Virus and spyware to most people these words are the proverbial boogeyman. They can get in your computer and destroy it and you would never know. In a heartbeat, your computer could crash. You could lose data or have your identity stolen. Thankfully, it's easy to protect yourself from such things; and for free no less. The best method of helping keep your computer clean, other than virus and spyware scanners, is to clean your temporary files. This includes your temporary files, temporary internet files, and cookies. A good way to do this is Disk Cleanup, a program that comes with every computer with Windows. There are some other programs you can try downloading off of www.download.com, but I don't know of any good ones. 

Here are some programs you can use to keep your computer clean. Remember, while the programs I'm going to give you are free and legal, they are free, so you get what you pay for.

The first program is AVG Free (www.avgfree.com). It's a reliable and effective anti-virus software program made by Grisoft. It's a bit awkward to use, but it works well and automatically updates every time you log on. The only complaint I have is that the first time I log on each day; it does an automatic scan of my computer. I haven't figured out how to shut it off, but supposedly there is a way to do so.

The second program you need to get is a firewall. Firewalls help keep out viruses and spyware. Some good ones are Zone Alarm and Sunbelt Personal Firewall. Both can be downloaded off of www.download.com. I prefer Sunbelt Personal Firewall as it gives me more freedom with the advanced options. For any regular person, either or will do. You can upgrade Sunbelt to the full version for $10 and Zone Alarm for $30.

The third program you need is a spyware scanner. Some good free ones are Ad-Aware and Microsoft Anti-Spyware. They can also be gotten at www.download.com. I prefer to use Sunbelt Counter Spy myself. It is not free, but for $15 it is one of the best anti-spyware programs out there. It can be downloaded from www.sunbelt-software.com.

The most important thing to do is be smart. If you aren't installing anything and a message pops up to allow a program to run that you've never heard of, Google that program. It might be spyware. Also, be careful where you download stuff from. The biggest sources of spyware and viruses are porn and gambling sites, along with illegal music downloads, including peer-to-peer transfer programs like Kazaa.

Tags: anti spyware, anti virus, grisoft anti virus, mcafee anti virus, spyware, symantee anti virus, virus