The best free security setup

Just ensure that all your data is safe (i.e. backed up applying the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) principle), get a good imaging app (verify your images and practice restoring to a second/empty HDD and to the primary HDD), get a pen and paper to write your plans and you're good to go

Junctions and Symbolic Links are another possibility for the task of moving data folders.

 

This is what I'd do too, provided you don't often change program settings or install new programs (or are willing to tolerate the Returnil reboot required to turn off protection while you make changes you want to make permanent to your system partition). You shouldn't have to start over from scratch to do this.

The Returnil banner can be turned off.

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows has a free imaging program called DriveImage XML. Or you can download it separately. Not a speed demon but works.

ThreatFire is a "quiet" program and thus fits your requirements.

Consider Mozy for free online backup of your documents.

 

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

Thanks MrBrian, that's all good to know. DriveImage XML sounds useful for me because I want to image a laptop harddrive, so there's no second hdd to copy te image to. Carrying out the whole process in Windows will do the trick.

I have a new HDD for my laptop which I want to install, so a fresh install and set up seems like a good idea....

Hopefully this thread constitutes the "thinking longer about it first".

I've edited the OP to reflect my intended plan.

 

Hi, have a look at www av-comparatives org ... after this you might want to reconsider your choice of AV

I have been using AVG for years on several computers and never had a problem.. its very low on memory and also provides a free mail scanner.. However, Avira's detection rate is said to be so much better that I recently switched.

Online Armor seems to be one of the best firewalls overall (par with Comodo) both are much better than most commercial personal firewalls.

Personally I would say running a sandboxed browser on a virtual system (i.e. using Sandboxie while running Returnil) is kind of overkill

However, if web browsing in a non virtual environment it would help to have something that monitors system files+registry for unauthorized modifications... Spyware terminator does this in realtime (switch everything off except for file/registry monitoring) Win Patrol does not have a real time shield but can be set up to monitor files every few minutes. Since running several realtime security application concurrently might cause problems Win Patrol might be a good choice...

Cheers

 

Thanks PlanB, I'm always willing to listen to good suggestions.

This is why I like it, but I'm a bit concerned about version 8 - It sounds like it might prove problematic.

I'm happy with the job AVG does and I've read that Avira is quite noisy, and also has to be re-registered from time to time, which sounds like a hassle. How does it compare to AVG in terms of how much attention it demands?

 

Ok. Here it goes,

Vista FW/XP FW
AntiVir Personal 8.0
Threatfire 3.5
Geswall 2.7.1 Free
Ccleaner

I haven't found a really good free backup software. So I use Acronis TrueImage 11.0. Works on Vista and XP.

Al

 

Hi,

Avira's default settings is in fact a little "noisy", but you can switch the update process to invisible (you need to do this in AVG too) + from time to time it launches a notifier "avnotify.exe" displaying some ads - I switched this one off via software policy settings (secpol.msc, Software Restriction Policy)

There seems to be a "re-registration process" every 6 months, according to antivir the licence key will automaticall renew after 5 months, but who knows ;-)

Cheers