Protecting Software

Introduction
The methods below which are listed below if followed properly will ensure that your machine will never ever get infected again. If you care about your data, then you would follow this and make sure everything is completed. There is no method that will keep a computer 100% free from Malware but you can prevent a lot by basic Dos and Don'ts.

Keeping everything up to date
Updates for any Software or an Operating System is created for a reason, alot of users tend to forget to keep their Operating System or any Software up to date. This is the one reason many computers get infected. An update is released to improve performance, functionality, design / layout and also to fix and loopholes or errors. Having the latest updates makea a machine more secure. Below are a list of Softwares and OS that needs to be kept up to date.

Micrsoft (Microsoft release updates all the time for their Operating System, visiting their website is beneficial to the computer's security.

General PC Security

If you receive an attachment from someone do not open it. If it contain .bat, .exe, .com or .pif do not open. Opening these kind of attachment is one of the ways that viruses and worms are infecting machines.

While surfing the web, if you are displayed pop-ups claiming that your pc might be infected with some sort of virus. Please ignore it, the majority of times this is a Scam.

There are also programs that disguise themselves as Anti-Spyware or security products but are instead scams. For a list of these types of programs we recommend you visit this link: Here
Another tactic to fool you on the web is when a site displays a popup that looks like a normal Windows message or alert. When you click on them, though, they instead bring you to another site that is trying to push a product on you. I suggest that you close these windows by clicking on the X instead of the OK button. Alternatively, you can check to see if it's a real alert by right-clicking on the window. If there is a menu that comes up saying Add to Favorites... you know it's a fake.

When using an Instant Messaging program be cautious about clicking on links people send to you. It is not uncommon for infections to send a message to everyone in the infected person's contact list that contains a link to an infection. Instead when you receive a message that contains a link, message back to the person asking if it is legit before you click on it.

Do not use P2p software and warez websites, not only is this Illegal but is the most common way of getting a pc infected. You can use McAfee Siteadvisor to look up info on the site.

Which Browser is the safest?
Any Browser is safer than Internet Explorer, the reason this is, is because alot of Malware is created for Internet Explorer as the majority of users use this browser hence a greater number of audience is infected. I recommend using Firefox because it is faster, safer and gives better controls and it is free. Firefox can be downloaded from Here.

Antivirus
Every machine that is connected to a network or the Internet needs to have an Antivirus Software installed, updated and regularly scanned. An Antivirus Software will run in the background scanning files. It is activated when file is read from and written to the Hard drive. It has various methods of scanning files and if an infection is detected it will either Quarantine it, Delete it or Disinfect it.

Below I have listed the top FREE Antivirus Softwares with their link to download it.

Antispyware
We know what Spyware is and what we don't know is how to keep a machine protected from them. We can do so with the following programs listed below. All these programs are free and come with real-time protection.

Firewall
All you need to know about Firewall is that it can come in Hardware or Software. A Firewall is generally a piece of Software that keeps a computer (s) or network (s) protected from unauthorised access (hackers). It blocks ports on the machine to achieve this. The Firewalls listed below are all free and very good.