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Takeaway: Fighting the malware battle really hurts when you're spending a good deal of your IT budget (if you even have an IT budget) on software to protect machines from attacks. Here's how to do it for free. Malicious software (be they viruses, rootkits, trojans, worms, or malware) are so prevalent it seems one of the primary jobs for IT is the protecting, cleaning, and removing of said software. It seems no matter how hard you try, or how much you pay for the software you use to protect your desktops, it always seems like a losing battle. Fighting that losing battle really hurts when you are spending a good deal of your IT budget (if you even have an IT budget) on software to protect machines from attacks. It doesn't have to be that way. I have found plenty of tools that can help in the quest to have a virus/malware-free environment. These tools can be either installed on your machines or used as a toolkit to carry with you to fight the good fight. You won't find enterprise-grade tools here. What you will find are tools I have found to do the best job at keeping my systems clean. Combofix Combofix is my first line of defense tool when I suspect something has taken over a machine. But you shouldn't just run this powerful tool without a few considerations. First, and foremost, what will Combofix fix? After a successful run of Combofix, you should have cleaned (if applicable): Malware, Rootkits, Trojans, Worms, and Viruses. What you need to know about Combofix, prior to running is quite important. The single most important issue with Combofix is that you can not run it with an antivirus tool enabled. With some antivirus solutions you can simple disable the tool (Symantec Endpoint Protection is a perfect example). One particular antivirus solution, AVG, I have found to require complete removal before running Combofix. And to be on the safe side, I prefer to run Combofix with the computer in safe mode. One other note: Never download Combofix from any oth