When it comes to protection against viruses, trojans and other malware,  prevention is MUCH better because a cure may not be possible. I spent last weekend wiping my hard drive clean and reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch, wasting valuable time. I hadn’t been infected in years, had let my guard down and paid for it.  Here are the 5 programs I’m using to keep from getting infected again.

1. Avast Antivirus

I used to work at a helpdesk and I’ve used a lot of antivirus programs over the years, from free (AVG, Comodo) to paid (Nod32, pre-bloatware Norton).  Avast is the easiest to use and doesn’t slow my computer down, using up barely 5mb ram.  Configuration is easy and it lets you know when definitions have been updated.  Unlike other free antivirus systems that offer limited functions, it includes scheduled scanning and real-time protection for files, email, web traffic, file-sharing & instant messages.  It also can be used as a screensaver to scan the computer whenever it’s not in use.  All in all, it’s feature set for free antivirus software is unbeatable.  Download the free version here.

2. Spybot Search & Destroy

An old reliable, Spybot was one of the first programs that was not a general antivirus scanner.  It started off scanning for spyware (that’s how it got its name) but evolved to scan for more insidious trojans and malware as well.  It offers scheduled scanning and an ‘immunization’ feature that tells installed browsers and one computer file a list of websites and internet addresses to avoid.  It includes a real-time protection feature called Resident/TeaTimer that can prevent ANY changes to your computer without your permission.  I have chosen not to use it due to the spikes in CPU usage when it’s active, but that’s the one concession I’m making for performance.  Download the always-free Spybot here.

3. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Anti-Malware has one main purpose – to scan for malware – and it does it extremely well.  The one shortcoming it has is that is doesn’t update automatically and has no scheduled scanning ore real-time protection, but that’s what Avast is for.  The paid version includes those features but having multiple programs providing real-time protection is unnecessary and a waste of resources.  Anti-Malware is great for scanning for malware and has so far identified some files that Avast missed.  However, it makes educated guesses as to what is and isn’t malware and will generally find more than Avast.  I don’t mind this as I’d rather be safe than sorry.  Download the free version here.

4. HijackThis

This is new to me and does one thing – scan the registry for things malware can affect and let them be fixed.  A lot of malware is oriented towards registry edits which are much harder to fish out and HijackThis is well worth having just to handle this.  Download the always-free HijackThis here.

5. CCleaner

CCleaner is more for maintaining privacy than preventing infections, but since the other programs don’t cover adware & spyware as much, CCleaner is a worthy tool.  It cleans all browsers, removing cookies and temporary files.  The latter is configurable, so it can be set to not erase your saved passwords if you don’t want it to.  It cleans up the Windows Recycle Bin and other temporary files and scans the registry to remove old & unused entries – all of which can combine to speed up your computer.  Download the always-free CCleaner here.

Those are the 5 programs I’m counting on keep my computer safe and save me time in the future.  Is there a program I missed that you find indispensible for internet security?

Virus picture by AJC1