Computer Problems

I finally got rid of a stubborn trojan horse on my computer. It took me a couple weeks. I was using Symantic Endpoint Protection (free license from school) and it failed miserably. It turns out all the major antivirus programs are only about 50% effective these days so antivirus software is very unreliable. I've never liked Norton, and I won't be using it again. The trojan was installed when I opened an infected PDF file and it takes advantage of a Java exploit to hijack the computer. I could quarantine it but it also had a rootkit that reinstalled after every reboot. After trying half a dozen programs (Avast, AVG, malwarebytes, adaware, spybot S&D, numerous rootkit cleaners, etc.) I finally found a fix that surprised me. Microsoft's new antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials. It seems Microsoft has caught up and surpassed a lot of the mainstream Antivirus programs. Usually these things are quick fixes, nothing more than a Google search and a single program to download and install, but this time it was undocumented. It makes me wonder how many other undetected problems are on my computer. I almost did a reinstall, I probably should have.