Windows Vista Definative protection in Vista (possible sticky)

[ngalbrai]

Recently bought a new laptop with Vista.

I was wondering what the common consensus is on protection as far as:
Viruses - have a Dell with McAfee for 15 months - how does this rate against the likes of Norton and AVG?
General system clogging sh1te - ran pcdecrapifier as soon as I got the new computer out of the box, having checked online for compatability and based on past reviews favour ccleaner for general registry cleaning, program removal and internet/otherwise temp file removal.
Ad ware - adaware, have seen various comments about this only being in beta testing at the moment and so not totally reliable for vista (?).
Spy ware - does adaware pick this up? Should I be using spybot?

In each of these cases I am open to suggestions to keep my new pride and joy running smoothly, perhaps a Vista specific sticky is in order to offer a broadly supported view of what to use to cover the fundamentals - any input on where I am going wrong gratefully accepted....????

Cheers,
Neil.

 

[muckshifter]

we have plenty of stickies on security

I use ...


Kaspersky Internet Security
Haute Secure
IE 7
a Nat Router
I occasionally run HJT once in a while
and I use me brains

... I stopped using Adaware & SBS&D long ago, even for XP

What does a "registry cleaner" do ?

 

[ngalbrai]

not entirely sure, finds unsused dlls and fixes stuff, always finds numerous faults and fixes them, gaping holes in my knowing what i am talking about now evident...

 

[ngalbrai]

ccleaner been recommended on here numerous times before?

 

[Adywebb]

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2871933.php