Sorry I didn't post myself last night. I was already an hour late. I haven't been getting home before 7pm lately. *sigh*
Here are my software recommendations, in case anyone wants to know. They're all freeware.
Anti-Virus:
AVG Free Edition. It lacks some of the functions of the full version, but, it will update and run scheduled scans and do active scans. I use it on both home computers, and neither has ever had a problem. Unlike my work computer, which uses Norton.
Firewall: I have a version Sygate from when they allowed a freeware version. I think Symantec nixed that when they bought out Sygate. Go with ZoneAlarm instead. The Sygate Personal Firewall was a bit technical too, which was fine for me, but might not be for everyone.
Spyware prevention: You really need at least two.
Spybot S&D has excellent active protection against registry changes as well as spyware scans. This is good for stupid things like GAIN that download other crap. In conjunction, I recommend also scanning once in a while with
Ad-Aware. They will both find stuff the other won't.
In addition to all this, I currently am in love with
Ewido, which does mal-ware, virii, trojans, spyware, etc. There's a free scan available online, and you can download a free copy. Unfortunately, active protection only lasts for thirty days unless you buy (though at $30 it is totally worth it), but updates and manual system scans are completely free without obligation. When I recently had an attack at work, Ewido was the only thing that could get a number of the problems cleared up.
There are other tools too, but ones I don't feel necessary unless you're in a high risk environment or are already infected. One of these is
3S Security Suite, which mostly just does clean up of cookies and tracking.
Clean Up! is another useful tool for similar purposes. TDS was an excellend trojan hunter/killer, but they've stopped production.
Finally, just because different tools are good to use, you might want to scan with some of the online scanners from time to time. Here are a few:
KaperskyPanda Active ScanTrend Micro (Java based, if that bugs you)
eTrustObviously, I don't do all this all the time. I keep Spybot, a firewall, and my AV active, and I scan with the others when I think about it. I end up maybe once a month. I let the AV scheduled scans go. It seems to keep me trouble free, and once they're installed, i'm not hasseled at all.
