Free Norton Antivirus, Internet Security and 360 download alternatives

Photo Credit: Sophos Germany via flickr.

Security measures every Windows user must take

Let's face it - viruses exist. Whether one chooses to accept this or not, malicious software can do a lot more damage that you can imagine. Your computer can be turned into a zombie to attack other computers (see botnet) and can be compromised so badly that a malevolent person can track every key stroke and every move that you make (yes, this includes all your e-banking passwords, credit card numbers and e-mail passwords). It's almost as though you are leaving a blank cheque in a public place, free for any person with a malicious intent to take advantage of.
Given this scenario, I'm sure you'll agree that virus protection is necessary. So spending a few dollars to protect your information should be justifiable. However, let’s say that you feel that you’re not such a heavy computer user, and would like to resort to using a free antivirus program. In that case I provide a few free alternatives to paying the yearly fees charged by most commercial security companies.

The reason why Windows Vista was experiencing problems

Off late, my Windows Vista Ultimate install was experience a slew of problems, which might explain the reason I had 10 GB of error reporting information. It seems as though I’ve uncovered the cause for these problems.

Turns out, I had 2 anti-virus programs installed on the computer. Of course, I had uninstalled both of them a long time ago, and yet remnants of the program still seem to cause problems. I’m not sure if its Vista’s fault that the programs are still lingering around, of if its the software’s fault. But nonetheless, the fact remains that according to the operating systems two anti-virus programs are on simultaneously.

Since there is no clear cut way of uninstalling each and every singe component pertaining to both the applications, it looks like I’ll have to reinstall the whole operating system and start from scratch. Trying to make do with the operating system in its current stage by simply changing a couple of settings and deleting files will only remove the weeds temporarily, till they grow back again. It’s a good thing I know how to back up my Firefox and Internet Explorer data. So all I’ll have to do is reinstall, install Office and a couple of other applications and restore my Firefox settings. Great, another day well spent. Thanks Vista!

Firefox Version 2.0.0.11?

Am I the only one noticing the fact that Firefox version 2.0.0.10 was just released a couple of days ago? Or is every Firefox lover out there wondering if the Mozilla team screwed up something, or is just working overtime. Now, first off, I must mention that I am a Firefox lover. I absolutely can't do without the really cool add-ons and features this amazing browser has. But why would someone release updates so quick? My first thought was that it was some kind of wierd virus/malware thing. However, Macs don't have viruses! Silly Me.

After thinking for a while, I've came to the conclusion that it was probably for a couple of reasons why the back-to-back updates were released.

• Some one in the Mozilla Team screwed up some code so they had to fix it
• A really really big security bug was discovered
• They wanted to introduced some new features (I didn't see anything new though)
• The FireFox team was bored to death and decided to release something new
• Some one noticed a bug in FireFox

Turns out, they did make firefox more stable. And although previous versions of Firefox used to crash on Leopard (Mac OS X.5) they don't anymore. Now I can get back to using the recipe editor on Tech-Recipes, hopefully. If you're want to know more about the recent update... you can mosey on over to C-Net, and they'll update you on it.
So now, rest assured, no one else needs to worry about the quick release of updates. I hereby confirm that Firefox is still the browser that you should use the most. Why? Because it is updated frequently, has great features and is still the fastest of the bunch. At least, I find it to be fastest.

How to find out if a .exe process is spyware or virus

Windows XP has thousands and thousands of .exe files, and usually a lot of those executables are running at any given time. But are all of those .exe files legit or are they spyware/malware/viruses that are bad for your computer... I recommend you follow these instructions

First get the usual spyware finding stuff (if you don't have it already - DOWNLOAD IT!) like:

1. Spybot Search and Destroy
2. AdAware (the free version works fine...)
   
3. Windows Defender

Any one or more (more = better) of the programs listed below should be downloaded and run in order to search for any viruses. If the programs above find something then bingo! You've found the culprit! If not you'll have to do more digging....

Download Process Explorer from Microsoft's website and unzip the stuff and open up procexp.exe. There look for the .EXE file that you had your doubts about and click on the entry corresponding that bears the name of the executable. If you don't know what that entry means just right click on it and click on 'Search Online...'

Now it's time time to see if there are any suspicious DLLs associated with it. So just press Ctrl+L and then Ctrl + D to take a look at all the DLLs that don't have 'Microsoft Corporation' under the company name. If you aren't sure about the DLL then you'll have to search for it online and see what you get.

You'll also want to double click on the process, go to the 'Performance Graph tab' and see how much memory it takes up. It its taking too much memory or hogging up all the resources in your computer, then its probably a virus and should be dealt with accordingly.

If it doesn't show any of the symptoms mentioned above then it's probably supposed to be there, so just let it be there. Remember to run AntiVirus and spyware checks all the time though, because only those checks will tell you if something is bad or not.

Another tip that I can offer is to use your AntiVirus scanner to scan the specific .exe file you are suspicious about. To figure out where the .exe file is stored on your computer - double click the process in Process Explorer > Under the 'Image' tab you should see the 'Path:' box which is going to tell you where the .exe file is stored. Just point your AntiVirus to that location so that it can figure out if the file is a virus or not.

If you find anything suspicious using the methods above (yes, using the methods above is a requirement) then please post about it in the comments. If you need help in figuring out if a process is malicious, feel free to email me, and I'll try to help.