What base antiviral, anti malware, anti-whatever should I get?

[Paula Sims]

I've been using Norton and loved Window Washer before it became a full utility so I'm looking for what's available now.

I've been suggested the following: AVASET free for viruses, ADWCleaner (for adware), MalWareBits (for other malware), and ccCleaner (for registry, etc).

Thoughts?

Thanks

[JayhawkSD]

3. I think you mean AVAST free

I use it and it has kept me in good shape. It stops more than just viruses, it is overall malware protection.

Not a fan of Kaspersky, since it uses up quite a lot of resources. If you have a fast machine with a lot of RAM, that won't likely be a problem, but...

Not sure about ADWCleaner. Reputation is good, but I think you only need to run it if you have adware problems.

I also think you mean MalWareBytes, which I also use. You can leave it running, but if you have Avast running you don't need to. I use it as a search tool if I suspect something s amiss.

I would not use ccCleaner without expert advice. It can do a lot of damage. I don't use it.

There are utility programs which remove Norton for you.

[Ron Obvious]

6. Second the Yes on Avast and MalwareBytes and the No on Norton

But I'd also recommend Spybot R+D which has the additional nice feature of allowing you to "immunise" your system by setting a whole series of known bad URLs to 127.0.0.1 in your hosts file, effectively preventing any process on your system to connect to those bad URLs.

Any one of those (MalwareBytes, SpyBot, Avast, and Windows Defender) finds things the other don't it seems.

[Paula Sims]

7. Thanks all - you are the BEST!

Always knew I could get excellent answers from my DU geek buddies!