How can I protect my laptop against viruses?

Question

It's a PC, not a mac. I'm a bit clueless as the the best anti-virus software.

Answer 1

Best AV around at the moment would be NOD32, won the Virus Bulliten award multiple times over Norton AV...

It is made by ESET... and a trail can be downloaded from here..

http://www.eset.com/download/index.php

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

Yes all the above answer are great - do as they say download spybot - lavasoft - avg -

zonelabs is excellant - especially if you go for the PRO one

but one of the best ways to protect your computer is to create a limited account

one of the ways that virus's and spyware infect your computer is when it is allowed to right to the windows registry

by creating a limited account , windows will not allow any programs to write to registry (Normally)

by creating this limited account if you do get a NASTY - you can always delete this account and usually would get rid of the nasty's and you will not have to reformat/revoer your system

the only downside of creating a limited account that you will have problems downloading and installing programs - but you can use the option- RUN AS

I would do this it is not a good idea to surf the net with adminstration rights all the time - this leaves you open for so may attacks

need more info - IM me when i'm on line

hope this helps

fen

Answer 4

Protect a pc from virus needs a Antivirus and a Firewall. There are special packs with ant. and firewall. An antivirus removes the code of a virus and a firewall protects the computer of being attacked without your permission. This attacks are made for the download of the code of the virus. Even with you don't make any download, the attacks can append any time. I recommend Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security, with firewall and antivirus.

Answer 5

Everything I'm recommending is Free (not a trial version) and works better than most pay programs. I put this complete package on my neighbors computer 3 months ago and he hasn't had an infection since. I use everything but the firewall and AV program. I use the ones provided by my DSL provider.

First go to Java and download the latest updated program. It is 5.0 update 7. You probably have 5.0 update 6.

http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_ie.jsp

Next go here and download this program: It is not a stand alone AV/AS program. It must be used with an AV and AS program(s). It works with the and will do wonders to stop infection before they get installed on your computer.

http://www.novatix.com/Home.aspx

Next go to this site and download the following programs: All these programs will be in the first 3 red boxes.

AVG 7.1 - Anti-Virus program. Recommended by Kim Kommando to her radio listeners.

Spybot Search and Destroy- Anti-Spy Program.
Windows Defender- Anti-Spy Program.
Zone Alarm- Firewall

If you have the Yahoo Toolbar with AS, continue to use it.

http://www.filehippo.com/

Now go to this site and download SiteAdvisor: You will understand what it does when you read the site. You can say this is the very first step in stopping being infected. This program works on IE and Firefox. Support for other browsers will come later.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Answer 6

Follow these downloads and your PC will be safe from most
viruses.

1) AVG Anti Virus
2) Sophos Anti Virus
3) Ewido Anti Malware
4) SpyBot Search and Destroy
5) Spyware Blaster
6) ZoneAlarm Firewall ( basic)
7) SiteAdvisor
8) WinPetrol
9) ProcessGuard

Answer 7

All of these programs are legal freeware.
Avoid Internet Explorer, downlad Mozilla Firefox and Opera webbrowsers. They don't support active X and you can turn javascript off.
http://www.mozilla.com/
http://www.opera.com/

tools - options - content - untick enable javascript.


Microsoft have two free online scanners that look for malware.
http://safety.live.com/site/en-US/default.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

You can also download Microsofts free Windows Defender from the official Microsoft site.

The Windows firewall doesn't stop malware on your pc from dialling out. Either of these firewalls are free for personal use and stop unwanted incoming and outgoing traffic. You choose which programs are allowed to access the internet. They are both fairly easy to use and updated regularly.
Zone Alarm firewall
www.zonelabs.com

Kerio firewall
http://www.kerio.com

Winpatrol is a handy utility that tracks cookies on your pc and stops unwanted changes to your startup menu.
www.winpatrol.com

Spywareblaster works with Internet Explorer. It won't uninstall spyware that is already on your pc, but it will prevent hijacks and other malicious changes to I.E.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Ewido anti trojan
www.ewido.net

Ad-Aware SE Personal anti adware
http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Spybot Search and Destroy anti spyware
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

AVG Antivirus
http://www.grisoft.com

Remember to update and run all of you anti malware programs at least once a week.
Accept e-mails only as plain text not html.
If you don't know who an e-mail is from, don't even open it. That will tell spammers that it is a valid e-mail address. And don't open its attatchment.
Don't install hooky software, some people use it to put malware on your pc.

If you don't mind paying for software, NOD 32 is the professional choice, subscription is about £45 for 3 years.
Zone Alarm with AntiVirus is good and will let you surf anonymously. If they can't see you, they can't hack you.

Answer 8

You could use Linux instead of Windows. Windows is the only major operating system with a serious virus problem. Other operating systems like Mac OS X and Linux do not get viruses easily.

Mac is expensive, Linux is free and will run on a PC.

http://www.ubuntu.com

Setup guide here (you can try it without installing anything)
http://www.linuxfortravelers.com/ubuntu-live-cd-guide

Answer 9

its not complicated to protect your p.c fro viruses,firstly go to http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html#3 and download the free edition(remember to activate it within 60 days) and install it.
once installed there is just one golden rule,keep it updated,as a virus scanner which is out-of-date is as much use as no virus scanner
avast will auto-update so you wont have to worry on that score
while you are one the net why not go to http://www.safer-networking.org/ and download spybot,this is the best anti-spy program avalible free-of-charge and will protect you from nearlly every known spy and ad-ware
again make sure you keep it up-dated as this program does not auto-update
for the best anti-virus if you dont mind paying you cant go far wrong than to use nod32 avalible from http://www.eset.com/ ,it has a bigger virus defenition(virus database) than any other virus software

Answer 10

If you want free anti-virus software then download AVG. But with Norton you pay £30 but its better.