The Smiling Pirate

Regarded as one of the most popular anti virus software products, Avast Free Antivirus is the minimum protection you should have on your computer to combat viruses and spyware. Although we have recommended AVG and Avira as other good antivirus alternatives in the past, Avast has inched ahead of both to be our new favorite “Free” anti virus software.

Avast Free AntiVirus is free for personal and non commercial use.

Download Avast Free AntiVirus here

411-Spyware.com is an excellent resource for the tech-savvy as well as the casual user. It provides detailed information about the latest threats affecting computers. They tell you what the latest badware is, how to spot it, and how to remove it with free instructions and recommended software.

411-Spyware.com was founded in 2006 by Kristopher Dukes to help computer users understand what may be causing their computer frustration, not flood them with technical jargon that they don’t understand.

If you frequent thesmilingpirate.com, you know that we highly recommend keeping your Anti-Virus and Anti-Spware up-to-date. This will help you avoid contacting one of these malicious attacks. However, if you happen to contact one of these software attacks, you can reference 411-Spyware.com to get more information about what you’ve been infected with. In fact, The Smiling Pirate recommends adding 411-Spyware.com as a Favorite or Bookmark and making frequent visits to the site to get educated on the current attacks as well as attacks that were prevalent in months past.

Surf Safe.

-The Smiling Pirate

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is an anti-virus protection tool available free of charge to home users. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability.

According to the download statistics on Download.com, AVG Anti-Virus Free is neck-and-neck with Avira; another popular free anti-virus application recommended here on The Smiling Pirate.

The one complaint we hear about the Avira application is that it has an annoying pop-up ad that appears quite often. But we give you step-by-step instructions of how to disable that ad from coming up here.

Ultimately, what we don’t want you to do is waste time contemplating which one you should download. Don’t think about it too long. Get either one of these applications on your system before it’s too late.

Download AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition here

Malwarebytes is an anti-malware application designed to thoroughly remove even the most advanced malware. This product has been designed to quickly detect, destroy, and prevent malware from appearing on your machine. Unlike many other lightweight malware applications, Malwarebytes delivers a full-featured product that is quick and gets the job done.

As an IT Professional, I’m always looking for an application that will work when it’s called upon that I can keep in my software toolbox. Malwarebytes is definitely one I’ll be using regularly. Download the free version and try it yourself.

Download Malwarebytes here

Spyware Terminator is a very popular, free spyware scanner simply because it works. It works well on manual and scheduled system scans as well as real-time protection while surfing the Web. Although I suggest several spyware scanners on The Smiling Pirate, I never really choose one over the other. I’ve found that using several spyware scanners to combat spyware usually works out in your favor rather than choosing one spyware scanning application to do all the work. There has been many times when I’ve scanned computers with more than one scanner only to find that one software scan picked up a threat that was missed by another. It happens.

So, if you are fighting a spyware battle on your machine and you feel like you are on the losing end, download Spyware Terminator along with another spyware scanner and see if you can knock it out with either of them.

Download Spyware Terminator here

With malicious code surfacing daily, it’s important to have a reliable anti virus software that will combat what these creeps are writing before it wreaks havoc on your machine. Most people drive over to the local Best Buy and pick up the most popular brand thinking that’s the sure thing. That’s not always the case. Although they will work, most of them come with a ton of bells and whistles that you just don’t need. I feel the simpler the better. All of the sophisticated stuff should be on the back end of the anti virus software anyway.

A few months back I mentioned another free anti virus program named Moon Secure Anti Virus that I was using which is more of an open-source program. For me it worked. Some felt that since they never heard of it before it couldn’t possibly be good. Well that’s simply nonsense. Others would rather stick with the more popular programs that can be found on the “most downloaded” list off sites like CNET. (i.e. AVG)

Recently, while at work, a buddy of mine mentioned a company that offered a free version of their anti virus software for non-commercial and home users. The name of the software is Avira AntiVir Personal Edition. I decided to check it out and see what it was all about.

I installed the software and ran an update to get the latest definitions. After I had the latest definitions, I ran a quick scan which was easily accessible from their simple interface. Since the initial install, it has been updating and running without problems. I must mention though that after you install the software you will occasionally be presented with a window that includes information about updating to the Premium Edition. Although this can be an annoyance, keep in mind you are getting a very good piece of software for free that is protecting your computer from potentially harmful items. If the window popped up once in a while I wouldn’t really mind. However, the window pops up every day. Odds are, if I didn’t buy the premium version yesterday I’m probably not getting it today either. They should adjust the time interval of the window pop up on the next release. Other than that, I think the software is solid.

If you download the software and you really like it but the window pop up starts to bother you, we won’t leave you out to dry. Keep reading below the download link and you will find a way to stop the window from opening. It involves some manipulation, but it can be done. (The information below is not endorsed or supported by Avira. It works, but you’re on your own.)

Download Avira AntiVir Personal Edition here

**How to Disable the Annoying Avira Popup Window
Windows XP Pro:

1. Start – Run – Type “secpol.msc”
2. Click on Software Restriction Policy – go to Action (at the top) – Create New Restriction Policies
3. Right-click on Additional Rules (on the right) – Choose New Path Rule

4. Now click Browse and find the “avnotify.exe” file (C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\avnotify.exe)

5. Make sure the security level is set to “Disallowed” and click OK.

Done. What you have done is disallowed the execution of “avnotify.exe”, which should suppress the popup window.

Windows XP Home (and Media Center)

1. Boot into Safe Mode (repeatedly press F8 after boot)
2. Login under the Administrator account
3. Navigate to C:\Program File\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avnotify.exe
4. Right-click “avnotify” – Go to Properties – Security – Advanced
5. Look under the Permissions folder for a listing of all the system users. Do the following for all the users:
6. Edit – Traverse Folder / Execute File – Deny – Click OK
7. Reboot (into Normal mode) when finished

With dozens of anti-spyware applications available on the Internet, how do you narrow it down to one that will work. Well that is what The Smiling Pirate is here for. We’ve tested several of the popular anti-spyware applications that are available and have collaborated with others in the industry to compare our results. We know that most people use popular spyware scans such as Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D since they have a proven track record for being able to remove nasty spyware and malware from you machine. However, both of these apps have been around since that later part of the 20th century. Technology has changed a whole lot since then and so have the malware writers. Sticking with either of these apps may leave you on the short end of the stick.

One application that has had some great results seeking out spyware on machines is SUPERAntiSpyware. Although it showed signs of greatness with its results, it is not perfect. What app is? At first, a quick scan attempt cleaned every infection it found but it did leave some behind. Scanning a second time removed all of them. A full scan takes a bit longer but removed everything that was detected.

SUPERAntiApyware has both a professional edition and a free edition. The free edition is 100% free and will detect and remove Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans, KeyLoggers, Dialers, Hi-Jackers, and worms. SUPERAntiSpyware also removes many threats that other applications fail to remove.

The main feature difference between the professional edition and the free edition is that the free edition does not include real-time blocking or scheduled scanning. Download a copy of SUPERAntiSpyware and run a scan on your machine to test for yourself. Hopefully your machine does not have traces of spyware but if it does, SUPERAntiSpyware should take care of it.

Download SUPERAntiSpyware here