Malware Protection - Software to Protect Your PC

Free Software

It is possible to spend a lot of money on various products to protect your PC against the 'nasties' that can cause untold damage to your PC and its valuable data. However, as a minimum I strongly recommend that you install the following protection: Anti-virus, spyware, adware and a firewall. The following products are very good and are free. Both AVG and Zonealarm offer a full suite including full and automatic protection. I mention automatic because, for instance Spybot and Ad-aware both need to be run manually (every 1 or 2 weeks).

Anti-Virus

Antivirus software is a term used to describe a computer program that attempts to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software.

AVG Anti-virus offers a free version of their software that is easy to use, low use of system resources, has an automatic update functionality, offers real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run.

Click here to download the free version.

Anti-Spyware

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies.

Click here to download the free version.

Anti-Adware

Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertising material to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used. Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy-invasive software.

Lavasoft Ad-aware is a free program that detects and removes Trojans, worms, spyware, and other malicious programs and repairs damage left by malware.

Click here to download the free version.

Firewall

ZoneAlarm is a free easy-to-use firewall that blocks hackers and other unknown threats. It systematically identifies hackers and blocks access attempts and automatically makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet.

Click here to download the free version.

More Information

Click here for more detailed discussion of Internet Protection.