Having to work with windows again for a little while. Have AVG free anti virus installed but the machine I am using if FULL of spyware and malware. What is the best free software to get rid of this stuff?

Spyhunter isn't free ($40), but it works very well.

http://www.enigmasoftware.com/products/spyhunter/

The best free solution I've found is the combination of Spybot and Malwarebytes

THANKS!!!!

That is a very good and safe to use combination. Have had one catch something the other missed. Sometimes it helps to run them a second time after clearing the bulk of the trash the first pass.

Malwarebites removed 269 infected files. Things running a lot better. I sure will be glad to get back to my Linux system! I forgot how good I had it.

Actually I've used the two mostly on other people's machines. I use Zone Alarm anti-virus and run Malwarebytes maybe monthly as part of normal maintenance. It never finds anything. Since malware signatures are known to all, any decent anti-virus suite PROPERLY CONFIGURED AND UPDATED should do the trick. (Default configuration is usually good, if overbearing with some products.)

Do you run it off the desktop or in safe mode?

I run it in normal mode. There may be times when you have to run it in safe mode but I've never seen it.

If you have Malwarebytes theres really no need for Spybot. Its pretty outdated and inefficient as a scanner. It was good at one point, and was decent competition for the old adaware se. Today its good for one thing, immunization. Spywareblaster does a better job of it though, but doesnt scan at all, just blacklists/blocks.

When I set up a computer it gets MSE, then I install Spyware blaster(manually update it once a month) then Malwarebytes. Always install Malwarebytes last, most times itll block Spywareblaster, Spybot, etc from blacklist/blocking certain holes. And of course, Adblock PLUS with whatever browser the customer uses. No one ever has an issue.

I haven't used Spybot for a very long time, but it normally found only "cookies" from sites I normally visited, so no issue there, anyway, and serious malware that I knew was hiding somewhere in the system escaped it altogether.

Myron

I use AVAST anti virus, updated for 19.95 from the free version no problems and it sometimes updates 2-3 times a day.

The only thing I dont like about Avast is it gives off more false positives than average. It does offer better protection than most though, and it does use less resources than the past. Pretty much the same with Avira. I stick with MSE because its free and very rare to get a false positive. Very light on resources also. Theres a million ways to skin a cat, but if you stick with proven products, most people will be fine with whatever they choose.

Is ComboFix still really good? it dug out a nasty bugger for me some years ago, haven't run it since. (NOT recommended for non-geeks, can mess up your system if you don't know what you're doing. Stick to Malwarebytes.)

My paid Norton run out a week ago. Yesterday i installed SuperAntiSpyWare free version. It removed 495 malware items and a lot of other items it said was dangerous. Cookies, registry and old files.

Not the greatest. Never really was. It worked, but still left bits behind. The average user can get by with Malwarebytes. If something locks out Malwarebytes, then theyre better off taking it to someone who knows. In those sort of cases, I still use Hirens Boot CD and boot up outside Windows, fix what I can. If I dont get it clean, I can at least get back into Windows and Malwarebytes and finish the job.

FWIW,

In the past I've had both Spyware Blaster and Spybot Search and Destroy installed at the same time. Since the main feature is passive blocking of malware there's no incompatibility issues. I've also run several different active anti-virus programs with no issues.

The one thing about both programs is since they're passive and they have no active detection feature (pop-up warnings) it's difficult to know if they do anything. If you keep them updated nothing ever loads and the scan feature in Spybot Search and Destroy will only detect the latest malware that wasn't previously blocked. It never detected anything new in all the years I used it but I've NEVER had an issue with malware either.

So far SUPERAntiSpy has worked better for me than any other free malware/spyware removal type programs I've tried. Run in safe mode it has caught and removed stuff from my PC in the past that Malwarebytes, MSE Windows Defender and AVG had all either completely missed or if caught couldn't remove.

I have had good luck with IOBIT's freeware and Avast AV.
I use their Anti malware

There are free cleaners available for download on Nortons site "Norton eraser" and Microsoft has their Malicious software removal tool.