Expert: Lorry - 8/16/2007

Question
QUESTION: I just bought and installed a new graphics card and it came with a coupon to buy System Mechanic 7. Is this program any good?

ANSWER: Hi Scott,

Personally, I can't see spending money when I can get the same thing for free. Regarding spyware:

I would suggest downloading Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.4, a program that removes spyware, available from:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22262,00.asp

Check for updates before running. If you have trouble getting the updates, near the top of the Update Window, click the little arrow next See-Cure  #1(Europe), highlight the next one on the list, See-Cure #2 and try to download the updates. If that doesn't work, try the next one the list. until you get one you can download from. Being a free program, if too many people are using the same site to download the updates, some people will not get them.

Once installed, enable Tea Timer. Open the Spybot Search & Destroy, click Mode, Advanced, click  the "+" sign next to Tools on the left side of the screen, click Resident, check Resident Tea Timer.

The Resident TeaTimer is a new tool of Spybot-S&D which perpetually monitors the processes called/initiated. It immediately detects known malicious processes wanting to start and terminates them giving you some options, how to deal with this process in the future.

For a Registry cleaner, use RegClean:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,4666-order,1-page,1-c,systemresourcest

Make sure you have an antivirus program installed, update it once a week and then run a virus scan.

You can check out System Mechanic at:

http://www.iolo.com/sm/7/

Hope this helps!
Lorry

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Lorry, thanks for the quick reply. That's another question. Is the free programs as good as the bought ones? I have the free AVG and Ad-Aware installed. Which seems to do a good job. But I had heard that the bought ones are better. But I just don't know. That's why I was wondering about the program I was asking you about. And as far as a registry cleaner, Microsoft told me to stay away from them. They said that they have a good chance of doing more harm then good. Is that true?  Thank You, Scott

Answer
Hi Scott,

AVG will keep viruses off the computer - as long as you keep it up to date. If by some chance it finds a virus during a scan, which should be done on a weekly basis, it will not remove it, but it will alert you to it and where it is. At that point, the best thing to do is to go to Google and do a search for the name of the virus, then you can find a site that will tell you how to remove it. A friend of mine has used AVG for years, so far she has only found one virus. At that point she ran the free scan from Symantec and then got their directions on how to remove it.

Assuming that you have Ad-Aware 2007, it's a good idea to also use Spybot. What one misses, the other catches. Check out Spybot at:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,22262-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/de

Personally, I use free programs whenever possible, okay, instead of automatically updating themselves - you have to do it, no big deal. I agree with Microsoft regarding System Mechanic 7, there are good, reliable and free registry cleaners available. When you download a free program, download it either from the home site, PC World, PC Mag, Tucows or another safe, well known site.

Going back to AVG for a minute, if you had Norton AntiVirus installed, it would remove the virus - usually. If not, it would take you to their site with the directions on how to. It would also automatically update itself and run scans whenever you program them.

Bleeping Computer explains ways to keep the computer safe at:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial82.html

Almost forgot, if you do not Windows Update set to automatically download the updates, you might want to do that. Go to Start, Control Panel, double click Security Center, then Automatic Updates, in the next window click Automatic, Every Day, a time when the computer is usually on-line, click Apply, then OK.

You should also have a firewall program installed, the free version of ZoneAlarm works better than the Windows XP firewall. Check it out at:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,7228-page,1/description.html

Hope this helps!
Lorry