I fix a lot of computers for friends as well as “friends of friends” largely because a good IT Nerd is hard to find (plus they don’t want to take it to Geek Squad). One of the things I get asked about a lot is what they should buy to secure their Windows PC and keep it virus and spyware free. First of all, it costs NOTHING to keep your PC virus and spyware free. All you need are the right products:
- In terms of virus protection, I recommend AVG. I’ve had situation where people have installed it in place of a commercial package and had it find viruses that those packages have missed. Oh yeah, it doesn’t slow your PC down at all. Highly Recommended.
- In terms of software based firewalls, the Windows firewall is adequate. However it only deals with incoming threats. To be completely secure, you need a firewall that deals with threats that originate from your PC as well. For this purpose, I recommend Comodo Firewall as it is easy to set up and easy to manage. Best of all, it doesn’t get in the way of your day to day use of the PC unless it has to.
- One thing you should do on a regular basis is hunt for spyware, cookies and anything else that might have somehow made it onto your Windows PC. For that purpose, I use two packages. The first is Spybot Search And Destroy and the second is Ad Aware. Both of these packages require you to run them manually (I run both once a month), but I find both to be highly effective in terms of keeping bad things off your PC.
Again, all of the products that I have mentioned are FREE. So you don’t need to spend money to keep yourself safe. Just make sure that you update them on a regular basis to ensure you’re adequately protected from the bad guys.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this article, I’ve stopped using AdAware as I find that Spybot Search and destroy is all I need.