Another vote for AVG.

I also use Firefox as my browser, Thunderbird, Mailwasher, AdAware, SpyBot, Spyware Blaster and Site Advisor (Thanks to Lionda).

Another note for Anti Virus Nod32 by Esset is by far the best antivirus software going and in use the least system resources to do the job i would recomend it to anyone it is used a lot in corparate environments but is good for home use. Plus you can aways get shot of you windows machine and get a mac

Not free though.

Here is another one I keep getting, does this look suss Mrs Teapot ?

Dear Fifth Third bank business/commercial customer,
Fifth Third Protection Department requests you to start the client details confirmation procedure. By clicking on the link at the bottom of this letter you will get all necessary instructions how to start and to complete the confirmation procedure. The following steps are to be taken by all business and commercial customers of the Fifth Third bank.
Fifth Third Protection Department apologizes for the inconveniences caused to you, and is very grateful for your cooperation.
To start the confirmation procedure, click the following link:
http:// businessbanking.53.com/session489006/clientbase/form.asp
Copyright © 2007 Fifth Third Bank, Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender, All Rights Reserved

Ah I actually just got scared to death then. Onlineamiga text me earlier and said I had left myself signed in on msn, in the internet cafe i was in, then I got a notification email from you guys with the name ´being hacked´

I forgot Id posted here, but all is clear now, pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeee, hehe

I am just trying to download Spybot now,Iv got the Icon on my desktop,its asking me to registrar by giving my E mail address and name to get a key no or something is this normal,dont know what Im doing

When you open the icon, did you get this screen ?
I have used it for years and cant remember if it asks for your email or not to get a key number.
But as its free, I dont see why you need one.

Hi JDR,
yes it looks like the one,so I downloaded it,Iv the icon on the desktop,when I open the Ikon it asks me to register for cleaning,a box appears and says;

You must registister the full version of Spywarebot to quarantine and/or clean your PC.of the spyware that we,v found.Click on "get full version" to get your activation key now.Click on enter activation key if you already have your activation key.
It then takes you to a box that asks for my e-mail adress and name

I went into the site and chose the second mirror down Freeware Archiv

we use AVG anti virus and AVG anti spyware.

Quote .... Hi JDR,
yes it looks like the one,so I downloaded it,Iv the icon on the desktop,when I open the Ikon it asks me to register for cleaning,a box appears and says;

You must registister the full version of Spywarebot to quarantine and/or clean your PC.of the spyware that we,v found.Click on "get full version" to get your activation key now.Click on enter activation key if you already have your activation key.
It then takes you to a box that asks for my e-mail adress and name

I went into the site and chose the second mirror down Freeware Archiv end qoute


Dont know where you are then ?
Just click on this link HERE then click on the green box, then click run.
When the program opens click update, when it has updated click check for problems.
See the screenshots on the link.

Spywarebot is NOT Spybot.

Do NOT install Spywarebot. Use the link that JDR gave in his post to access Spybot.

If you have installed Spywarebot see here for instructions on how to remove it.

http://forums.techguy.org/security/4...t-removal.html

I reiterate DO NOT INSTALL SPYWAREBOT

Oh Cheers Beachcomber,Oh DEAR I had installed Spywarebot,has soon has I saw your message I have deleted it off my system,Im confused though because I got the details off one of the threads. Iv had enough of this,I completly Knacked the system a couple of weeks ago,downloading this and that,and then deleting it again,I had to start from scratch as if Id just bought the laptop,I had to reinstall everything,Im not going down that road again,I hope Iv deleted it ok,its vanished from the desktop anyway,I went into control panel,selected add/remove ,and deleted it from there,I thought it wasnt right cause it was asking for payment,jeeeez its a palava this is,but thanks a lot,Im glad you picked up on what Id done,but why is the Spywarebot so bad ? I hope it hasnt done any damage.

Iv just done a search and found three files to do with Spywarebot Iv deleted them,sent them to the bin,is this enough,should I delete from bin has well?

I don't think it will have done any damage but it deliberately gives you false positives (i.e. it tells you that you have spyware, adware or viruses when you don't) when you use it to scan your system to try to get you to pay for the program which, in reality, is probably not even as good as the totally free SpyBot.

There are many so-called antispyware programs such as this with names that are very similar and deliberately misleading but stick to the ones that have been mentioned here and if you are in any doubt ask on the forum for a link to the program you think you want to download.

Another good program which is not free is Acronis True Image with which you can make an absolute compressed 'ghost image' of your hard drive (obviously on to a separate drive) and if your computer crashes irretrievably you can restore the drive from the ghost image without having to reinstall Windows and without having to reload all of your programs and settings whilst retaining all of your documents and personal data.

http://eu.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

You can do incremental back-ups as often as you like and store it all on a separate stand-alone hard drive.

Have just seen your next post: They should do no harm in the bin. Also consider downloading CCleaner to get rid of the unused registry entries:

http://www.ccleaner.com/