things that go boom in the night!

[cheesecake]

my system becomes infected with viruses and spyware once too often. so i run anti-malware tools at night. however, i am not able to find any way of confirming that the tool ran overnight succesfully and eradicated everything it found. is there any way to store that information somewhere so that i can review it in the morning.
i use windows scheduler to issue the anti-virus scans.

[Duki]

google AVG Free.

It has real time protection and when it scans it keeps the details up (i think). It's free and probably the best virus scan i've used.

[knsljo]

my system becomes infected with viruses and spyware once too often. so i run anti-malware tools at night. however, i am not able to find any way of confirming that the tool ran overnight succesfully and eradicated everything it found. is there any way to store that information somewhere so that i can review it in the morning.
i use windows scheduler to issue the anti-virus scans.

Your antivirus should create a log file of your most recent scans, most do. the same with spyware removal software just find the log file and that will give you what you want. some AV's can be configured to log just infections so you don't have to go through the whole log.:-|

Forget AVG free its not thourough enough pay for a decent full version like nod32 or escan. Its not worth skimping when it comes to antivirus. If you are on a limited budget use free AVAST in is far superior to AVG. If the computer is used in a business you are also breaking the law. Any of the free AV's are licenced for non-commercial use only. Including AVG & Avast.

[Duki]

We actually bought a volume license for AVG here where I work. It's almost the exact same as the free version... So either the free version is really good or..............

But you're the first person I've ran into that doesn't like AVG :surprised

[cheesecake]

hmmm.. that's interesting..
if i have to run scandisk / defrag every fortnight and schedule it to start _after_ the anti-virus scan completes _successfully_; how do i go about it? is there a way to get the logs from all the tools into one single place?

[knsljo]

hmmm.. that's interesting..
if i have to run scandisk / defrag every fortnight and schedule it to start _after_ the anti-virus scan completes _successfully_; how do i go about it? is there a way to get the logs from all the tools into one single place?

No you have to go to the log files for each program. You can't view logfiles for one program in another!;)

Also DUKI i have run into problems with AVG thats why i cannot recommend it. An anti virus should do what it is designed to do, if it doesn't and you have experience of it not working properly it would not be rifght to recommend it. You are in charge of a company's it so you have a lot more at stake. If i were you i might have a rethink. So far i would only recomend NOD32 or ESCAN. Word of advice though DO NOT use escan if you use P2P programs it will delete everything in your "incoming" or "shared" folders. It doesn't like those sort of programs.:confused:

[Duki]

heheh, i might give them a look. Thanks:)

[cheesecake]

i've heard about nod32 a lot. maybe i will give that a try. is there a way to serialize the two tasks (a/v scan / defrag)? sometimes people stay back late at night and they terminate the task. is there any way to avoid that?

[knsljo]

i've heard about nod32 a lot. maybe i will give that a try. is there a way to serialize the two tasks (a/v scan / defrag)? sometimes people stay back late at night and they terminate the task. is there any way to avoid that?

You can lock the pc so no one can log in except you this is how you do it:cheesy:

Manually locking your computer
There are three popular methods of manually locking your computer; choose whichever method is easiest for you or best serves your needs.

Method 1
You can use a key combination of the Windows logo key (it is typically located beside your Spacebar and has the flying Windows logo on it) and the l key (the letter l) to immediately lock your computer.

Method 2
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del. In Windows 2000 or XP, click Lock Computer. In Windows NT, click Lock Workstation.

Method 3
You can create a desktop shortcut that will lock your computer when you double-click it:

Right-click the desktop and select New, then Shortcut. This will open the Create Shortcut Wizard.

For the location of the item, type the following:
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Click Next.

Type an appropriate name for this shortcut and click Finish.
You will now have a shortcut on your desktop that will lock your computer when you double-click it.

Locking your computer through the screen saver
To set up your screen saver to automatically lock your computer, follow these directions:

Right-click the desktop and select Properties.

In the Display Properties window, select the Screen Saver tab.

From the drop-down list, select a screen saver file.

In the "Wait:" field, set the amount of time you want the screen saver to wait for activity before starting.

Check the Password protected or On resume, password protect box, and then click OK. From now on, when the screen saver comes on, your workstation will be locked.
However you choose to lock your computer, to unlock it, press Ctrl-Alt-Del. The Unlock Workstation or Unlock Computer window will appear. Enter the password for the username under which you're logged in.

Administrators for either the local computer or the domain can unlock a locked computer by entering their username and password at the login prompt. This will log the current user out, but will not log the administrator in. At this point, any user with login rights can log into the computer normally.

Note: If you are the local computer administrator, you need to log into the local computer rather than the domain. Also, by using the administrator login to unlock the workstation, you will erase all unsaved work.

If your domain username is in the Administrators group, then you can enter your domain name and domain password and select the proper domain from the drop-down list. You are not required to log into the local computer. This will also unlock the workstation and erase all unsaved work.

[cheesecake]

great idea! i just discovered that i can create a text file with all the commands in it and run the commands in one go. i was able to add the command to lock the computer (using method #3; c:\windows\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation). So now the system gets locked automatically and then it is followed by the anti-virus scan and the occasional defrag. Is there a similar program I can run to unlock; so that the system becomes available after the tasks are complete?

[knsljo]

You could try the same command but use unlock instead of lock. Then create a schedule for it to run after the virus scan is scheduled. Try it it's just a guess though.:rolleyes:

[cheesecake]

naah. that says:
Error in user32.dll; Missing Entry: UnLockWorkStation.
Just to be sure, I tried UnlockWorkStation as well