[taxcontrol]

When you get a brand new computer:

1) go through the uninstall process and get rid of all of the junk

2) run a virus scan and remove any detected viruses (http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage)

3) run a malware scan and remove any detected (https://www.safer-networking.org/dl/)

4) run a registry cleaner (http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm)

5) defrag the hard drive (http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/)

6) take a snapshot of the remaining image (http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/backup.htm)

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

bkmk

[arbitrary.squid]

I have to work on computers with AVG all the time that have been infected. It used to be a really good free anti-virus, but it’s bloated and doesn’t catch as much.

I’m an IT professional and at home, I use the free version of Avast. For the last 10+ years, I’ve used no other antivirus at home, and despite traveling all over the sketchy areas of the internet and downloading terabytes of music, not a single virus or malware.

[UCANSEE2]

That reminds me. On WIN XP, you could do a BACKUP of the SYSTEM at any time, and RESTORE from it later if you ran into problems.

On WIN 7, you can do a BACKUP but you can ONLY do it to a DIFFERENT HARD DRIVE or OUT TO THE INTERNET (or a server).

Since I don’t have ANOTHER hard drive in my computer nor do I think you can even add one to it (internally), I can’t do a backup. THANK YOU SO MUCH, MICROSOFT.

So, If I want to do a backup, I will have to buy and add an external drive just for backups.

If I don’t, if some ‘install’ messes up my computer I cannot ‘undo’ things. This SUCKS.

[central_va]

When you get a new computer do a low level format and reinstall from CD-ROM.

[zeugma]

When you get a brand new computer:

1) go through the uninstall process and get rid of all of the junk

2) run a virus scan and remove any detected viruses (http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage)

3) run a malware scan and remove any detected (https://www.safer-networking.org/dl/)

4) run a registry cleaner (http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm)

5) defrag the hard drive (http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/)

6) take a snapshot of the remaining image (http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/backup.htm)

OR ....

1) Install Linux

That's what worked for me.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

2) run a virus scan and remove any detected viruses (http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage)

I would not recommend AVG. Not these days. Avast is so much better. Kaspersky ain't too bad either.

AVG SUX.