Virus scan

[spuzi14]

Unfortunatly I have AOL 9.0. It unfortunatly comes with McAfee virus scan. I don't like the virus scan at all (I feel the same way about AOL).

We used to have Ad-Aware or something like that but after upgrading to a new OS (XP...again, unfortunatly) it's gone. I want to get rid of McAfee and get something else. It's been a while since I tinkered with Ad-Aware so I don't remember much of what it does. I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's your run-o-de-mill virus scan but it's better than McAfee...right?


If/when I uninstall McAfee, AOL won't be messed up with it right? I ask because I've had some bad experiences in the past and don't want to mess anything up again.

I am running a Microsoft Windows XP with AOL9.0. As far as I know there's not a virus on here. Anything else you need to know, just let me know.

[frankrede]

aol is horrible.
get a new ISP.

Uninstalling mcafee shouldn't hurt aol.

[Fnord]

pete zaria is going throw up when he hears your situation
Check out some of the anti virus/spyware stuff suggested here:
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7382&
You will be suprized at what crap you already have on your pc.

And yeah, aol is worthless. If you're going to change try to avoid people pc and netzero also. nz isnt too bad, just look for other options first.

XP can be made to not suck if you know how to use it. Ive had my install for 3 years and havent had many major problems (at least not any that werent caused by me)
Just got ubuntu about a week ago so Im learning that now.

[spuzi14]

I seen that topic, that's actually what got me in the mood to change my computer around. I'd change my ISP but my parents pay for it, not me. That means that it's not my choice and I can't do anything about it.

I was planning on looking at some of that tonight. I'm doing something right now.

[Pete Zaria]

_Fnord hit a few nails on the head:
AOL, in my opinion, is among the worst software ever written. If you can manage it, switch to *anything* else. If not, then use AOL to connect but don't use the AOL browser software. It's honestly horrible. Firefox is preferred on Windoze.

The suggestions outlined here: http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/viewtop ... 229&#75229 apply reasonably well to your situation.

I'd recommend uninstalling McAfee completely. Get Avast for your antivirus and Adaware SE, and Spybot or SuperAntiSpyware. Keep your startup list trimmed down, and don't forget to defrag. LOL.

I think I'm unintentionally becoming the form IT guy... :help:

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

[spuzi14]

I try to defrag. About once a month I clear internet files and stuff, run anti virus etc.

I'll definetly tinker tonight.

[paaiyan]

Not only is AOL terrible software, the support is even worse. I'm sure you all heard about the guy that recorded his call to AOL to cancel his service. It can take hours to get hold of a real person and finally get them to do it.

[Fnord]

I was about to link to the audio file from that call
I dont have time to link it right now though. It has probably been posted on digg at least 100 times so it shouldnt be too hard to find.

[singularity]

the words greatest application is CCleaner (google it) it will delete files from directorys you had no idea existed, basically it deletes temporary files and install files (aka junk) as for McAfee disable its start up processes using "msconfig" then delete it, get AVG its free and a thousand times better

[paaiyan]

Yea, just search AOL nightmare. That brings it up, lol. When my parents tried to cancel our AOL forever ago they had trouble and had me do it. I had to do my share of yelling.

[Pete Zaria]

the words greatest application is CCleaner (google it) it will delete files from directorys you had no idea existed, basically it deletes temporary files and install files (aka junk) as for McAfee disable its start up processes using "msconfig" then delete it, get AVG its free and a thousand times better

CCleaner is a great app, I agree. AdAware SE and, in my opinion, SuperAntiSpyware are must-have's also.
I prefer Avast over AVG and Kasperry (for memory usage and update reasons), which are the only free antivirus programs I've tried. I'll play with more of them soon.

MSConfig is a WONDERFUL tool if you know how to use it. The shorter you keep the startup list, the happier your computer will be. The only things you really need to leave enabled are your antivirus, antispyware, firewall, ISP software, and drivers. Everything else can be disabled (media players, CD/DVD utilities, instant messengers, imaging programs, office programs, adobe reader junk, etc....) from startup. It saves ram and increases performance.

Believe it or not, using the "classic" (win98 style, gray) theme saves around 8mb ram - noticeable difference on older machines. Also, setting the paging file options to System Managed Size tends to speed up memory performance, too.

Just for fun, I'll write you a one-paragraph tutorial on creating an automated defragment:
Open notepad. Write the following:

defrag c: -f

Assuming your HDD is called C. If you have multiple drives or partitions, create a line for each one, like this:

defrag c: -f
defrag d: -f
defrag f: -f

Save the file. Put it directly on the C:\ drive (in the root directory). For the file name, PUT THE NAME IN QUOTES! (this forces Notepad to override the default .txt format). Name it exactly this (WITH the quotes):

"defrag-hd.bat"

Leave the other options default and save the file to C:\.

Go to C:\, right-click defrag-hd.bat and hit send to > desktop (create shortcut). This places a shortcut to your new defrag utility on the desktop. You can right-click that icon and hit Properties to rename it and set a custom icon (there's an icon for an HDD that looks nice for it).

Now, to schedule an automated defragment, go to Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks and run the Add Scheduled Task wizard. When it asks what program you want to run, select the defrag-hd.bat program you created. Schedule it to run whenever or however frequently you want.

I obviously have too much free time on my hands.

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

[MisterSteve124]

I hate mcaffe so much. The virus scan just scans for unwanted programs and the parental controls suck. I'm 15 and its set on Older Teenager and it still wont let me even look at cnn.com for school. Good thing I know the password

[spuzi14]

Pete, I wouldn't say you have too much time on your hands. That kind of information is worth a lot these days! You know more than I do. I also notice that running on 1024X768 pixels on XP the computer is much faster than on 600X800. My parents and bro always have it on 600X800 and it drives me nuts.

Freeing up RAM would definetly help a lot. I'm gonna go looking at virus scan stuff right now to see what I can see. I'll also try to get a screenshot of my startup menu because I don't know what to stop and start.

EDIT:Here's my startup menu.
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i39/p ... tartup.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

[Pete Zaria]

@spuzi14

Wow, your computer needs some work, man.

The first one, systray.exe is probably malware. WinXP doesn't have a systray.exe (only 98, ME, and 2k did). Disable it.

Second one is QuickTime, disable that from startup too.

Updreg.exe in sys32 is almost definitely a virus or spyware - get that $hit out of there. That's not a legitimate system32 component, lol.

The next 4 are McAfee stuff, leave those alone if you want to keep mcafee.

Disable realsched (realplayer) and msmsgs (msn messenger) and that lexmark utility (your printer will work fine without it).

Hit apply, then close. When you reboot, you'll get a warning box that says "system config utility, you've used the system config utility to make changes to the way Windows starts up, blah blah blah" check the box that says "dont show me this again" and hit OK. That will trim down your startup list

500th post!!!! And I just changed my forum title to match. Thx everybody!

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

[paaiyan]

Pete, what do you do for a living?