It's a powerful antivirus tool which is often overlooked by quite so many people.

Most people use all kind of famous antivirus programs and some perhaps are efficient until a certain point, when simply they just cannot handle powerful trojans or any other malware that might seriously damage your computer.

Or maybe, at the first glance, they got rid of the problems on your computer, but they might still be there lurking in some hidden files.

Malwarebytes it's an extremely powerful and useful tool.

Personally, i tried all kind of antivirus you can find on the market today.

I'm not going to list them here because it's not proper, but it's quite easy to figure it out.

Anyway, Malwarebytes removed the most powerful malwares, including different versions of trojans, that couldn't be removed by other antivirus tools.

Also, Malwarebytes has an antivirus guard incorporated, so it runs on your computer in the background.

Malwarebytes doesn't just detect them, but completely removes them without a trace.

2. AC3Filter Audio Codec:

AC3Filter is a high quality free audio decoder and processor filter.

It allows media players to playback movies with AC3 and DTS audio tracks.

Also it can process any audio track, much of processing options allows to adjust the sound in almost any way.

It's extremely useful when listening to music or watching movies as well.

3. Storm Codec:

Storm Codec has all the necessary codecs, so your multimedia player faces all the formats and codecs for video compression, so you may enjoy the clips and preferred movies without interruptions.

It's an amazing complex video codec pack, all you need is a video player and you have all the movies set up perfectly.

4. Winamp Audio Player:

Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music and video player for Windows.

Winamp supports MP3, CD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins, plus audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins.

Additional features including free-form skins, a new decoder, and built-in cross fade, and an advanced Media Library.

It's famous, it's practical, and it never lets you down. Also has a very nice and friendly interface, and customizable skins.

5. BSplayer Video Player:

BSplayer is an application that plays back all kinds of media files

(avi,mpg,asf,wmv,wav,mp3...) and specializes in video and divx playback.

In short, in can play any kind of videos in any format, if you have a proper codec pack that goes with it.

6. Opera Internet Browser:

A full-featured Internet browser, Opera includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera's groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS News feeds and IRC chat.

Personally, i found opera to be more practical and safer than any other browser available on the market.

It looks very pleasant, it's fast, very nice customizable skins, and with its capability of memorizing all the pages on the internet you left behind, it makes it one of the most appealing browsers on the web.

7. Yahoo! Messenger:

Is there anyone who hasn't heard of it? Hardly. It is one of the world's most popular programs for chat, or talk over the internet.

Yahoo! Messenger is an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!

The latest version looks extremely pleasant, and has lots of customizable skins incorporated; also there are many available for download.

8. uTorrent File Sharing:

Today in the world of sharing files over the internet, music, movies, programs, we need a useful tool that is especially fast.

It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected.

9. Adobe Photoshop Elements:

Adobe Photoshop is a professional image-editing standard and leader of the Photoshop digital imaging line, delivers more of what you might expect.

Groundbreaking creative tools help you achieve extraordinary results.

Unprecedented adaptability lets you custom-fit Photoshop to the way you work.

And with more efficient editing, processing, and file handling, there's no slowing you down.

In other words, it's just fantastic; it's the best tool ever for anyone dealing with images.

10. WinRAR Compression Tool:

WinRAR is a powerful archive manager.

It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.

Archive file formats supported are ZIP, RAR, ACE, CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, BZ2, UUE, JAR, ISO, 7Z and Z.

Anything you want to pack or unpack, WinRAR will do it for you, and does a fine job too.

bacre is a new weapon to fight against the informatic plague that the viruses are. It protects your pc against viruses, trojans and bugs.

Active Virus Shield 6.0.0.308

Active Virus Shield is a free system, supported by AOL and based in the powerful antivirus engine of Kaspersky Labs. It is so simple that you can install, config and start using it in minutes.

AntiPharming 1.30

This application was created in order to prevent "Pharming". You can install it in your PC and it will check the websites that you visit and protect your PC against this recent-created activity.

Avast Home 4.8

Avast Home is a powerful, functional and well-known antivirus. It can detect a large list of viruses, trojans, bugs, rootkits and spywares. It also checks your PC with great efficiency, cleaning it in real time.

AVG Free Edition 8.0

Grisoft has recently created the new 8.0 AVG. This corporation says that this version has a lot of facilities and is much better than previous editions. Some of the innovations are a LinkScanner and a WebShield module.

Comodo AntiVirus 2.0 Beta

Altough this antivirus is free, it has a lot of advantages and good options. You can make 3 kinds of analysis: Fasts, Generals or periodics. It has automatic actualizations and support for e-mail analysis.

NOD32 Anti-Virus System

This is, perhaps, the best antivirus in the market, and you can get it for free here. It is one of the fastest and powerful antivirus. It also has automatic actualizations and it works in all versions of MS Windows.

Norton Antivirus 2008

Norton Internet Security is a complete set of security tools for your computer. You will have a full FireWall, internet privacity, e-mail scan, and many other useful applications. It is also one of the most known antivirus.

TrojanHunter 4.7

As its name says, it will defend your computer from Trojans. TrojanHunter checks the Registry files, memory and disk drives, to detect any trace of Trojan, including new Trojans.

Windows Defender 1593

Windows Defender is an utility with which you can easily remove spyware that have infiltrated your PC, while you are protected so that they do not 'enter' more, as do the antivirus software with viruses.

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.

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Here is the list, my personal review of some computer software programs that made our life easy.

Firefox

The Firefox Web Browser is the faster, more secure, and fully customizable way to surf the web than others.

Features:

• One-Click Bookmarking - you can search and organize Web sites quickly and easily
• Instant Web Site ID - You can avoid online scams, and suspicious transaction
• Improved Performance - You can view Web Pages faster and less memory for your computer

Yahoo Messenger

Chit Chat with your buddies and find friends in Yahoo! Yahoo Messenger is the most widely used instant messenger in the world wide web.

Features:

• Send text messages in real-time to your buddies on Yahoo or Windows Live Messenger
• Join a chat room to meet new friends while you discuss your favorite topics
• Photo Sharing - Share photos from your desktop or Flickr, then discuss them over IM while you and a friend view them together
• PC to PC calls - Make a voice call to another Yahoo! Messenger user for free
• Send text messages from Messenger to your friends mobile phones for free

Skype

No money for calls? With Skype you can chat and make free calls over the internet to other people on Skype for as long as you like, to wherever you like. You can call to mobiles using your computer. And it is absolutely free to download.

Adobe Reader

Adobe is a free software to download. This simplest of Adobe's PDF programs lets you do just about anything PDF-related (besides create new ones), including online collaboration. It includes a host of features to aid users with disabilities. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

Features:

• Leverage a simplified user interface - You can view information more precisely and efficiently with the redesigned, easier to use Reader 8 interface
• More secure document workflows - Better protect documents, forms, and drawings
• Automate digital certificate administration
• Leverage existing security infrastructure

Audacity

Audacity is a free to download software you can do recording and editing of your audio interest. Audacity available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems.

Features:

• Record Live Audio
• Convert tape copies and records into digital recordings or Cds
• You can Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files
• Do can copying, cutting, splicing or mixing sounds together
• Change the beat or speed tempo of your Audio files

GIMP

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is the most widely used bitmap editor in the printing industries. GIMP is a graphics, photo images, logos editor. Cropping, resizing, altering color, brightness adjusting, combing multiple images, and converting into different format files. It is often used as a free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop. But it is not designed to be Photoshop clone.

Features:

• Customizable Interface
• Photo Enhancement
• Digital Retouching

iTunes

iTunes is a software free to download. A digital music or media player introduced by Apple Inc. The program used for playing and organizing mp3, digital music, and video files. This software can connect to the iTune store via internet to purchase download music, videos, TV shows, iPod games, audio books, movie trailers, ring tones, and more.

Features:

• iPod music downloader
• Media player

AIM

Advanced Information Management (AIM). It is one of the most widely used free Instant Messenger program.

Features:

• AIM Plug-ins
  • Whimsicals - They're web applications that let you interact with your Buddies, send & receive IMs, & more all from a web browser.
  • IM fight - Fight your buddy.
  • AIM share - Blast your buddy list.
  • AIM WIMZI - Put a chat window anywhere.
  • QQ games - Fun and play with your buddies.

WinAmp

WinAmp the most famous media player after WPM. Play music, video, movie files, DVDs. Lots of Skin to choose for their new version. WinAmp offers 50 free mp3 download for downloading the software. You can also search for skins and plug-ins, access thousands of shout cast Radio stations, get free Music and Videos and search the Web using Winamp Search.

Feature:

• Offers free download of music and videos in their toolbar
• Remote Music and Video Playback and Sharing
• Play list the Best Music on the Web with Media Monitor
• Winamp Toolbar enables browser control of Winamp
• Album Art Support for Portable Devices

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is an ultimate open source desktop mail app support by mozilla. Its pluggable interface lets developers freely build extensions to make it ever more useful.

Features:

• Message tagging - Thunderbird 2 allows you to tag messages with descriptors such as to Do or Done
• Advanced Folder Views - offers a variety of ways for you to organize and display your folders, whether by favorites, recently viewed or folders containing unread messages
• Message history navigation - Show toolbar allows you to click forward and back much like in your Web browser
• Saved Research - Thunderbird has a “saved” folder allows you to store your file searched

Private places where it is usually forbidding to install a video camera such as; women's or men's bathrooms, private dressing rooms and even in private homes are being compromised by absolute strangers. The scary part about it is that we have no clue if this is happening to us, too.

Now, we have tools to fight back and protect our privacy from the prying eyes of total strangers and government agencies. Yes, there are some utterly incredible counterspy tools, gadgets and software that can help you reclaim your freedom and protect your privacy from being stolen.

Counterspy Tools (Indoor - Outdoor Use)

Some video cameras and recording devices have gotten so tiny that they can be planted just about anywhere and everywhere, so how do you know when you are being watched when you think that you are alone? The answer is simple, you do what the spies would do and that is to sweep the place for hidden video cameras and recording bugs.

Spy Exchange & Security Center

The Spy Exchange & Security Center carries a complete line of counterspy gadgets and products that the average person can use to detect hidden electronic devices that are being used to invade your personal privacy. The antispy products that this company carries are not toys and should not be used in banks, casinos or in government office buildings, because you could be breaking the law using these devices in these types of places.

Pro Extreme LaserScan Hidden Camera Detector/Locator

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Get ready to sweep an area for hidden video cameras of all kinds up to 50ft away with pinpoint accuracy. Not even pinhole hidden video cameras goes unnoticed as the Pro Extreme LaserScan Hidden Camera detector/locator can expose the most well hidden pinhole video cameras on the market using its lasers to scan the area from top to bottom.

Spy Gadgets

While hidden video cameras are seemingly everywhere that we go anymore, there are similar tools used to spy on the average person, too. Listening devices and micro digital recorders can be hidden anywhere and nearly in anything, so be careful what you say, because there could be total strangers recording every word. The Spy Gadget website offers counterspy gadgets, so you can fight and take your life back.

Portable Wireless Camera (Audio) Jammer

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This counter surveillance tool can be used to jam any audio recording device normally used to record private conversations and hidden out of plain sight.

StarTech Outlet Inc

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Stop worrying about strangers or government agencies from spying on your every move or word that you say when you visit StarTech Outlet Inc, because this website offers some extremely powerful countersurveillance tools available to professional sweep teams. So, when you get serious about protecting your privacy, then you can find some of the best antispy tools available on the market on this website.

Advanced Telephone Analyzer

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Get instant results at the touch of a button. The company claims, “Instantly detect telephone eavesdropping, wiretaps on telephones and RF room bugs using this computer controlled telephone analyzer.” Stops the spies dead in their tracks.

Antispy Protection (Protect Your Internet Privacy)

There are many clever ways to track private individuals surfing the Internet or visiting their favorite websites. Some websites install a tracking cookie or spyware into a visitor's harddrive, so to track their activity while visiting their website. Other secretive individuals may attempt to infect your computer with Trojan horse viruses to gain illegal access to your computer's harddrive or personal files. Government agencies might try to intercept your outgoing or incoming emails, Instant Messages, and even what you are downloading or the sites that you are choosing to visit. So, now is a good time to take steps to protect your privacy and keep unwanted intruders away.

Arovax SmartHide

This is the prefect internet program for people who want to surf the web with complete anonymity. SmartHide protects your IP address by hiding it and secures all of your computer protocols through encrypting your movements when surfing the Internet. So, the next time you don't want to worry about who might be lurking around when you are surfing the Internet, checkout SmartHide, so you can hide in plain sight. SmartHide offers both a free program and a paid upgrade program that is designed to protect your computer and your Internet activities even more than the free program version is designed to do.

The Cloak

Surf the Internet anonymous using the free cloaking application that The Cloak provides you. Unfortunately, “the Cloak” may not be available in all parts of the world, because some universities and governments have purposely blocked this program from being used. That should be a good indicator that this program works good enough to be blocked by fearful governments and universities around the world.

10 Minute Mail

Don't be giving your private email to just anyone who asks for it or requires it to join a social network or whatever. Your email should remain as private as you can keep it, because in the right hands your email can be used to send you Spam or even steal your online identity. 10 Minute Mail allows you to obtain a temporary email address so that you can use to join social networks, forums or just send an anonymous email without having to worry about your email privacy. The temporary email address will expire after 10 minutes, so that no trace of you ever being there is left behind.

Computer Security Measures (Protect Your Hard Drive & Files)

Computer hackers and government sneaks are lurking about and some of these spies are gaining access to private computers without the users ever realizing that their computer's security has been compromised. That is a scary thought, to think that there is even a remote possibility that a snoop could be easily gaining access to our personal information stored on our harddrive anytime they choose to. You can do something about it to stop them, but you will have to make the first move and the programs will do what they are designed to do - protect your privacy, so you can enjoy what you like doing.

Password Protect Folders

Protect your valuable personal computer folders that are stored on your computer's hard drive from potential hackers or government sneaks whom might be snooping around without you ever knowing that they are there. This program protects all types of files on most versions of MS Windows machines. The company offers a 30-day free trial version of Password Protect and after the free trial has expired, then the user has the option to pay for the full version (if Liked) or opt-out (if Not Liked).

FileDudes

FileDudes offers computer users serious about protecting their privacy a variety of Safehouse Hard Drive Encryption programs that you can download. Encrypting your most important files on your hard drive will make it that much harder for anyone not suppose to have access to your computer from stealing, deleting or copying any of your sensitive hard drive files. Government agencies do not like it when private individuals uses encryption programs, because it makes it that much tougher for their agents to access private computer networks and retrieve information, but you have the right to your privacy and protecting it by any means necessary is your right, too.

DataPicks

DataPicks is the most comprehensive resource of the Top PC security programs and applications available on the Internet. This website offers a wide selection of security and privacy programs that will help you better protect your computer from being compromised and your identity possibly being stolen by a hacker or identity thief. Also, you can pickup a free antivirus program as well especially if you need an updated version.

Identity Theft Protection (Online and Offline Protection)

Identity theft is on the rise around the world as new technology makes it easier for crooks to change identities at the drop of a hat. Identity thieves can apply for credit cards and purchase high dollar products and services in the names of their victims, and then causing a world of financial ruins for the innocent people like you and me. So, to prevent this from happening to you it is time to take some precautions and protect that unique thing that makes us - us, our identity.

LifeLock

LifeLock provides a service that helps safeguard your personal identity by monitoring all of the activity incorporated with your social security number and credit card transactions. If someone should ever try to steal your identity and try to open up credit card accounts using your social security number, then LifeLock will alert you and put a stop to these types of attempts quickly and securely. LifeLock even has a $1 million dollar service guarantee to backup their claims, if a member of theirs should ever have their identity stolen when using the LifeLock service. Now, that is confidence at its best!

Blue Chillies

Blue Chillies is a comprehensive website that offers a wide selection of identity theft protection programs and applications to protect your computer and online use from unwanted intruders and hackers. Some of the programs are absolutely free to download and other programs can be downloaded for a set price. There are a lot of choices to browse through, so to find exactly what you will need or want to customize your protection level of security.

Artmam.net

Artmam.net provides a comprehensive selection of security and identity theft prevention programs and resources that are designed to protect everything from your personal computer, laptop computers, iPods and much more. Since people are storing more and more personal information on their iPods and other handheld PDAs, it has become very important to secure these types of devices if they should ever fall into the wrong hands. This website provides the tools and connections needed to protect your privacy no matter what type of electronic device that you should choose to use.

 

 

Pros: Recently just out of beta stage, Avast 4.8 now offers a built in anti spyware and anti rootkit now giving it better detection then it's previous version 4.7. It seems to me that 4.8 uses less resources, though the Avast development team says there should be no change in memory usage. Avast also has an automatic update feature. Also i might at that Avast has a faster scanner then previous versions. Avast has also added a new self defense feature which stops Avast from being shut down by malware.

Cons: Avast currently has no heuristics scanner besides it's email protection. I have heard a couple complaints from people saying they thought Avast was slowing down their Internet speeds, i have tested several times to see if i could encounter this same issue and i did not see any difference in my download speed with Avast.

AVG Anti Virus 8.0.1 (Free)

Pros: AVG has finally came out with a new version of AVG Anti Virus that now offers a built in anti spyware giving it too better detection of spyware. AVG 8 also seems to be a lighter anti virus on memory usage. The AVG developers have also added a new feature called "Link Scanner" which turns out to be a Web Shield detecting viruses that are actually embeded in websites. AVG 8 was one of the first anti viruses to detect the Alicia Keys myspace virus with Link Scanner.

Cons: This isn't to big of a con, but its updates download kind of slow. The heuristics engine is not that good on detecting unknown malware and viruses compared to Nod32 and others.

Avira Antivir Personal 8.1 (Free)

Pros: Avira Antivir offers a strong heuristic scanner to detect some of the newest and unknown malware and viruses based purely on the behavior. Avira also has a very fast virus scanner, they have also added an anti spyware feature to it's free version thus giving it too better detection of spyware and also better overall detection.

Cons: Myself and many others have come to the believe that Avira must put it's free version updates on some of the slowest servers, depending on the time of day it can take up to 3 minutes to even connect to the update server, even then it takes another 2 minutes to download the updates because the speeds tend to be around 2-7KBPS (this download speed could be an issue only with me and a couple others though). And it also has an annoying popup each time it updates asking you to purchase the premium version.

BitDefender Anti Virus 10 (Free)

Pros: BitDefender 10 has a very sophisticated heuristic engine which will detect new malware and viruses that other Anti Viruses can not detect. It's paid for version has hourly updates which is a great thing for an anti virus. Another really good thing that i believe is a pro is that BitDefender uses virus signatures and a heauristic engine to detect viruses, spyware, malware and trojans.

Cons: BitDefender 10 is only an on demand scanner meaning, it will NOT give you 24/7 protection from viruses, it will only detect what is already on your computer. I suggest it should only be used as a second virus scanner and not your only anti virus.

ClamWin Anti Virus 0.93 (Free)

Pros: ClamWin is an open source anti virus built by the open source community, it offers good detection of new and old viruses. ClamWin is built on ClamAV technology and has just recently reached 1 million signatures in it's database. ClamWin provides an automatic update feature that lets you know when your database is out of date and needs updated. It also has a nice feature that will allow you to scan your memory (processes that are currently running) for viruses and other infections.

Cons: ClamWin is only an on demand scanner meaning it will not detect if you download a infected file until you manually scan that file, just use it along with your every day real time anti virus.

Dr.Web Anti Virus 4.44 (Free)

Pros: Dr.Web Anti Virus is a very small anti virus with a very big punch, detecting some of the nastiest viruses in the wild to date. It is an on demand scanner for home use only, it also makes a great secondary virus scanner along with your real time protection anti virus. Dr.Web also has a fast scanner with low memory usage.

Cons: The only con i can really come up with at this time is that it is only an on demand scanner and will not protect you from viruses, only detect and remove them or even try to "cure" the infected file.

PCTools Anti Virus 4 (Free)

Pros: PCTools Anti Virus 4 offers realtime protection which will protect you from even being infected by alot of different viruses and types of spyware. It offers a good heuristic engine and also a signature based engine to compliment the heuristic engine, it also offers a very simple interface that even a new computer user would not have trouble with.

Cons: PCTools also is the owner of the famous "Spyware Doctor" Anti Spyware which used to be a great program till they started to turn it into bloatware that isnt as good as other anti spywares, why this is a con for their Anti Virus is because they could do the same to their Anti Virus and ruin another good thing. Right now it seems highly unlikely they are going to do any major changes to their anti virus which is good and bad, they also have a very slow scanner that takes a much longer time then alot of other anti viruses. (pro) But i know alot of people who say they like when they scanner takes longer because it could possibly mean it's doing a deeper scan.

I can't stress this enough. A computer without Anti-Virus Protection is just plain insane. Not only do you have to install it, but you must keep it updated and scan regularly.

Paid Programs:

I use Zone Alarm Anti-Virus (ZoneAlarm) and I am very pleased with its performance. It, like many other anti-virus programs, checks every new file, if it from the internet, from a USB Drive, or from any other source. This is called "Real-Time Scanning", and it is very useful. Especially if you're lazy like me and don't have much time to scan!

Also, for a more "lightweight" program, try ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus (Eset) This is also a very good program, which updates itself whenever you turn your PC on.

Free Programs:

Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus (Grisoft). A good free alternative that I used before I got Zone Alarm. It is efficient, if you don't use the internet heavily. Otherwise, use a paid alternative.

Best in Test:

ZoneAlarm Anti-Virus. This program meets all expectations, and found all of the viruses that I tested it with. As the saying goes, You get what you pay for. www.ZoneAlarm.com

Install A Firewall

Why you need a Firewall:

Connecting to the Internet is like opening a door to your computer. If hackers see that door, they can easily gain access to your PC. Once inside, hackers can steal your valuable personal data, such as bank account details and passwords to many different things. Your PC can be used without your knowledge to launch attacks on other computers, even on entire networks. A hacker can even completely "kill" your computer! But, you can stop this all with a decent firewall. It is necessary to install a good firewall, keep it on, and only disable it if it is absolutely required.

Paid Programs:

ZoneAlarm Firewall: (ZoneAlarm). This program is one of the best out there. It "learns" your Internet Habits, and makes them secure. There is also a "free version" of this.

Comodo Firewall Pro Plus: (Comodo). I found this program to be quite restrictive. It didn't give you as much detail about the program the need access to certain things, and therefore I blocked a few things that were needed.

Free Programs:

ZoneAlarm Basic Firewall (ZoneAlarm). This is the "free" alternative of the other version. This is very good if you don't want to pay.

Best in Test:

ZoneAlarm Firewall. As with the Anti-Virus, ZoneAlarm takes it out. www.ZoneAlarm.com

Regularly run Anti-Adware/Anti-Spyware/Anti-Malware

Every time you visit a website, you may, without even knowing, have downloaded content onto your machine. This content includes key loggers, dialers, spying programs, advertising material, spam bots and much, much more.

Paid Programs:

SpyFerret (here). Paid programs don't give you much more than free programs when it comes to Anti-Spyware. I would recommend that you don't get paid programs, but it is YOUR choice when it comes to security.

Free Programs:

Ad-Aware 2007. (Lavasoft USA). This program performs a "deep search". This means that it checks each and every file, and "quarantines" them.

Spybot Search & Destroy (Safer-Networking). This program checks your computer for all these "nasties" and easily removes them.

Best in Test:

"Ad-Aware 2007" & "Spybot Search & Destroy". (Lavasoft USA & Safer-Networking) I give these products both the award, as they in conjunction with each other, keep your computer clean. I recommend that you run Spybot S&D after every internet session, and Ad-Aware once a week.

Have Spam & Email protection

Don't open unknown emails, don't open unknown attachments. Even if you know who it is from, do not open them if you are not expecting them.

Paid Programs:

Kaspersky Anti-Spam (Kaspersky). This program was as good as the MailWasher, but the interface was a bit harder to get around. If you would rather use a paid program, use this, or go for a free alternative.

Free Programs:

MailWasher (MailWasher). Before you download your email into Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc, you run this tool, and choose all the emails that are of spam. Then, you open up your email client and download your emails. The emails that you "marked" as spam in MailWasher, are now "blacklisted" from your account.

Best in Test:

MailWasher is an excellent program, that I found got rid of my spam problem after a few weeks. I recommend this to anyone who wants to get rid of the spam in their email accounts. 

5) Popup Protection:

Some pop-up's can download virus's and spyware to your machine. Get protection from them, and you won't have to deal with the consequences.

Paid Programs:

Winguard Popup Remover. (here). This program, along with many other paid programs, doesn't give you much more protection from Pop-up's than the free ones. But, if you would rather buy a program, then go for it.

Free Programs:

Firefox Browser (Mozilla). The award winning browser, Firefox, has a built in pop-up blocker. I highly recommend you give Firefox a try. It speeds up your internet browsing, and is overall safer than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which by default, is installed with all Windows Computers.

Google Toolbar (Google). This is a great toolbar for your browser. It not only has a pop-up blocker, but it can be incorporated into Gmail (Google's answer to Free Email), and of course a Google Search Box, right at your fingertips.

Best in Test:

Firefox with Google Toolbar. Firefox comes with a Pop-Up blocker already built in, and with the added extension of Google Toolbar, you have twice the power of blocking these annoyances. 

Patch

It is important to keep your computer patched and up-to-date. This protects your computer from new vulnerabilities, which may allow hackers to gain access to your computer. Your firewall should stop this, but if it is new, it might not. So be on the safe side, Patch regularly. If you have limited allowance on your internet, don't subscribe to “Automatic Updates” Change this to “Notify me if there are any updates, but don't download or install them”. Then, go to Microsoft Update and download the “Critical Updates”.

Backup

Unfortunately, there is no 100% way to keep your computer secure. Therefore, you should back-up all your important data, and keep it stored on a DVD or CD in a safe place. I backup at least once a month. And I keep all my information in a case, stored away securely.

Watch out for scams

“You have just won $1,000,000! Give us your bank details!”

“You are the 999,999 person to view this site, click here to claim your prize.”

“I have a large amount of money, and I need you to help me transfer it……”

You may have seen these types of messages before. But, as you may already be aware, these are scams. Don't click these ads, or open any emails with this content, as it may install spyware, virus's or other "nasties". “If it sounds too good to be true, then it is most likely that it is.” Remember to trust your Instinct. If it seems a bit weird, delete that email or close that site and run Anti-Spyware & Anti-Virus ASAP.

These are 8 ways to keep your PC secure. I take no responsibility for any problems that may occur with these products. They shouldn't cause any problems, but if they do, it is not my fault!

6. Download The Operative System's Actualizations

It is substantial, to get your protection to the maximum against eventual virus attacks, to download this actualizations; because what most worm Trojans seek are commonly found “security holes” in most Microsoft products. For these, the company constantly offers “critical” actualizations which we can download, and for those who are a bit lazy to look for them in the internet, Windows has an option for them to download automatically.

7. Be Careful With The Files You Receive In Your e-Mail

When we receive a new mail, it is highly recommended to virus scan it, even if you know the remittent. Most users do not even know that their computers are infected, and may be sending you a corrupted file by accident.

8. Another Entrance Gateway, Chat

In most chat rooms it's really common to send any kind of files, via a DDC system. If you get one you never requested, or from an unknown source, NEVER accept it, even if it seems really interesting.

9. Other Tips

Pay special attention to archives which may grow in size without any apparent reason. Or if you get strange Windows notes. Try not to download stuff from web pages you may consider unsafe.

10. And Of Course, Update Your Antivirus

Nowadays there are quite good either free or paid antivirus. In both cases they update automatically, so we all have the parches for the dangerous Mydoom y mentioned in the first part of the article.

If you haven't read the first part, brush up on tips one to five.

And publish 10 obvious but really important tips that everyone with a computer must follow. So if you haven't been infected yet, you should read the next:

1. Be Careful With VBS Archives

   Do not open files with the extension VBS (Visual Basic Script, a language which permits to execute routines in the PC) unless you are completely sure that that mail comes from a trustable person, who doesn't want to harm your computer.

2. Do Not Hide Program Extensions

   All Windows operative systems hide commonly known program extensions in windows explorer. This characteristic can be used by virus designers and hakers to hide a program as if it were one with a different extension.

3. Change Windows Explorer Security Form “Minimum” to “Medium”

   To change this you must go to “Tools”, “Internet Options”, and “Security”. After that you may choose the one you like. I recommend using the option to personalize and set it to mid or high, depending on the risk to which you consider you may stand up to.

4. Install a Good Firewall

   This is really important. You may download a free one from the internet, or just configure the one from your operative system (better if you have windows XP).

5. Make Security Copies

   A way is to upload most important archives to internet. There are web pages such as Rapidshare, Megaupload, or File Factory to which you may upload important stuff. In this way you may clear your hard disk without loosing info. Of course there are other ways, such as making backup copies in CDs, DVDs, ZIP drives or pen drives.

1. Read reviews of antiviruses at about.com, cnet.com, pcworld.com.
2. Select an antivirus which is effective but whose normal running doesn't slow down your system considerably

If Scanning for the First Time

3. Choose a time when your computer is idle or least used
4. Close all running applications so that no application on task bar is running
5. Run a thorough scan on all hard drives/partitions
6. Go to item 9 below

If Scanning Periodically

7. Run a scan once a week
8. Must scan “Windows”, “Program files” and “Document and Settings” folders
9. If any infected files are found, carefully read the paths where they exist.
   • If the paths refer to any program that you use, uninstall the program properly. Run periodic scan again
   • If paths refer to a temporary folder, or a location like root drive, simply delete the file or ask the antivirus to delete it

After Running the Scan

1. Take an image of the now clean OS. E.g. you can use tools like Acronis.
2. If you are copying a file from outside your computer, always right click on it and scan it first
3. If you surf web frequently, use a firewall like ZoneAlarm so all access to your computer is safe
4. Install a good antispyware software e.g. Spybot to keep a check on any spywares.
5. Keep your antivirus and antispyware updated once a week