Part four in our virus and malware series will deal with free tools to protect your computer from all things nasty. These are our recommendations. If you have some of your own, please let us know in a comment.
Housecall is an excellent free online virus scan. Sometimes your own anti-virus can be compromised or shut down completely by malware. Head to the site linked above and Housecall will check your computer for free. Download and install a small app then let it run. Once the verdict comes through, you can choose to get rid of anything that Housecall finds. Full instructions are on the site.
Microsoft puts out a free package of security products that will watch over your computer as you work, updating itself when it needs to do so. MSE is part of Windows 8 but you have to download it and install it yourself if you’re using other versions of Windows. Click the link above and get it. We use it on several of our computers and recommend it highly.
On some of our other machines, we use AVG Free AntiVirus. AVG is fast when it scans and protects any computer it’s on, even Macs. You have to update it every year, as in a whole new version, but that’s a good thing. AVG has pay versions too but that’s up to you. We like free.
If your problem isn’t from a virus, and it probably isn’t, check out Malware Bytes. The term malware is all-inclusive, including adware, cookies, viruses and many other things that can slow your computer down. If you’ve installed a bit of software and things keep popping up on your screen when you’re surfing, chances are that Malware Bytes will get rid of it. These bad things almost always come with helper apps, things such as toolbars that pretend to speed up your searching or assist you with downloads. No worries. Malware Bytes will find them. Malware Bytes doesn’t work in the background, you have to initiate a scan whenever you think you should. We’d advise that you do this about once a week, maybe once every two weeks but, again, that’s up to you.
That’s a quick rundown on some free bits and pieces that can keep your computer safe from harm. Windows already has a built-in firewall but, unless you are running Windows 8, you must always install anti-virus software.
TIP: You don’t need to pay for this protection. New computers come with trial versions of Norton or McAfee AV products. Here at Computers Made Simple, we delete those products right off the bat. Why? First, they really slow your computer down and, second, they don’t work any better than the free AV software.
Thanks for reading!