~BD~ <~BD~@nomail.afraid.com> wrote in
news:T8Cdnds2Ip5B0BvQnZ2dnUVZ8q6dnZ2d@bt.com:

> On 20/03/2011 17:43, thanatoid wrote:

<snip>

I should probably add that most malware, if it is the kind that
invades the registry, is usually very resistant to registry
cleaners and even manual attempts at eradication by experts.
Those things are written to take over your machine, sometimes to
the point of having to totally wipe the drive.

IOW, you sometimes have to restore a complete C image, or at the
very least restore the registry using DOS (if you can) - and
some malware will not even let you do that.

So if malware invasion is your main concern, I would recommend
the Agnitum Outpost firewall for XP and up, free. I still use
the 2002 version with my 98SElite system, this one came out
quite recently and has had a very positive response.

For AV I strongly recommend ESET NOD32 - just the virus scanner.
No need for the full suite. Their AV is the best, but I don't
know if their /firewall/ is - I /do/ know it is NOT free ;-)

t.