeper lite, available in the large Intel Desktop Utilities package - weighing in at 89 MB. However, the version 9 Diskeeper lite is
only available in this download, so if you want it you'll have to download the whole Intel package (scroll down and click on the 'Full Version - Intel Desktop Utilities v2.1.9.66 [EXE 88.9 MB]' link), then unzip and pull out the Diskeeper version from one of the folders. If that seems like too much work for you, there is also a lite (free) version of Diskeeper 7 available at Majorgeeks.com that you can also use.
If you get either of the lite versions of Diskeeper, I recommend you use the Page Defrag utility mentioned above in conjunction with it for a boot-time defragmentation of your files which cannot be defragmented while your OS is running.
Also, there is a trial version of Diskeeper 10 which introduces a new technology called I-FAAST (located in the 'Professional Premier Edition 32-bit' version of the trial). You can download and try it for 30 days for free to see if it makes a difference on your machine. Once it is installed, it will take the place of the standard Windows Disk Defragmenter located in Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools. Also note that Diskeeper 10 comes with 'Boot-time defragmentation', a superior utility to the
free 'Page Defrag' program, but as mentioned, Diskeeper 10 is only available for free for the first 30 days - afterwards, all functionality shuts down unless you purchase the full version (costing about 99 US dollars). Once the 30 day trial ends, just access your 'Add/Remove hardware' and remove Diskeeper to restore the default Windows Disk Defrag.
Diskeeper lite 7.0Diskeeper lite 9.0Diskeeper 10 Professional Premier Edition (30-day trial)