 |
 |
*ONLY install one anti-virus program on your computer!
AVG Anti-virus - Completely Free to Home Users - Download Here
We use AVG on all of our computers and install it on most computers that leave the shop. It is a great piece of software, that uses very little system resources, and finds as many or more viruses than the expensive and resource intensive anti-viruse suites, such as Mcafee and Norton's.
*Note* AVG 8.0 was recently released and now is also available for free. If you are currently using AVG 7.5 free edition than you will have to go to AVG's page and download AVG 8.0 free and install it on your PC.
AVAST! Anti-virus - Completely Free to Home Users - Download Here
We have not personally done a lot of testing of this software but we have heard very good things. If you do not like AVG for any reason we would suggest trying this software out.
AntiVir - Completely Free to Home Users - Download Here
Another free anti-virus program that looks very promising, it has the highest detection percentage of any anti-virus program out there. Out of 321,339 viruses it was able to detect 99.51% of everyone of those viruses back in the April test on AV Comparatives. The usability of AVG seems to be the best of the bunch, but we will have to test it some more to decide if we like it better overall.
|
*Multiple anti-spyware programs can be installed
Windows Defender - Completely Free - Download Here
This anti-spyware program runs itself! With automatic scans and automatic updates this software will keep you protected fairly well with minimal user input.
Spybot Search & Destroy - Completely Free - Download Here
Probably the best anti-spyware product out there. We cannot fully recommend this product to our customers because it is not an automated program. You must update it and run it manually. If you are having a lot of problems with spyware, we suggest you download and run this product along with Windows Defender.
Ad-Aware - Completely Free - Download Here
Ad-Aware Personal remains the most popular anti-spyware product for computer users around the world, with nearly one million downloads every week. This free anti-spyware program provides you with advanced protection against spyware that secretly attaches and takes control of your computer, resulting in aggressive advertising pop-ups, sluggish computer activity, even identify theft through stolen bank details, passwords, and credit card account numbers.
AVG Anti-spyware - Free for Most Features / $40 Every 2 Years for Full Version - Download Here
Another great product that can hold its own to Spybot. This product recently became a member of the Grisoft family of products, along with AVG Anti-virus. If you are really concerned about spyware, as everyone on the internet should be, this product is a great addition to your security library. The reason we suggest so many anti-spyware programs is because each piece of software will pick up spyware that the others will not. There is no super anti-spyware program that can grab every piece of spyware out there.
SpywareBlaster - Completely Free - Download Here
SpywareBlaster only needs to be run to block cookies and spyware. It does not need to run in order to work, keeping your system free of one less startup program. Opening SpywareBlaster weekly and updating it is all that is needed. Our tests with SpywareBlaster showed it to be very effective at blocking many known web “bugs”. The great thing about this program is that it blocks malicious things before they ever can be installed. You just install the program and set it up to block all known spyware / cookies and that is it. |
CCleaner - Completely Free - Download Here
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It will remove un-used and temporary files, safely from your system. It can also easily clean your registry, remove unwanted programs, broken entries in your add / remove programs, and best of all it can remove startup entries from the most common locations. This is a great piece of software that we highly suggest. |
If you are using AVG Anti-virus and Windows Defender they will run a scan each and every night. If you do not regularly leave your computer on, then we suggest leaving it on at least one night a week so scans can be completed. These programs will clean most viruses and spyware on their own, but it is a good idea to pay attention to the logs of the latest scans. In the AVG test center you can click the results tab at the top of the window. If all of your scans are green then you are okay, if any are red you may want to check them to make sure AVG was able to remove the virus completely. Some viruses are very difficult to remove and you may have to read online how to manually remove a particularly nasty virus. We also suggest running CCleaner and Windows Defrag once every 2 weeks. At this time, any other anti-spyware program you use should be run as well. At the very least, all of these program should be run once a month.
Anti-virus scans - Once every week
Anti-spyware scan - Once every week
CCleaner - Once every two weeks
Windows Defrag - Once every two weeks |
|
|
