All you have to do is Search, you get the best available for free. All of the below recommendations are in no way inferior to the numerous alternatives available in the market for which you have to pay out of your pocket. In fact a combination of these are the best you could hope for. These are efficient solutions and do not eat up your PC's resources as much. Periodic updates are available, free of cost again, to keep your PC safe against new threats. Install once and shelve your infection worries.
Anti-Virus Software
An offering from Grisoft, the AVG Anti-virus is possibly the best antivirus solution available for free. The difference between the free version and the Pro version that comes at a cost are additional options such as spyware remover, firewall etc, But since we will look at other free and better options for the same below. There is no difference between the free version and the paid version of the antivirus though. Automatic updates of virus signatures are available for free. I would rate this better than most antivirus solutions available for a price. It runs on a lot lesser memory, improving your PC's overall speed and performance.
Web Browser
If you have an antivirus, you can be satisfied with it only when you do not have a Internet connection on your PC. If you do, then the first point of entry of malware into your PC is the web browser. Firefox is by far the best around, not only from the point of view of security but usability as well. Avoiding Internet Explorer itself reduces your chance of getting infected by at least 20%, the ubiquitous IE is more targeted. For additional security, addons are available in the official site. Do read through the reviews before you choose an addon.
Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover
I recommend the Windows Defender offering from Microsoft which is available as a free beta. The defender may not be as effective as other solutions available for money. But It is pretty reliable and combined with scans with AVG Antivirus, It is very effective. The one problem seems to be that it consumes a lot of PC resource while scanning. If you are using a new PC, upwards of 128 MB of RAM then it should not be a problem, but anything lower and it could significantly affect your system performance.
Browser Protection Utility
In spite of using the best browser, It is not always possible to escape browser hijacks, which is more of an irritant than a security threat. But not all scumware stop with that, some can even monitor keyboard strokes. So if you deal with sensitive information then I would recommend the browser protection utility. From Windows 2000 or later, for safe browsing a free program called Sandboxie is available that creates a special contained "sandbox" environment on your PC. While browsing within the virtual sandbox provided by Sandboxie you are totally corralled off from other parts of your PC. So any files you download are isolated to the sandbox. Similarly, any programs that are executed only do so within the sandbox and have no access to your normal files, the Windows operating system or any other part of your PC effectively cutting off any damage because of these scumwares.
Anonymous Surfing Services
There are lots of reasons people have for wanting to surf anonymously, ranging from simple paranoia to stop being monitored by their meddling government. Whatever the reasons, services that offer anonymity are doing real well. The best service is probably JAP, it is totally free. It is the ultimate anonymous surfing service. So next time you want to protect your identity online, check out JAP. JAP acts as a local proxy between your PC and the Internet.
