When it rains, it pours… at least that’s my observation of spyware and virus activity. Every so often I get calls from my small list of personal computer consulting clientele.

It appears that a flurry of spyware and virus activity happened last week. I got four phone calls in one week!

This prompted me to write about what I think to be the ultimate combination of anti-virus and spyware software that I highly recommend to my personal clients. Best of all, it’s FREE!

Anti-Virus

I know it’s tempting to go out and purchase Norton Anti-virus, or McAfee, but please don’t! You can get top-notch anti-virus software for FREE from AVG. Visit http://free.avg.com/ and make sure you download the free version. AVG is free for personal use, so make sure you are using this on your personal computer.

Here’s why AVG is better, in my opinion. Norton and McAfee are bloated, and seemingly take over your system and use up a lot of memory. AVG is very lean and mean, taking up much less system resources, while still providing excellent anti-virus protection.  I’ve been using AVG for years and I’ve never gotten a virus.  I’ve switched many, many clients over to AVG and they no longer get viruses either. I strongly endorse using AVG for your computer computer.

Anti-Spyware

I recommend a two-pronged attack on spyware… Spybot Search & Destroy and AdAware are the tools I use. Again, if you download them, make sure you’re downloading the free version. Also, both are free for personal use.

I haven’t found a single anti-spyware software that catches everything yet. However, Spybot and AdAware, together, seem to catch the majority of spyware.  So use them in conjunction. I generally run Spybot first, then AdAware, and I run it monthly, or if my system ever seems to be slowing down, that’s usually a sure sign that I’m spyware-laden.

Stay away from…

If you install and use AVG, Spybot S&D, and AdAware, you should not need other software. Trust me.

In particular, I would definitely NOT let Windows Defender install itself if you are running my combo. Windows Defender will conflict and slow your system down drastically.

Also, do not run Norton or McAfee in conjuction with AVG. Besides slowing your PC to a crawl, you’ll probably run into conflicts.

Finally, whatever you do, DO NOT click on Internet Ads claiming to be free spyware checkers. These are usually gimmicks that end up installing spyware on your system. What better way to lure someone into installing spyware than by offering a “free spyware scanner”?

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