Free Malicious Software Countermeasures

is concerned for your PC.  Consider all the malicious software that can get into your computer system; virus, trojan horse, worm, spyware, adware, and all the other malicious programming flying around on the internet. It is imperative that you keep a vigorous watch on your PC to make sure you don't lose important data. You should be careful in your e-mail as well as cruising around on the internet. There are many ways for people of low moral qualities to steal your online identity or even your bank account numbers or sign on information.  The first line of defense are the automated firewalls and virus protection that you should have on your PC. The commercial versions of these applications can end up costing you almost as much each year as a high speed connection!  To counter this, there are several free and easy to use alternatives.

Windows XP (both Pro and Home versions) have a personal firewall built in.  It is important for you to be upgraded to the most recent service pack to use the firewall system that Microsoft provides.  There are free version of firewalls that you can use, but I haven't seen any that are as simple to implement as the one that comes free.  The others have pop up reminders that the paid version has even more protection.

So I have included the free stuff below that I recommend in addition to the Windows firewall protection.

Free downloads to keep your data safe:

Free AVG 7.5 - The latest from Grisoft to keep your PC virus free.
SpyBot S&D - Searches for and kills Spyware and some adware.

These should both be installed and updated regularly.  Spybot should be run at least once per month, but more often is better.  AVG has automated updates and a scheduler to run the virus checker.

Free Online Scans:
TrendMicro HouseCall  - Made by the same folks who sell PC-cillin.
eTrust AntiVirus Web Scanner - Computer Associates free online scan.
Bitdefender - A good solid scan. The online scan button is on the left side and down a bit.
Panda ActiveScan - Not as comprehensive as the others, and does the hard sell.

Run any of these about once per month.  Use a different one once in a while to make sure you are finding everything that may have gotten into your system.  There isn't one virus checker that can catch everything all the time as much as they will tell you differently.  Look around and see if any of the big companies guarantee that they will keep your system virus free!  There isn't one that will do it.  They can't make that guarantee!  Too many new virus files are introduced to the internet to keep them all at bay all the time, and as soon as a new solution is created, there's someone trying to get around it.

In addition to keeping your files clean with these countermeasures, you should also do backups on a regular basis. There are a lot of options for backing up your data.  Any of them are fine as long as you make sure the files are clean and you do the backups regularly.

Also, check out Ten Tips for Computer Safety
 

We wish you happy and safe computing!  Be careful out there!

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