Computer Maintenance for Real Humans
Anybody who has a Windows based computer in the home these days knows how much of a gamble using the internet can be. If you’re not on the ball with security, life as a computer owner can quickly turn into your own private living hell.
The good news is there are some simple preventative measures one can take to avoid much of the nastiness and, despite what anybody might tell you in an email or a popup, these tools are all wonderfully free and might help you avoid a call to the professionals.
At the VERY least you should be running an Anti-Virus program that offers good realtime protection in the form of email scanning and resident shield. Beyond this you should be running regular maintenance scans, be it automatically scheduled or manually.
Our recommended short list, which in most cases will get you out of trouble and keep you there, are:
Prevention
At it’s most basic level, the core antivirus engine of AVG is still solid but as each version of AVG has been released, more tools have been integrated. These days, along with the excellent antivirus engine, it integrates a capable Anti-Spyware, Link Scanner and ID Protection giving you good, basic all-round online protection. There’s also a paid version, which features even more tools, but for the vast majority of users AVG Free still remains one of the top picks. Automatically updates itself without the need for user interaction.
Other good choices for free protection:
Maintenance
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
Includes realtime protection, though not enabled by default. An excellent tool for regularly scanning your computer for malware (short for “Malicious Software”). A good tool to turn to at the first sign of trouble and as part of a regular scanning routine as it’s fast and effective. Should be manually updated before you scan.
Ad-Aware is a lot of people’s go-to guy for realtime anti-malware protection. Takes a while to scan but has a huge malware database and is very thorough. Good for performing a deeper scan after initially using Malwarebyes Anti-Malware.
Other good choices for free maintenance:
At the end of the day though…
As good as these programs are, sometimes gremlins will slip through. New malware is released constantly and people mutate known viruses and trojans to get past any protection you may be running. It’s a constant game that makes it crucial to ensure that you keep any protection and maintenance you use updated. Most applications will automatically do this for you but in some cases, manually updating is required and should be the first thing you do before scanning.
Probably even more valuable than the programs themselves is getting yourself into good computing habits where you’re using the tools you have installed effectively and regularly. Never listen to anybody who tells you there’s no need for any one aspect of your arsenal. You DO need to run an antivirus and you DO need to run regular scans. These are important facts of modern computing, plain and simple, and should never be up for negotiation
In future, we’ll be covering other oft-overlooked areas that can really save your bacon when it counts; the importance of backing up and separating work from play.
- Edan
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
