What products are required to fully protect my computer?

[octothorp]

I have been using several different antivirus programs such as AVG and Avast. None seem to have been able to remove problems like the free version of your software that I tried. It worked beautifully. My question is which of your products should I purchase for complete protection? Shoulds I use your prtoducts in conjuction with any others? Please advise as I'm certain others are probably interested in the same information. I plan to purchase based upon your response.

Also, are there anual fees associated with purchased products? Can a purchase product be used on your laptop and desktop or are seperate versions required to be purchased?

[JeanInMontana]

Hi octohorp and welcome to Malwarebytes. You need a layered protection for the safest surfing on the www. Some paid versions of programs are life time others are not. You need to read the license agreements for the programs to see if it may be used on more than one machine. MBAM is lifetime. You need an antivirus program in addition to it. AVG and Avast are both antivirus but should not be used as active programs at once. I would choose Avast over AVG any day.

All recommended programs are free and easy on system resources. You should install them as part of your protection arsenal. You will also need at least one other scanning program Asquared or SuperAntiSpyware are good and there are several other excellent programs with free and paid versions. Read the overviews of what each program below does so you have an understanding of their importance and how to use.

A firewall and antivirus are also essential. The Windows firewall in XP and Vista is not sufficient.

Preform Windows Updates monthly on the second Tuesday or use automatic updates, and use your scanners weekly at the least. Always update before you scan.

Keep other software known for vulnerabilities updated also. Use the Secunia Inspector free scan to identify risks in outdated versions.

MBAM

Spybot Search & Destroy Be sure to use the immunize feature.

SpywareBlaster from Javacool Software

WinPatrol by BillPStudios

SiteHound by FireTrust

RogueRemover

hpHosts

The windows firewall is not sufficient to protect. It doesn't monitor outgoing traffic and this is a must. I use and recommend Online Armor Free

Also the full protection of MBAM is offered at a very low price For life in my signature.

[elero]

What about an anti-rootkit tool?

[Tarnak]

What about an anti-rootkit tool?

I have tried this - "A new rootkit detector - currently in beta." , on XP Pro ......."RootRepeal - Rootkit Detector" - http://rootrepeal.googlepages.com/

Seems stable enough, on my system at least.

[elero]

I'm using F-Secure Blacklight now, nice tool which is easy to use