New laptops with Vista

[Rocky]

Choosing an anti virus program.

This may appear to be a difficult choice, but it isn't.
People are loyal to their anti virus programs like they are about car brands.
One could argue 'till the cows come home about which is best.
My solution was to test them on our computers here, both with XP and Vista.
The long and short of it is that AVG and Avira IMO are the two best free AV programs.
The new AVG 8 appears to be the heavier (will slow down weaker computers) of the two. It is the most proven AV program I know and the new 8 version is elaborate and effective.
Avira, on the other hand, seems to be virtually as good, but it is a lot lighter (great for medium and low powered XP puters) than the AVG.

I use Avira on all our XP puters and AVG on the Vista PC.
Despite a noticeable slowdown with AVG on the XP puters, it does not appear to slow down my Vista puter.
perhaps it agrees better with Vista, but most likely it is due to the power of my machine. (2.0 dual core AMD processor with 3.5 gigs of ram and a high speed 7,200 rpm hard drive.)


Click on this link to download the free AVG anti virus program.
MajorGeeks.Com - Contacting Download Site



Click on this link to download the free Avira anti virus program.
MajorGeeks.Com - Contacting Download Site



If you have any Norton/Symantec programs that you want to get rid of, click on this link to download a special "Norton Removal Tool".
Norton can be a biotch to remove and it invariably leaves stuff behind, as well as it has been known to "sabotage" certain capacities on your puter, when removed in a conventional fashion, thus encouraging folks to contact Norton for help, at which point they convince the client to send X amount of dollars for a new installation.
Thus the need of this removal tool.
MajorGeeks.Com - Contacting Download Site

 

[Rocky]

Installing Avira.

Open the Avira installer. (Double click on it or right click and select "Open".)
Follow the screenshot pix and select options as seen in the pix.

.

 

[Rocky]

Installing Avira, part 2.

Continue installation, as per the pix.

Once the installation is complete, the Avira icon will appear in your taskbar.

There is little use for the shortcut that appears on the desktop, so you can delete it. (One can click on the Avira icon in the taskbar, to access the program, features and settings)

 

[Rocky]

Installing AVG 8 anti virus program.

Double click on the installer, or right click and select "Open".
Then install, as per the pix.

(No need for the toolbar.)

.

 

[Rocky]

Installing AVG 8 anti virus program, part 2.

Continue installation, as per the pix.

If you would like a daily scan, select it and choose the time.

You need not agree to providing info.

There is no need to register.

.

 

[Rocky]

AVG icon is taskbar.

The AVG anti virus icon will appear in your taskbar.
From this icon, you can select tasks/options/settings/updates.

There is no need for the desktop shortcut and it can be deleted.

.

 

[Rocky]

Next.... Installing AdAware.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=5947&file=10&evp=84f954440910b2ac676e95d7eb25b759

Click on link to download the installer.
Once downloaded, double click on the installer.


Click "Run".

Select your preferred language and click "OK".

Installation will begin.

Click "Next".

Select "Accept" and click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Updating will begin.

 

[Rocky]

Installing AdAware, continued.

Click "Use Free".

Updates will begin.

When finished, click "Close".

Click "Finish".

Program will initiate.

Click on "Scan Now".

Select "Smart Scan" and click "Scan".

Ad-Aware will begin to scan.

In the meantime, (scanning could take 15 to 30 minutes) delete the Ad Watch icon on the desktop. (This is a feature only available on the paid version.)

.

 

[Rocky]

Ad-Aware, finishing up.

You can grab the Ad-Aware desktop icon and place it into the Quick Launch menu, if you like.

When the scan is finished, the critical items would appear with a check mark box, ready to be selected, then select "Privacy Objects" and mark those checkboxes too, then click on the "Remove" icon below.

If there is a file that cannot be removed immediately without a reboot, this window will appear. Click "OK".

Click "Finish".

Click on "Yes" if you want to reboot now, or "No" if you want to do it later.

Close program.

All done.
Updating and scanning should be performed once a week.

 

[Rocky]

Spyware Blaster installation.

Spyware Blaster is well recognized as being a good anti spyware defender.
It does not scan.
It simply blocks certain types of spyware from accessing your puter.

Click link to download.
MajorGeeks.Com - Contacting Download Site
<O</O


Double click on the installer, then click on "Run".

Click "Next".

Select "Accept" and click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Install".

Installation will begin.

Click "Finish".

.

 

[Rocky]

Spyware Blaster installation. (continued)

Click "Next".

Select "Manual" and click on "Next".

Click "Finish".

Click on "Download Latest Protection Updates".

Click "Check For Updates".

Updates will download.

Click "Protection Status".

Click "Enable All Protection".

Program will activate.

Installation is finished. Close program.

Updating this program once a week will be fine.

 

[Rocky]

Turning off the "User Account Control".

In case you have not read this entire thread and have just jumped in recently, and you still have that infuriatingly irritating user account control on, that keeps popping windows up at you, asking you if you are sure you want to do this or that, here is the proceedure for turning it off, permanently.


Go to "Start", "Settings", "Control Panel".

Double click on "User Accounts".

Click on "Turn User Account Control on or off" .

Uncheck the checkbox and click "OK".

A window will appear asking you to reboot now or later.
Until you reboot, the control will still be on.
After a reboot, it will be off.

.

 

[Rocky]

Spybot Installation

Spybot is much more than a simple anti spyware program, as it has a feature called "Tea Timer" that monitors your puter for programs that try to put themselves into the Start Up, or internet pages that try to change your homepage, etc, and allows you to stop them from doing so.

Double click on the installer, then click on "Run".

Select the language of your choice and click "OK".

Click "Next".

Select "Accept" and click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Select which shortcut icons you want and click "Next".

Click "Install".

Installation will begin.

.

 

[Rocky]

Spybot Installation. (continued)

Click "Finish".

If this window appears, click "yes".

Select "Don't show" and click "OK".

If this window appears, click "Ignore".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Next".

Click "Start using the program".

Click "Search for Updates".

Click "Continue".

 

[Rocky]

Spybot. Finishing updates and immunization..

Select all the checkboxes and click "Download".

Click "OK".

Click "Exit".

Click "Immunize".

Click on the upper "Immunize" icon.

Click on "Search & Destroy".

 

[Rocky]

Spybot Scanning.

Click "Check for problems".

Scan will begin.

Any Microsoft entry that appears should not be removed.

In this case, that would be the registry entry that prevents the "User Account Control" from initiating, so I definitely do not want to "Remove" it and have that damn thing come back on again.

Another item has been identified.

It's a tracking cookie that we will want to remove.

Uncheck the Microsoft item and check the other entry, then click "Fix selected problems:.

Click "Yes".

Click "OK".

Scan and spyware removal is complete.

 

[Rocky]

Tea Timer capacities & usefulness.

Here is an example of the Tea Timer section of Spybot, preventing an internet page from changing your homepage.
On the Yahoo homepage, there is an option available for those who would like to select it as their homepage.
Some internet pages try to sneak it in on you, without your consent, a type of homepage hijack.
Here, I am clicking on the homepage change option.

Here, I accept the homepage change.

Spybot's Tea Timer immediately pops up a window that allows me to prevent the change and have it remember that decision, so that Tea Timer would do it automatically by itself, the next time.

Yahoo thinks it has changed my homepage,

which it clearly has not.

Spybot is a bit "Heavy" at start up and will consume some resources for an extra 20 or 30 seconds when booting up.
After that, Tea Timer does consume a tiny amount of resources, but not enough to bother a modern powerful puter with Vista.
If your computer is a bit on the weak side, you might choose to not use Spybot.

 

[Tamborista]

After that, Tea Timer does consume a tinys a bit on the weak side, you might choose to not use Spybot.

Mate:

There is nothing like a tea bag and a finger sandwich in the afternoon!

tambo'

 

[Chris]

Just a big thank-you to Rocky for this thread. A few months ago I got a new laptop with Vista and automatically (because I understand the stuff) did a few things before using the computer anyways. Today I remembered this thread and decided to step through it just to see that I did what is necessary.

Rocky, this is a great piece of work that you did. From years of doing this stuff I got to most of it by myself already, but the two tools (Advanced Windows Care and the Defrag Tool) that you suggested early on are great.

One comment .. where you talk about a disk that is 50% full becoming a little less speedy, one can overcome some of those problems by using a Windows swap file or partition cleverly. At least this was true on previous Windows versions .. I believe the swap file is alive and well in Vista but have not messed with it. You can also allocate memory to certain applications and steal a little bit from others to help speed up things.

On the application side, after many years on Microsoft Office (corporate mindset) I decided to try Open Office and can do all of what I need to do. The spreadsheet piece is a little buggy and cumbersome though.

Good stuff Rocky!

 

[Chris]

Forgot to say, if you're using AVG, please turn off link-scanner!