1. Spybot

[www.safer-networking.org]

2. Zone alarm personal Firewall

[www.zonealarm.com]

3. Malwarebyte

[www.malwarebytes.org]

4. Advanced system care free 4

[www.iobit.com]

Spybot is a favorite of mine. I is not an anti-virus software, though. I generally run Spybot, AdAware and AVG. All three are free, work well with Windows systems and are kept nicely up to date. I have had nothing but issues with Zone alarm under both XP and Win 7. We just keep the firewall in the modem active.

^ You may like Malware byte and advnced system care. They both are 'cleaners' like spybot.

I've run two free systems for the last several years:

1. Avast (http://www.avast.com/en-us/index), free, updates regularly and you only need an email address that I've never gotten spam to.

2. Spybot - Especially making sure to check the box so "Tea-Timer" runs continuously. This is the big one for me, Tea-Timer stops registry changes cold until you allow it. If one pops up when I'm not installing or updating something I know I have a problem and can leave the dialog box with "Allow/Deny" there while I do some googling to see how I'll proceed. Highly recommended.

The problem that I have with most of the listed applications is that they tend to be overly-cautious, and like to pop off warnings about everything whether it is something to really be concerned with or not.

I prefer to have my protection be quiet, and only bother me if there is a serious issue. Microsoft Security Essentials fits the bill nicely. It is also a free application.

The vast majority of infections can be avoided by smart computing behavior, and keeping Windows updated. A lot of it comes down to common sense, and that is the toughest thing to try to teach.

Don't click on links in email. If you really have to have that "free" application, make sure you are not also installing toolbars or the like as part of the package (usually have to go through the advanced setup and uncheck some boxes). Be cautious about what gets clicked on on social networking sites like Facebook (would your friend really say something like that, and link to it?). If you see a bunch of warnings popping up on your system that utilize scare tactics (YOU ARE INFECTED!!!) often with misspellings, etc, and they are not from your antivirus program (remember what you have), don't click on the messages. You can task manager the browser closed, or just reboot the computer. A vast majority of the time, it will be gone when the computer comes back up.

Use a program like Acronis Home combined with an external hard drive to make daily "image" backups of your computer. If you do get compromised, in less than an hour, you can be right back to where you were before it happened by restoring yesterday's backup. If you have an "older" computer (3 years or more), a lot of modern protection applications can really cause a slowdown since they are always active, and scanning everything constantly. I run my installed antivirus in manual mode, and do a full scan every month or so. Other than that, it is turned off.

If you are unsure about something, do some Googling or Binging of the name of the application to see what the first couple of pages of results look like. If a lot of the top 20 search results have the word scam, or "how to get rid of" in the result summary, you may want to think twice.

Hopefully this all helps, I am a tech by trade, and like to keep people's systems safe.