Malware/ Adware and Viruses Oh My - A Malicious Software Protection Review

Even Dr Mario had Malware!

Wanted to do a short and sweet post to put down the results of some computer maintenance I did this morning. In my efforts to get some new plugins for my Winamp lastnight I am pretty sure I downloaded some malicious tag-alongs. Well this morning there was signs they didn't exactly leave so I proceeded to do a full malicious software scan. Here I want to list my 3 Anti-Virus/ Spyware softwares that I use as a 1st, 2nd and 3rd level of defense. One is good for your very very basic measily monitoring. If somethings blatantly obvious and aka I already know about it chances are, this one will find it.

Microsoft Security Essentials - this little bundle of joy is that one. Its mostly useless. And I'll demonstrate why in the next two I go over. It sits there, happy and green in your tray, with a little check mark. And unless it's been several days of not being connected to the internet it stays that way. But if you haven't updated or haven't been on the internet in several days, it can sour to yellow with an exclamation and red with an x pretty darn quick. This tempermental little bastard also is the most unsecure real-time malicious software security I've ever seen. Everytime I suspect I have something on my computer, I do a scan and low-and-behold it says 'YOUR GOOD TO GO, NOTHING FOUND, HOORAH!' I consider this the first level of security on my ol' EWG hub here. It will find popular or obvious stuff, and once or twice it has sniffed out and quarantined a trojan or something without ever telling me.  I just happen to check the history one time and like 'oh... when did that happen? thanks for telling me?' The second level of my 'triad of malicious software protection' is next.


Malware Bytes - Simply, it's the best middle ground between the two. The freeware is constantly updated with new malicious software libraries and it does a DARN good job. I'm pretty sure it finds stuff that isn't a danger at all and gets it out too. NO TOLERANCE FOR SHIFTY FILES MAN! But in all honesty its not high-performance. It really doesn't scrutinize and go that extra mile. It's a great second level and does what I expected MSE to do. A great thing about this is after the scan it will list everything it found and actualy has an understandable description of each one. This is nice. So, can learn about these harmful files if I want but usualy 'SELECT ALL' 'REMOOOVE'. The third is the best out of all three it is relentless in digging deep into system files and grabbing that nasty tick of malicious softwareness with a tight grip on the tweezers and ripping it from my poor poor computer.

Spybot Search and Destroy - Straight up the best. Offers recovery if you got rid of something you shouldn't have, immunizes browser and key internet related files and system files, is updated daily by like dozens of independent data sources international style and is thorough, thorough, thorough. My ONLY gripe is that it takes the longest to run a scan. There's no 'quick scan' or 'full scan' there's just 'SEARCH AND DESTROY'. But I take the taking longer than other programs as, it's being damn thorough. This one will categorize as Malware, as Adware as Spyware as Trojans and has daily updated libraries. Way more often than the other two. It found stuff the other two did not!

As a final comparison and in closing, Spybot is the best, but heavy, heavy duty. If you want a quick scan, use Malware Bytes it'll find near everything, but NOT everything in my opinion. Microsofts 'Essentials' is a nice little happy green thing to have running in the tray but is super light weight. I spare it from DERESSING only because I figure it's a good first line of defense for the simple stuff and will catch real-time stuff as I browse (maybe?..didnt last night actualy). To put it another way, here is this mornings results that prompted this article and I think it'll make my point in one nice final way. First, I ran Microsoft Security Essentials: Found no threats on my computer. (Are you kidding?). Second, I ran Malware Bytes, it found 46 malicious files on my computer. All of them were listed as ads/ business/ tracking cookies etc but nothing else or bigger. Third, I ran Spyware Search and Destroy - found a TROJAN and 4 more adware/ malware files.

In closing, thank you Spyware, for getting that SOB off my computer. To the other two, work harder boys.