What's everyone using to remove mal ware?

Only if using CNET downloader. Always select the alternate direct download link, or go the author's website to download instead.

If you have used Cnet to download anything you need to check for PUP's.

Part of the price for "saving money" in purchasing a Windows computer is having to spend the time and money with malware software that would not be needed with an Apple computer running the Mac OS X operating system. No free lunch in other words.

I use Spyhunter and Reghunter and Comodo anti-virus and Malbytes and Webroot on our Windows computers and run SpyHunter and RegHunter on a daily basis. Spyhunter catches malware that Malbytes misses and vice versa.

The free version of Comodo is pretty good for anti-virus protection but it does nothing for malware.

Some programs like Google Chrome are notoriously bad at keeping out malware and accessing Facebook is an excellent way to add to your computer problems. Internet Explorer is now better than Firefox in this area which is quite a turnaround.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Will give a few of them a try.

Best and safest place, IMHO, to find utility software, both free and pay, is download.com, run by Cnet.com. There are user reviews of the various software you can check out also.

... and you don't need to have an Apple product to be safe on the web.

We use SuperAntiSpyware at home and work. The free version and the paid version.

NEVER download any of the toolbars, update apps, or anything of the sort.

Never go searching for "free" software / files. Searching for free apps for your tablets or smartphones will lead to, in many cases, websites loaded with bad stuff. You will not know it until it is too late.

NEVER EVER EVER click a link in an email from one of your contacts that contains only a link and their signature. This is always bad.

Probably the best way to avoid most, if not all, of the bad stuff on the internet... Use an iPad. The closed ecosystem keeps out the bad guys. If all you do is browse the internet and use email... an iPad or iPad mini is made for you. Over-priced, yes. But they are the "safest" way to be on-line.

IMHO and YMMV :-)

nothing

Yes, the free versions of things work pretty well and are an attempt to get you to like that company's product so you will spring for their paid version. The paid version is not necessarily better though.

I used the free version of BitDefender and it was an OK AV, seemed to do the job. BitDefender had a sale on their paid version, $29 for 3 computers for 1 year. I thought that seemed like a good deal so purchased it and installed it on 3 computers. The full version of BitDefender is the most obnoxious piece of software I have ever used. It's intrusive, constantly bugs you to add additional services, blocks execution of software it doesn't like (but doesn't tell you it is blocking it). I've already removed the BitDefender "virus" from one of my computers and will probably remove it from the other 2 two as well.

bcsdguy wrote:
Malware Bytes free version here, also.

I use free MB as well. I'll bet there are not many who pay for it, either.

So how do they make money?

SuperAntiSpyware Free. Have used it for years. Excellent!

I tried the paid version, was supposed to be a subscription for life, and supposed to transfer to new computers, but when we tried to transfer, never could get it to work, not even by consulting their tech. So I advise the Free version only.