does antivirus software actually remove serious malware or just protect and is the the best course of action just to hire a windows certified tech this way the job gets done correctly?

Hello, for the antivirus, it depends of the used antivirus. To protect your self again viruses, spywares and malware programs, proceed like that: Use an antivirus like MSE Your internal firewall should be up and well configured Use a user account with the minimum of privileges and if you need administrative privileges, use run as an administrator option Use IE Avoid opening untrusted e-mails (I mean pieces in the untrusted e-mail) Never install untrusted progams Don't disable UAC ... This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner 2010 / 2011 Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator

THANKS A LOT FOR THE HEADS UP BUT IS IT SAFE TO TELL CUSTOMERS WHEN IM ASKED AT WORK THAT THE ONLY SAFE GUARANTEED METHOD OF REMOVING A SERIOUS MALWARE INFECTION IS HAVE TECH DO IT FOR YOU OR CAN HONESLTLY INSTRUCT THEM TO BUY ANTIVIRUS?I WAS UNDER IMPRESSION THAT THEY JUST PROTECT AND THE ONLY WAY TO REMOVE IS IF YOU DO IT YOURSELF OR HIRE A TECH IF YOU DONTnoal fine

Hello again, What I recommend in this case is using an antivirus like Symantec Endpoint in which you have an antivirus server from which you can configure the client computers anti-viruses. In this case, you have to install the client software of the anti-virus and the configuration is made from the anti-virus server software. Like that, you can schedule scans for each day so that viruses will be caught rapidly. Also, it will be better to tell employees what are the best practices to avoid infection. For the solution of the anti-virus that I had already provided, you can add an admin for the antivirus server. Note that if a computer is infected, you have to perform a full scan on disks to delete viruses / sypwares / malware programs and then perform a repair install of your OS. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner 2010 / 2011 Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Enterprise Administrator

does antivirus software actually remove serious malware or just protect and is the the best course of action just to hire a windows certified tech this way the job gets done correctly? Antivirus, firewall, antispam and other countermeasures are just that, countermeasures, they are there just to help trying to avoid pitfalls, you should never think at that as some kind of "total security devices", they're just some kind of helpers, like airbags or ABS, so the end user will still have to use brain; all in all, even if your car has ABS, airbags and so on, sleeping at the wheel isn't a good idea

On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:25:49 +0000, NYC AND LOS ANGELES DUDE wrote: does antivirus software actually remove serious malware or just protect It does both. But realize that no such program is perfect, and some infections get past all of them. and is the the best course of action just to hire  a windows certified tech this way the job gets done correctly? Under what circumstances would you hire him? I would recommend doing that only if you were using excellent anti-virus and anti-spyware software (they are far from being equally good, and unfortunately some of the most popular--Norton and McAfee--is the poorest), and they failed at removing an infection. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:47:55 +0000, NYC AND LOS ANGELES DUDE wrote: THANKS A LOT FOR THE HEADS UP BUT IS IT SAFE TO TELL CUSTOMERS WHEN IM ASKED AT WORK THAT THE ONLY SAFE GUARANTEED METHOD OF REMOVING A SERIOUS MALWARE INFECTION IS HAVE TECH DO IT FOR YOU OR CAN  HONESLTLY INSTRUCT THEM TO BUY ANTIVIRUS?I WAS UNDER IMPRESSION THAT THEY JUST PROTECT AND THE ONLY WAY TO REMOVE IS IF YOU DO IT YOURSELF OR HIRE A TECH IF YOU DONT Ouch! Please don't yell at us. We can hear you if you type normally, in mixed case. I would instruct them to buy good software. It does remove infections, not just protect against them. Hiring a tech is extreme overkill in most situations. For an anti-virus program, I recommend eSet NOD32, if you are willing to pay for it. If you want a free anti-virus, I recommend one (do not run more than one) of the following three:   Avira AntiVir Avast Microsoft Security Essentials   You also need anti-spyware software (even if you run a program like Microsoft Security Essentials, with anti-spyware capability built into it). I recommend that you download and install (freeware) MalwareBytes AntiMalware Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

In message <00578ae2-6f6c-4a00-a8ab-29d3e7cf10fa@communitybridge.codeplex.com> someone claiming to be NYC AND LOS ANGELES DUDE typed: THANKS A LOT FOR THE HEADS UP BUT IS IT SAFE TO TELL CUSTOMERS WHEN IM ASKED AT WORK THAT THE ONLY SAFE GUARANTEED METHOD OF REMOVING A SERIOUS MALWARE INFECTION IS HAVE TECH DO IT FOR YOU OR CAN  HONESLTLY INSTRUCT THEM TO BUY ANTIVIRUS?I WAS UNDER IMPRESSION THAT THEY JUST PROTECT AND THE ONLY WAY TO REMOVE IS IF YOU DO IT YOURSELF OR HIRE A TECH IF YOU DONT The only way to know that a virus is removed is to format either restore from a known-good backup (predating the infection) or reinstall Windows from scratch. Once a system is compromised, it's being operated by the virus and should be treated as such even if the virus allows the user to continue using the system. You don't know what the virus did, whether or it was completely removed or just the obvious pieces being removed while some component dug down deep into the system and is waiting to reactivate in the future. You don't know what other configuration changes it made to make future infections more likely, or to make it easier to steal data in the future. Even if you remove every trace of the virus code itself, what if it installed a new certificate authority (and therefore can now impersonate any SSL encrypted site it wants?)

On Sun, 17 Jul 2011 05:47:44 +0000, Dave J Warren wrote: In message <00578ae2-6f6c-4a00-a8ab-29d3e7cf10fa@communitybridge.codeplex.com> someone claiming to be NYC AND LOS ANGELES DUDE typed: THANKS A LOT FOR THE HEADS UP BUT IS IT SAFE TO TELL CUSTOMERS WHEN IM ASKED AT WORK THAT THE ONLY SAFE GUARANTEED METHOD OF REMOVING A SERIOUS MALWARE INFECTION IS HAVE TECH DO IT FOR YOU OR CAN  HONESLTLY INSTRUCT THEM TO BUY ANTIVIRUS?I WAS UNDER IMPRESSION THAT THEY JUST PROTECT AND THE ONLY WAY TO REMOVE IS IF YOU DO IT YOURSELF OR HIRE A TECH IF YOU DONT The only way to know that a virus is removed is to format either restore from a known-good backup (predating the infection) or reinstall Windows from scratch. You are absolutely right. The only way to be 100% sure that it's gone is to do as you say. However, for the great majority of viruses, removing it with a good anti-virus program will provide 99% (or better) certainty. And since that's by far the easier way to remove it, it's usually good enough for most of us. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP