OT HEEEELP MY @#*%& COMPUTER IS *$&%%&

[Fyron]

Rathar said:
Try trendmicro.com, they have a very handy Online virus scanner that catches a bunch of other crap and after that your standard anti-spyware doodad tends to strip the rest.
Using two anti-spyware programs is a good idea as previously suggested!

If Trend Micro's scanner misses stuff, why bother with it? Just use the best anti-spyware programs right off the bat and save yourself the trouble...

[Rathar]

Well, trendmicro is mainly anti-viral but it catches a surprising number of other stuff! I am basically suggesting that you attack the pesky thing from as many angles as you can.

[Instar]

Imperator Fyron said:

Yes, you most certainly do need to ditch IE. Even the IE of XP SP2 is nowhere near sufficient. It is still garbage.

Further, Windows XP is no upgrade over older Versions of Windows (expcept win95 or winME...). Do not waste your money on it. Find a copy of Windows 2000 instead, and save yourself the bloat of XP...

I don't know what part of XP is bloat. Sure, the UI has a lot of frills that really aren't needed, but overall, for me, the experience is better. The differences between XP and 2000 can be really minor at points (same 32bit codebase and all), but there are enough that make me like XP a smidgen more.
I'm still using IE, and I feel very secure doing so. Using DropMyRights and SP2 features, I consider myself as secure as any other browser. The biggest issue with IE is that it runs as the user, that is, if the user is running as admin, so is IE; it assumes the admin knows what he's doing.

[AgentZero]

Which can be a dangerous thing sometimes. In terms of UI though I'd seriously recommed you download Blackbox for Windows http://www.bb4win.com . It's just so much more streamlined than anything I've seen Microsoft come up with. For example, when I right click on empty desktop in Blackbox, I get a menu (that I customized myself) that starts out with Programs (Start-> Programs), next on the list is Desktop (where I can acess any program that has a desktop icon), then a series of menus organized into Art (for Art programs, duh), Games, Internet, etc. I find it's just way handier than the Windows UI, and when I have to Windows at work I constantly find myself wanting to bash the keyboard in fustration over how much more cumbersome the interface is.

[Baron Munchausen]

Hmmm....

How does this compare to LiteStep? I've been thinkng of trying LiteStep for some time but never got around to actually installing it. Now I find there is a choice in replacement shells for Windows. The fact that BlackBox is hosted on Sourceforge gives it a good recomendation, though...

[Aiken]

I used Litestep several years ago, and now use a bb4win fork called bbLean. Well, I found LS is a way too geekish. It requires quite a lot of time to tune it up and grasp the config files. And the main problem is that each theme utilizes its own set of plugins (typically) so you will have to configure it again and again if you change themes frequently. bb4win is free of this problem, because its theme is actually a color scheme. With LS you can create a feature-rich enviroment (huge amount of plugins) with as many bells and whistles as you wish. bb4win has less plugins and wherefore functionality, and targeted to create a minimalistic enviroment, which is still comfortable and easy to use.
LS is much more powefull undoubtly, because it can simulate blackbox easily (but bb4win can't simulate LS) but also consumes much more resources (21 Mb for LS against 2,5 Mb for bb4win on my system).
I'd suggest you to try both, because the approach is quite different.

[Raging Deadstar]

There is a lot of overkill when it comes to security. Much of it can be avoided by common sense.

I'm Running Windows XP, Service Pack 1 (I refuse to install SP2, I'll wait a few months before installing anything with that's reputation)
Mozilla Firefox 1.0.
Trend MicroInternet Security. (Virus Scanner+Firewall)
Spybot Search and Destroy.

That's it. I check my e-mail Online via hotmail, and with Firefox nothing gets past. Half the time I'm unsure if i have an Active Firewall, and I virus scan once a month...Rarely get anything. Maybe I'm lucky, or Maybe it's just common sense on how to avoid this kind of stuff by the sites you visit and the people you talk to.

[Atrocities]

SP 2 is awsome..... I have had no pr

***SYSTEM ERROR***

[David E. Gervais]

SP2 does not like my system. I have tried installing it 3 times, and each time, once installed it freezes on bootup. I have waited as much as 30 mins to see if it is just doing a bunch of micromanagement or sys file updates. but no way. I have to physically shut down the computer and then when I boot it says there was an error. I boot in safe mode and manage to get into windows. then I simply say 'reboot' and it boots fine. it locks up only when a cold boot is attempted. (I find it very strange that it likes rebooting from safe mode but fails on a cold boot.)

Oh well, it's not the end of the world, I too have SP1 installed and all the critical updates. My system runs fine.

nuf said, Cheers!

[kerensky]

Reading all you guys have said about using IE, I'm sarting to wonder if my pc is an exception. We use IE/Netscape and have had no problems on either our 2k pro or xp pro computers. We also have norton antivirus/internet security pro, which generates it's own firewall. Plus our dsl router has its own firewall....