[JuZ]

I wonder if anyone more tech-savvy than I (read "anyone", basically) could help me out.

I seem to have a nasty virus on my PC that my existing antivirus software hasn't eradicated. Firefox has become highly unstable, my taskbar keeps disappearing and XP is generally running very slowly, if at all.

I've switched to AVG Free Edition and it's found a worm, so hopefully killing that will be the end of my problems. But if not, does anyone have any recommendations for free antiviral software I could try?

Thanks in advance.

AVG is wicked. I use spybot: search and destroy and Ad-Aware as well. Try them out. You'll probably have to run them all repeatedly until the stuff goes away.

[JuZ]

Thanks mate.

Luckily AVG does appear to be the shit... it killed the worm and that seems to have been the source of the problems I was having. Hooray!

(The worm was associated with an Ubisoft game, downloaded from Fileplanet. It was a free version of Shadowbane. I'll therefore be boycotting Fileplanet and Ubisoft for some time)

Symantec (They make the Norton AntiVirus software) have a free online virusscanner here in case of emergeancy. Windows XP/Vista and Internet Explorer 6/7 required.

[JuZ]

Thanks Biert.

On a slightly related note, there's a bundle of software called Google Pack, which now contains anti-spyware and virus-detection software. Might be interesting for those who could do with a bunch of useful applications:

Google Pack consists of:

- Firefox with Google Toolbar (kick-ass internet-browser)
- Norton Security Scan (detects malware, but can't delete it)
- Spyware Doctor (prevents spyware)
- Adobe Reader (PDF reader)
- Google Desktop (search and info-utility)
- Google Earth (earth browser)
- Google Photo Screensaver (screensaver)
- Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
- Picasa (picture organizer)
- Skype (internet-telephony) - optional
- RealPlayer (multimedia player and total crap IMO) - optional
- Google Talk (instant messaging for Gmail users) - optional
- GalleryPlayer (high-res images) - optional
- Google Video Player (play videos from Google Video)

http://pack.google.com/

Don't ignore Ubisoft. FarCry rules.

[JuZ]

I might be interested in their stuff in the future if they guarantee not to screw up my computer!