Simple Security For Windows
Ajazz Tech
English - September 15, 2010 10:00 - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsTechnology News Tech News ajazz networks ajazznetworks technology tech news apple microsoft valve intel Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
9/15/10 6:00 AM By: Alex Z. I’ve had very good luck avoiding spyware and viruses since I’ve owned a computer. Not everyone can say the same. There are simple steps that should be taken to avoid infection and different software that must be run. We live in a digital age...
9/15/10 6:00 AM
By: Alex Z.
I’ve had very good luck avoiding spyware and viruses since I’ve owned a computer. Not everyone can say the same. There are simple steps that should be taken to avoid infection and different software that must be run. We live in a digital age where digital content is as precious to us as material possessions. It’s very important to protect our digital content.
To put it simply, there are free and costly ways to protect our data. I prefer the free ways (I’m sure you do too) and they work very well, but it’s ultimately up to you to safely tread across the web. For example, it’s wise to avoid opening email attachments. It’s still possible for an attacker to hijack your friend or colleague's email account and send a malicious attachment.
While there are many different pieces of antivirus and antispyware software available, I will be highlighting two (at minimum) that I recommend running.
In the meantime, here are some solid choices for antivirus and antispyware software.
Free antivirus:
Free antispyware:
CWShredder – CoolWebSearch Trojan Remover
Paid:
I currently use a combination of Microsoft Security Essentials and Spybot Search & Destroy. I also make sure that Windows Firewall is enabled as well as my router’s firewall. I’ve had very good luck with this combination.
Microsoft Security Essentials leaves a small memory footprint and is easy to use. It updates automatically and doesn’t annoy you with popup windows in the taskbar.
The interface is very clean and isn’t cluttered with too many buttons.
I generally don’t scan my system weekly, but I would recommend it. I don’t like having my system slow down as I am working, but that's old logic that I used to have when I ran the ever-so-system-resource-hungry Norton Antivirus. I rarely see any kind of performance issues when preforming a full scan.
The same can’t be said for Spybot Search & Destroy, as it tends to always find a few goodies.
Spybot Search & Destroy takes a few minutes to maintain but that’s a good price to pay for extra protection. After you install it, the first thing you need to do is allow Spybot to be run as an administrator.
Go to Start, find Spybot Search & Destroy’s shortcut, right-click and select properties, tab over to Compatibility, and at the bottom, select Run this program as an administrator.
Make sure to manually update at least once or more a week.
The selected default servers are fine. Also, make sure that all of the updates are checked.
After updating it is important to immunize your system.
Before immunizing, close any open web browsers and simply click immunize. It can take a few minutes if you are using the program for the first time, so be patient.
Enabling your firewall is also very important.
If you have Windows Vista or 7, open your control panel and search for Windows Firewall. Alternatively, you can press the Windows key and type “firewall.”
Make sure it’s enabled.
That’s it. You’re done! If you’ve followed these steps you’ve given yourself essential protection for your Windows PC. If you don’t feel like going through all this hassle the answer is simple: get a Mac.