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Hey everyone!

Lots to say on this topic since you’ve all covered a bunch of interesting approaches. Firstly, though, it needs to be noted that Avira was recently going through problems with their update servers for the freeware version, that got particularly annoying in the past 2 months (Oct. & Nov.), but appears to have been fixed. This software has become the top download for anti-virus utilities, as evidenced by all the major software download sites, and this popularity may have exceeded the company’s ability to satisfy the demand for the constantly evolving definition updates that make this so useful and valuable in the first place. Every computer that I work on gets this installed, set to update and scan on regular schedules – which is a welcome, though unusual, feature of any freeware, let alone one of this stature, and a necessary one, as most users won’t ever bother to do either on their own. This program also has a configurable “active shield”, but for the most part the defaults are way adequate. Anyway, when unable to connect to the update servers, all sorts of problems occur, not the least of which were the annoying pop-ups telling you that your version was out-of-date (duh-ya think?!?), and I kept thinking I had a corrupt install. So I ran the installer again from a fresh download (I use filehippo.com for the absolute latest versions available) and selected the “repair” option. Same result, which meant a different issue, confirmed as an update one when unable to update any of my other machines. Finally found the answer where I should’ve looked first: Gizmo’s Best Freeware [The founder of this is now an editor at WindowsSecrets, the new home for most of us followers, who also still maintain a fierce loyalty to the original freeware concept.]

Click the link above to get to the home page, then click the “Security” tab in the middle column. On the next page, click “Best Free Anti-Virus Software” and read through the excellent analysis, paying close attention to the links provided in the section on Avira Antivir. One of these takes you to a page that explains how to get around update problems by going to a SoftPedia site for a definition update file that you manually install. Another link takes you to a site where you learn how to disable the pop-up ad page that tries to sell you the paid version – an understandable annoyance, but one you don’t have to continually endure.

After reading that information, you may decide to try a different antivirus utility, but my experiences with Avira compel me to recommend it above any of the others mentioned, and even a few commercial ones to remain nameless.

But I wanted to also comment on other things that previous posts brought up:

[*]RevoUninstaller: When using this powerful tool, the software uninstaller that’s built into the one you’re trying to remove will usually tell you that you need to restart the computer to complete the uninstall – ignore this! and choose the option to restart later! If you don’t, you lose the use of Revo’s registry and file removal, which is why you employ this tool in the first place! Then you can reboot.
If you messed this up, or there are still files remaining, you’ll need to re-install whatever you just got rid of, and take a “do-over” with Revo in its strongest removal option (as you already discovered). Some stuff might still be left behind, but will mostly be insignificant and benign and therefore safely ignored; the exceptions are mostly nasty installs I hope you’ll never encounter!

[*]Unlocker: Outstanding utility. You don’t need it to start with Windows for it to be available in the right-click menu options, so turn it off with either StartupCPL or WinPatrol (don’t have either? For shame! Get them both…) Not an awful lot that can’t be deleted with this, so you do need to be a bit cautious…

By the way, running Avira along with SuperAntiSpyware is fine; there may be some overlap in coverage but only if you’re using the paid version of the latter, as the spyware shield is only available with the commercial product. Keeping it as a scanner to be run occasionally is a great idea, and here also you don’t need it to start with Windows (unless you got the paid version) so uncheck that option under the “preferences” tab. I also use Malwarebytes in the same manner and rotate which one I scan with, and between the “Quick” and “Complete” choices in each one.

You can find more details about all of this on Gizmo’s website, if you need to; but definitely bookmark it for future reference…

Hope you got something out of all my “random ramblings”.