What are the best *most economical* anti-virus & spyware programs for a college student using Windows XP???

Question

I am a 20 year old college student using Windows XP on a Dell Inspiron 4150 (about 4 years old). I recently had to have my computer repaired due to spyware & viruses that had infested it due to LimeWire and other downloading programs I had previously carelessly used. Now I know to definitely not use LimeWire and stuff and am downloading my music from Ruckus and iTunes. My computer is still running slow after the data recovery so I think I want to have Windows entirely reloaded on it, but not at this moment (working at Yellowstone for the summer & nowhere to have that done). The guy who recovered my computer installed Avast! Antivirus & you can use it free for one year. Is that a good program? Will is protect me from spyware also??? What are the best programs for anti-virus & spyware protection for me, keeping in mind that I am a college student with minimal income? What are your suggestions for protection and for what reasons? Thanks so mu

Answer 1

I'm in college too and I know the virus protection colleges offer suck. I went to www.cnet.com and searched for Ashampoo AntiSpyWare in the search bar and scrolled down to about the bottom of the page and downloaded it. This has a 40-day free trial but the good news is that its only 29.99 to buy which would probably be great on your college budget. I know it was for me. Good luck!

Answer 2

To remove spyware,I recommend XoftSpy Se.
XoftSpy Se Features:
Remove Spyware, Adware
Stop Pop-ups
Kill Trojans, Worms, Viruses
Clean Registry & Program Errors
Remove harmful registry keys and files
Speed-Up your computer
Destroy harmful hijackers
Helps prevent identity theft
Clean & Optimize your PC

It can be found on this page:
http://www.anti-spywares.info
Finally,Make sure you have 1 or 2 antispyware on your computer and 1 antivirus and also 1 firewall.

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 3

AVG AntiVirus is what you want for your AV, totally free never asks for a dime and is great at preventing infections as well as running light on your memory. Search for "AVG FREE" to find it.

Use Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy for your spyware protection, both free. These progs do not run actively so you will need to manually run them from time to time.

Answer 4

I use NetZero DSL. It is plenty fast. It does not tie up a telephone line. With NetZero, you get Norton antivirus and antispyware, and firewall at no extra charge. The monthly fee is $17. Scans and updates are done automatically.

Answer 5

AVG free
for spyware
spybot and adaware
make sure you do the updates
for music try frostwire

Answer 6

For all computer related problems please check out
http://sumiram2006.googlepages.com/combatproblems
It not only gives complete solutions but also offers
free downloads of effective softwares which can detect
and eliminate all spy ware /virus /ad ware /Trojans completely.

Answer 7

These are all free http://www.basicspywaretips.com/freevirusremovaltool.html