Anti Virus Programs....Sheesh!

[The Alien]

Through the years I've tried different AV programs and by now I can say that ESET is the most reliable one I've used. It is also the most resource-efficient one I've used. I've been using it for quite a few years without a single breach of security. I would jump on a website riddled with viruses with ESET installed without any fear

How can I be certain that ANY program I run will actually rid my computer of the virus/malware/worm whatever! has been removed?

That's the thing. You will never be 100% certain because you never know about any malware that cannot be detected by any AV and is smart enough to keep itself hidden. Certain viruses are not discovered until months after the infection because they do their work quietly.
Also I'd like to point out that the computer problems you are experiencing is not necessarily related to malware, unless I missed something in your story. It could be anything. Conflicting drivers, a background program that's malfunctioning, maybe even hardware issues. It's not necessarily related to a faulty Windows installation either. Viruses don't usually target things like .xar files which with all due respect are not very widely used. They go for more popular files like .doc

Just a quick edit: additionally, I would recommend using Malwarebytes Anti-malware as has been suggested, plus HijackThis

[Ron Duke]

Thanks Alien,

I have purchased Malwarebytes Premium.

I'll look into HijackThis. Why this recommendation, though? And will a novice like me know how to use it?

Thanks for your comments, too!

Through the years I've tried different AV programs and by now I can say that ESET is the most reliable one I've used. It is also the most resource-efficient one I've used. I've been using it for quite a few years without a single breach of security. I would jump on a website riddled with viruses with ESET installed without any fear


That's the thing. You will never be 100% certain because you never know about any malware that cannot be detected by any AV and is smart enough to keep itself hidden. Certain viruses are not discovered until months after the infection because they do their work quietly.
Also I'd like to point out that the computer problems you are experiencing is not necessarily related to malware, unless I missed something in your story. It could be anything. Conflicting drivers, a background program that's malfunctioning, maybe even hardware issues. It's not necessarily related to a faulty Windows installation either. Viruses don't usually target things like .xar files which with all due respect are not very widely used. They go for more popular files like .doc

Just a quick edit: additionally, I would recommend using Malwarebytes Anti-malware as has been suggested, plus HijackThis

[The Alien]

Ron, HijackThis is just an extra layer of protection. You manually run it and let it scan your system. The results can be exported to a log file. I usually check my own results. Novice users can post their log files on forums where other users analyze the log for them. There is no specific HijackThis forum as far as I know, but other online security forums (such as forums for antivirus programs) have boards for people who want their HijackThis logs looked at. So it does require a bit more effort compared to an antivirus where you just click Scan and Clean.

[Ron Duke]

Thanks for the insight Alien.

[Egg Bramhill]

I purchased McAfee AV years ago and found it very intrusive. Then my ISP rolled Norton AV into it's service as a free product, which I found less intrusive and worked fine. About 4 years ago they changed this free service from Norton to McAfee and I must admit it works very well in the background & rarely interferes with my browsing unlike my earlier version. It will, occasionally, warn me not to visit a site & the majority of the times I heed it's advice. So all in all I'm happy with my current AV software.

I also use Malwarebytes Pro which I find a useful piece of software and protects my PC from malware.

I have a Reg Edit software also installed (can't remember it's name at present) that runs every Monday & informs me I have100, 200, or 300 entries in my Reg which can be removed safely, which I do every week but I can't vouch for the value of this software

I must admit to being aware of the need but very slack on making backups to external drives. I have several cloud storage's but I've never found a decent automatic backup program.