Antivirus apps

You must not rely solely on one antivirus application; nor should you rely entirely upon antivirus software to protect you.

Several times, I have had to chase a virus around my computer, uncovering scripts, tasks in Task Scheduler, the Registry, fake driver entries, and powershell & cmd processes.

Even after all that, and using Windows Security (which detected virus files and quarantined them!), Kaspersky still managed to find more malicious code hiding in the RAM.

• Kaspersky Antivirus — you can get a free 30-day trial with each new account. You can make unlimited new accounts by using email aliases. For Gmail, do this by simply adding a + after your email username, and whatever letters you like. E.g. [e-mail], then after 30 days, [e-mail], etc.

  • Kaspersky is the best AV I've found so far. It actually scans the whole system deeply, INCLUDING scanning the RAM for malicious code: many viruses are programmed to hide themselves in the RAM, making it impossible for you to delete them — they will always return after a reboot.

• Windows Security isn't too bad these days, it finds most malicious code. You should still use Kaspersky occasionally, and especially if you are suspicious.

• MalwareBytes seems to be good too. Check it out.

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Quick Antivirus Setup Guide

Learn more about viruses and antivirus software on 📄Antivirus apps.

This is the same information as found on the Quick Setup Guides page.

1

Choose an antivirus application.

I recommend Kaspersky and MalwareBytes.

I mainly recommend Kaspersky, but you need to keep creating a new account every 30 days, or you can just pay for it.

Windows Security does a decent job too, but it isn't perfect. Use it alongside another app.

• Download 🌐Kaspersky FREE TRIAL[^1] — (compare their plans)

• Download 🌐MalwareBytes

Register for a Kaspersky account if you choose that. I do recommend it because it's the only antivirus app that managed to find the ransomware malware hiding in my RAM.

2

Install the antivirus software.

Kaspersky has a more-involved setup procedure because you have to sign in to your account.

3

Run the antivirus scans.

Most antivirus apps have a "quick scan" and a "full scan".

You should run both.

Start with the "quick scan" because that will scan the most likely locations that a virus is hanging out, and it will find it quickly if it is there.

Then run a "full scan". This will scan everything but it will take ages.

4

Windows Security — double check it

If you are using Windows, go into your Windows Security application.

Double check your scan settings — one virus that I recently had had set Windows Security's antivirus scanning to exclude the entire system C: drive from its scans! The virus was able to go undetected because of this.

Your Exclusions list MUST look like this:

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