Please bear with me!

[Tiki]

Nancy....Big Old Windbag? LOL :icon_lol:

Kevin...now you're scaring the H*** outta me! All those programs are needed to keep spyware out? Norton isn't enough? Won't so many programs fight with each other to be the default? I am not THAT computer savvy on the tech side, though I am good with MS Office products.

Has Ad aware or spybot ever crashed a system?

[kvnband]

Just IMO, but all norton products are crap. More than anything, they are just resource hogs.

Ad-Aware - Finds & removes spyware
Spybot S&D - Finds & removes spyware
Hijack this - Allows you to see what has been added to your Internet Explorer, and allows you to undo what has been done. Only for the knowledgeable user.
CWSShredder - Allows you to remove Cool web search hijacker
Firefox - Alternative to IE that really helps cut down on browser hijacking and ActiveX exploits
Linux - An alternate operating system to Windows. Most viruses (99.9%) are made for windows operating systems. Linux has a steep learning curve, so unless you are going to stick with it and learn it, don't switch. But, if you do ever take the jump and stick with it, you will eliminate nearly 100% of your virus and spyware problems.

Kevin

[Lynjupiter]

I have been using firefox and spybot and my puter has never run better. Spybot found things ad-aware did not. IE is not allowed to be used in my house anymore on any computer. It is just plain bad news, like an open window straight into your computer.

I also found that SP2 for windows can cause major computer problems. My dell is just a year old and I was offline two days after I downloaded SP2. I put my puter in saftey mode, uninstalled and my computer worked perfectly again.
Lynda

[greyburd]

I also vote for you to get a Mac. I've had mine for about 2 and a half years and have not had any problems with it. If you're worried about cost, Apple just released the Mac Mini. It is a tiny computer with everything that you would need in a computer. And it starts at $499 (http://www.apple.com/macmini/). And one of the best things about it is, it can hook up to any industry standard usb monitor, keyboard and mouse. Just a suggestion!!!

~don

[Tiki]

OK, I downloaded the ad-aware one yesterday, ran it and it found over 400 dodgy files...most of which seemed to be tied to shopping sites. I deleted them.

What the devil is "malware"? There was something else..I think it was "file miner" if I remember correctly?

It didn't get rid of the hotbar pop-ups. I still want a good set of smileys that doesn't annoy the h*** outta me. What about incredimail? Is that better than hotbar?