Just some more random stuff

I recently got Painkiller running on my PC again. Painkiller is a wonderful first person shooter game, a throwback to the old Quake 1 days. It is also an excellent PC stability test, as it reveals several quirks with your RAM timings which other games and even memory tests would not otherwise reveal.

I've also been playing Titan Quest; and thats a better game than many I've seen in recent days. It is a nice adventure game; but it gets frustrating at times. Graphics are beautiful, environments are well rendered. Ancient Greece at its best :-)

Next thing is about viruses. It seems a lot of computers around my area are getting infected with malware due to outdated Antimalware protection. Since piracy and costs are such a big issue I do not expect people to buy Antivirus software legally, of course its their choice :-). Nearly all USB drives I get from outside my home have some trojans lodged in them.

If you ever suspect you may be having a virus/trojan/worm/whatever, I would recommend trying out the following free tools to try and clean your computer:

Dr.Web CureIT (http://www.freedrweb.com)
ArcaBit ArcaMicroScan (http://www.arcabit.com/download_product.html?product=ArcaMicroScan)
MicroWorld MWAV toolkit (http://www.mwti.net/products/mwav/mwav.asp)

Dr.Web CureIT and MicroWorld MWAV are not autoupdating - i.e. if you want to update it you must re-download the scanner.

ArcaBit ArcaMicroScan and BitDefender Free Edition (http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-Free-Edition.html) are some tools which have an inbuilt updater; which means you can update the program from the user interface itself instead of downloading the latest version like in the case of the previously mentioned 2 products.

Please note that the above products are on-demand scan tools only, they do not have a real-time monitor that is constantly on check for what is happening on your PC. I recommend running weekly scans with the above tools, whichever one you choose.

If you want a totally free Antivirus which includes a real-time system monitor that constantly checks whats happening on your PC, I would recommend any of the following products:

AVG Free edition + Spyware Terminator
Avast Home Edition
Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic + Spyware Terminator

In addition to an Anti-Virus I recommend an Anti-Rootkit scanner. It is absolutely essential because your PC may already be infected and AV solutions currently do not provide adequate protection against already running rootkits.

I recommend the following tools:

F-Secure BlackLight (click to download)
AVG Anti-Rootkit

There are others available but these two are OK and do not confuse the user too much. :-)

Well, thats it for now. Hopefully I have some better news next time......:D