It's destroying my computer ??

Question

Hello everybody ! I asked a question about free anti virus programs, and some of the answers scared me a bit. That's why I reform my question a bit ; Does spyware protect program as Spyboot - and Anti virus program witch is free - destroy my computer ? Since Im a "rookie" internet user (5 months) I have some problem to tell the different between good advices and peolpe who just want to scare the bejesus of me... :) Thank you for all good answers. Backman

Answer 1

anti-virus and anti-spyware progams do NOT damage your computer in anyway you'll end up in trouble if you don't have any at all.
On my computer there's five anti-spyware programs an anti-virus as well as a firewall a at the very least you must have anti-virus anti-spyware and a firewall
a good anti-virus and free is AVG get it here http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
AVG also do an anti-spyware which is good get that here http://free.grisoft.com/doc/20/lng/us/tpl/v5
a free and very good firewall is zonealarm get that here http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
remember if you don't have protection your computer WILL be screwed

Answer 2

This largely depends on the program you use.

Anti-virus programs protect against viruses, which destroy the information on your computer or cause other problems. Anti-spyware programs stop spyware, which collects information on you, sends it to marketers, and can display pop-up ads at any time, slowing down your computer.

You want to be careful about anything you put on your computer, of course. What I personally suggest is searching the name of any program on Google. If it is legitimate, you will find people talking about it, and not just fancy sites trying to say it's super-great, downloads only, or sales pitches, but people talking on forums saying things good and bad, hopefully mostly good.

Certain spyware protection programs such as Spybot-Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, and Spyware Doctor are known to be effective and legitimate programs. Some will have warnings that they're not worth the money, or even harmful.

Anti-virus programs are similar, but it's easy to find a good anti-virus. Kaspersky, Norton, McAfee, all of these are known companies who have created anti-virus programs for some time. Anti-virus programs WILL interfere wth a FEW programs, you will likely NOT see this happen with anything you run. This is only due to the nature of anti-virus programs.

Google is your friend, if you are unsure about something, look it up on multiple sites from Google.

As a suggestion, consider downloading Firefox or Opera as your browser, they are more prone to stopping pop-up ads and automatic spyware downloads than Internet Explorer is.

Good luck with your experiences on the Internet.

Answer 3

Spybot and most of the anti-virus programs will help you to eliminate all kinds of things that will corrupt your computer and make it run slower. Some of those things will track where you go on the Internet and then send you advertising email accordingly.
Take a deep breath. Use those anti-virus programs regularly and your computer will run smoother. Also remember to update those programs regularly too. There are many viruses and little spy-bits that are created every day. So every time you update that program you will catch and destroy the new virus' and bits that may have been released. I have the freeware on my computer and it works fine. Run those programs at least once a week to clean your computer. I actually have 4 or 5 of them and each one seems to catch a different 'critter' hiding in my computer. Don't panic, and have fun with your new-found internet.

Answer 4

It's fair enough to be dubious, tho' I doubt if any answers you've been given would prove harmful. Spybot S&D, for instance is not in the slightest harmful, quite the opposite.

Maybe you've heard of the magazine PC World? Have a look at it's online version at www.pcworld.com. (NOT the same as pcworld.co.uk, which is the retail store). In the "downloads" section you'll see stuff about many of the programs that have probably been recommended to you.

You really must have a good anti-virus program, a good firewall & a good anti-adware/malware/spyware program. I won't give any names this time, but let you make your own mind up.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Hmm, anti virus/antispyware whether free or not, are designed to keep your PC up and running, not destroy them, there is however viruses etc out there that can cause a lot of damage to your PC, as these types of viruses etc were specifically wrote to do just that, so being on the Internet without such protection is not advisable at all, also a good fire wall as well as keeping your PC up to date from Microsoft is the advice I would give you, a good free anti virus is AVG free download from their site, a good free firewall, is Zone alarm, download from their web site, and a good antispyware is what you have mentioned, Spy bot search and destroy, again down loadable, I use all of these and had no trouble with any of them, hope this puts your mind at rest.

Answer 6

Hi backman, if i understood you correctly you want to know if running an anti virus along with an anti spyware program would cause problems? I think that you would be safe with that combination. If you run in to technical issues, you could be having something else occurring. In most instances it is a resource issue. Meaning that a service, or a startup application could be causing the computer to run slowly. It sounds difficult, but it is not hard to remedy those kind of issues at all. I would search for articles to keep regular maintenance on your computer. I think this would be your best choice to learn about it. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/default.mspx

Good luck.

Answer 7

You are absolutely right to be suspicious of some answers. Computer security is absolutely vital and I'm not trying to scare you. You say you are an absolute novice, well we all were once. Can I make a suggestion, on the Internet you do not really know who is advising you. We have all had e-mails saying we have won £5000 or someone in Nigeria wants to send us some cash, Yeah right. Get yourself a copy of Computeractive magazine, it's out fortnightly and I think it's still only £1.50. It's aimed at beginners and explained in simple detail, buy it for a few months and you will be a lot more clued up on what is what. They have a web site which is pretty good too. Good Luck and welcome to the net.

Answer 8

Generally the free antivirus programs are pretty decent, you really should have a firewall on your system as well as the antivirus/spyware programs. If your that new to the pc, you may just want to get a program from Symantec that has all the above and is a little easier to work with.

Answer 9

Two of the best programs out there to protect your PC are AVG (anti-virus) and Kerio (personal firewall). Both have free versions. And a recent report puts the free products very close to the paid for stuff.

Answer 10

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