Virus Removal / Tune up software for mac?

[FXGuy3369]

Hi, sorry for the noob question. I am a PC guy, savvy enough to do anything I want on a pc. A friend just brought me a newer macbook though. Says it seems to be running sluggish. They think it may have a virus? Is there any free software or good tutorials on what to do or look for in the way of tuning up a mac, and checking for viruses?
Thanks!

 

[Ka0t1x]

The one that I see used is either Norton or ClamXav (http://www.clamxav.com/)

Although because of its BSD base, you'd have to enter an admin password for much of anything (even malware) to be installed.

Also if you have the admin password..

sudo ps aux

Will give you a pretty good sum of what's running and who's running what.

 

[TheStu]

Well, first things first there are no viruses for OS X. There are some trojans out there that require you to be a particular brand of stupid to get them, but no viruses.

As for the sluggishness, I would check how much RAM is installed, and how much is in use. Open up a Finder window, select Applications from the sidebar (if for some reason it isn't there, then go to the Dock, and Command+Click on one of the icons on the Dock, like Mail). Inside the Applications folder is the Utilities folder. Open up Activity Monitor from there, this is like Task Manager in Windows. From in there you will be able to find the answers to your questions.

 

[FXGuy3369]

Thanks! I will check that. Does OS X accumulate programs that are starting up with the OS like windows? And if so is there a way to turn them off like I would with msconfig on win?

 

[sourceninja]

Thanks! I will check that. Does OS X accumulate programs that are starting up with the OS like windows? And if so is there a way to turn them off like I would with msconfig on win?

It can, check in the system preferences, under accounts, then login items.

 

[wlee]

Besides checking how much memory is in the system and what's running on startup,
you should use the Disk Utility to "Repair Permissions" on the boot disk. That tends to help speed things up. You can also d'load ONYX to help optimize performance.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html

 

[timswim78]

In addition to what others have mentioned, I have found that if a Mac is running slowly, it is possible that the culprit is a slow hard drive. The drive could be very full, malfunctioning, etc.

 

[Achatina]

I think there's no need to recommend you any anti-virus tools, as many of these have already been mentioned. Don't forget, that a firewall should always been enabled, if you don't have any on your Mac, download Protemac Netmine, for example.