These days you need a whole lot more than just a virus protection. Only about 15% of all malware is viruses. The rest is worms, trojans, phishing schemes, spyware, etc.
Here's some ideas to make Internet Security Suite (securitycenter) for free. Free is always the best.
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1. For your Anti-Virus......(Always use only 1 A-V...You must NEVER use more than one anti-virus, Even an expired anti-virus can cause a major conflict...(did I mention that you MUST uninstall any old anti-virus products?)
For your anti-virus needs, I would suggest Avira AntiVir® PersonalEdition Classic. It has excellent heuristics, a virus detection rate that is better than many of "paid-for" anti-virus programs and is light on using your computer's resources. And did I mention that it's free!
Download here:
http://www.free-av.com/
Avoid an anti-virus called AVG (free version). It is wildly popular but has poor virus detection rates.
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2. For your Anti-Adware and Anti-Spyware needs...............(use at least 1 anti-spyware, but 2 is OK). Do a scan with it on a regular basis.
SUPERAntiSpyware:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
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3. For your Firewall..........(Always use only 1 software firewall)
A decent free firewall is PC Tools Firewall Plus. One can either choose "Normal User Mode" Or "Expert User Mode"'depending on the detail of alerts and application custom rules desired.
It is one of the few free firewalls that will work (and work well) on Vista as well as XP and 2000.
http://www.pctools.com/firewall/
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4. And to help protect your computer from ever getting infected with malware in the first place............ (use them both)
SpywareBlaster helps to immunize your computer again certain selected malware.:
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareb...
SiteAdvisor warns you when visiting a potentionally malicious web-site:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/
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5. And always keep your Windows and all your installed software 100% updated and patched with all critical and security updates from the vendors THIS IS A MUST! In Internet Explorer just click Tools then Windows Updates.
Here is a little online (no download) security tool called The Secunia Software Inspector, that checks a computer for un-secure, un-updated and un-patched apps that may be installed on your computer.
The Secunia Software Inspector checks for possibly vulnerable programs like Adobe, Winamp, Java, Windows, Internet Explorer etc. and notifies if critical security updates are needed. !
Will work using IE, Opera or Firefox.
Use it once a month.
Pretty cool and free at:
http://secunia.com/software_inspector/
Great luck! Enjoy!