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Is your PC secure? Well, we’ll definitely like to think that it is… but the reality is, we can’t fully secure our PC. Nonetheless, we can still make it less prone to viruses, hackers, spywares, adwares and a whole load of other threats.

So, how do we secure our PC? 10 years ago, having an antivirus software is probably sufficient (I still remember that Armour Antivirus was the “best” that time) but these days with the advent of the Internet, viruses is just one of the many other things you gotta worry about. So, I’m just gonna recommend a few softwares that you can install at NO COST. If you’re missing one of these softwares, then I must really stress that you do consider installing them. Especially, if you use the Internet often.

1. Antivirus software - AVG Antivirus
AVG Free for Windows is a free anti-virus protection tool developed by Grisoft for home use. Grisoft has a Full Professional version but it’s a paid version. IMHO, AVG does what it claims and just remember to always update the virus definition. Click on the link “Get AVG Free” on the left hand corner of their website to download.

2. Firewall - Sygate Personal Firewall / ZoneAlarm Free Firewall
A firewall is basically a software (or can be hardware based) that attempts to block unauthorised access to your PCs. Most software based firewalls have intrusion detection as well as the ability to manage whether to allow programs on your PCs to access the Internet.

Free for personal use, Sygate Personal Firewall provides best of breed security in a user friendly interface, protecting your PC from hackers, trojans and DoS attacks. Unfortunately, all Sygate consumer firewall products have been discontinued but this versions is still available for free use and I still find it one of the simplest firewall software to use.

ZoneAlarm Free is another free firewall software. It has similar functions as compared to Sygate Personal Firewall but the difference is that this software is still supported by ZoneAlarm. Check out the comparision of the FREE version compared to their paid versions.

Which one to use? The choice is yours.

3. Spywares / Adwares - Ad-Aware Personal
Spywares and adwares is perhaps the problem that causes the most nuisance. Ad-Aware Personal provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components. This software is downloadable free of charge. Compared to Sypware Doctor and other softwares available, this one scans and also cleans the spywares. Spyware Doctor does a brilliant job at scanning but you gotta pay for the software in order to clean them

4. Registry Cleaner - CCleaner
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

5. Internet Browser - Mozilla Firefox
Personally, this is one of the best browser I’ve used (as well as Safari on the Mac). It’s simple, has tabbed browsing and also very fast. If you’re still on Internet Explorer, you really should give Firefox a try!

I know that there are many other free antivirus, anti-spywares as well as firewall softwares available on the Net but I’m just highlighting the ones I personally use for simplicity sake.

Oh ya, if you would like to scan your PC online for viruses, trojans, worms and etc… why not take the Online ActiveScan by Panda Antivirus. It’s easy and and best of all it’s free. Unfortunately, you’ll need to use Internet Explorer to run the scan as it requires the installation of an ActiveX component.

Cheers~!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 12:28 pm and is filed under IT stuffs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.