This is not a hard thing to do. There are a lot of full featured antivirus out there that work really good and will not cost you a penny.
First of all you need to know the diffrence between an Antivirus software and an Antispyware software they are two different things and sometimes they come bundeled together but other times you will need to install 2 difrerent programs.
Here is a list of some of the most used Free Antivirus you can find and download from the net.
- AVG Antivirus: This has a free and a paid version, the free version is very complete and it does not consume much resources. This version has some antispyware features built in, but to get the most out of it you willl need to go for the paid version. Here is a feature comparison of all the products they offer.
"AVG Free offers very good (and very free) protection against viruses and spyware... As a bonus, its real-time LinkScanner technology keeps you from clicking search links to dangerous sites. It's an excellent choice if you need free protection against both viruses and spyware." PC Magazine - Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus: This is a reliable antivirus solution, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs such as viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc. Monitors every action executed by the user or the operating system and reacts promptly when a malicious program is detected.
- avast! antivirus Home Edition: This is another option for free antivirus protection, the Home edition is free for non-commercial & home use only. And of course they also offer a wide range paid products providing higher data security, starting with avast! Professional Edition
My personal preference for Free Antivirus Software goes to AVG Free, for me is the most complete of the pack and has quite some interesting antyspyware features brundeled in. The updates are free also and normaly they release them daily, and the e-mail scanner works great with Outlook and Thunderbitrd.
Below you will find some definitions and FAQ's that might be of help:
- What is a Trojan Horse or Backdoor Virus?
Trojan Horse is a malicious application, which can not spread itself. Original Trojan Horses were programs which acted as a useful utility. Although, in fact, their start used to cause damage to disc content (or part of it).
At the present time the most spreading Trojan Horses are BackDoor Trojans. They enable remote access to infected computers and PSW (Password Stealers) - they are trying to gather as much private information from the infected computer as possible and to send the info through the Internet.
Normally to remove the Trojan Horse, it is enough to delete the detected file. - Why is important to keep Windows Updated?
First you must know that even the best security software cannot protect your computer from everything, specially from the infection of your system in case the harmful code is abusing some bug of installed operating system.
The updating of operating system is enabled and set as automatic by default very often. It means that operating system is looking for new updates periodically. In case a new update is available, it is downloaded and installed by operating system automatically. You may change this settings according to your individual needs.
It is not recommended to deactivate the updates completely. - What are tracking cookie files?
Tracking cookies are NOT viruses or malicious code. Cookies are only text files and therefore cannot be dangerous to your computer.
The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized web pages for them. Or just track the way the navigate a the site to make changes on the design. Also cookies are used to keep infortant information for a website, like your shopping cart content, language selection, etc. When you enter a web site using cookies, wich has two languages for example, it will first ask you to choose your language or geographical location, them this information is sent to your web browser as a cookie file. The next time you go to the same web site, your browser will send the cookie to the web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom web pages.
If you don’t want to use cookies you can check the settings of yout Browser to accept/deny the cookie file. For doing this check your browser settings, here are some quick links on how to do that in some of the most common Browsers:
Internet Explorer: How to disable cookies in IE
Mozilla Firefox : Controlling Cookie settings in Firefox.
