Its a New Year

And I'm already falling down on my resolution to blog more this year.

So, let's get started.

The two biggest threats to your computer in 2009 I believe will be "WinAntivirus 2008/2009" and "Spyware Guard".
WinAntivirus has a shield icon that has the four Windows colors on it and pops up onto your desktop as soon as you turn on Windows. It will then look like it is scanning your hard drive and it will tell you that you have some number of dozens of infections and the only way to get rid of them is to buy WinAntivirus. If you do this, the makers of the virus will then charge your credit card account to its maximum limit.

WinAntivirus can be gotten rid of using anti-malware programs, but the best option is to have an effective anti-virus program already installed (and updated!).

Spyware Guard is relatively new, and harder to get rid of. It has a shield icon that is silver with a diagonal stripe. It does not pop up as you load the desktop; it waits until the user starts doing something and then pops up and says 'you are not protected; do you want to scan now?'. It will then scan and tell you to buy the program online, just like WinAntivirus, with the same end result.

I have found that Norton 2009 is the only program that successfully disninfects Spyware Guard from an infected computer.