I highly recommend these with any anti-virus, with the exception of possibly zonealarm firewall running along side Avast anti-virus.
Here are some preventive measures you can take to keep your computer from getting infected again. also keep all these and
Ad-awareSE and
SpybotS&D updated.
SpyBotS&D
AdawareSE
RegProtect
This small registry protection tool will save you hours of heartache by notifying you when some program good or bad is trying to access your registry.
You have the option of allowing(good) items or blocking(bad)items.
http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=regprot
To reduce the re-infection potential for malware and protect yourself against spyware, here are a few helpful suggestions:
1. Keep Windows and Internet Explorer current with the
latest critical security updates from Microsoft. This will patch many of the security holes through which attackers can gain access to your computer. You
CANNOT complete this update using an alternate browser.
http://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.co....aspx?ln=en-us
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
2. Run your antivirus software regularly, and to keep its definitions up-to-date. If you are thinking about switching, there are a some good free Antivirus programs that are decent, including AVG and Avast!.
AVG: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
Avast: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
3. In addtion to using Ad-aware consider using another free malware scanning/removal program:
MS Antispyware beta: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx
4. Consider using an alternate free browser for general web surfing but you must use IE for windows update.
Mozilla Firefox: www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
5. Consider increasing your browser security by using these programs:
SpywareGuard will protect your homepage from being hijacked:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareguard.html
SpywareBlaster will increase browser protection by blocking
Thousands of known malware sites by adding them to IE's restricted sites zone. Download it here:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
If you use
SpywareBlaster, you can also use a customblocklist to add even more entries into IE restricted sites zone. Go to this site for the current list and how to use instructions:
http://customblockinglist.cjb.net/
IE-SPYAD is similar in that it adds thousands more known malware sites to IE's restricted zone. Download it here:
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/resource.htm
*Remember just like your primary anti-virus software, it is important to keep all of these programs up-to-date and use them on a regular basis.
It's Free