Security Software

Keep your system safe. Some free some shareware.

Now a couple of thoughts.

Many colleges and universities are providing a list of approved "anti virus" software, firewall programs, etc.
others are requiring the students to use and download from the school that they are attending.

For those that are picky or prefer one system over another perhaps a comparative might be in order.

Below are listed a couple of comparative sites that test and compare AV software.

By going to those sites you should gather enough information to make your choice. Or choke at stories you hear from others.

There is no guarantee that you will never get a virus, or get something blocked that is actually good.
You will be still safer than if you left your system unprotected.
Those listed are respectable companies. Those not listed may be good, possibly
are repackaged and / or sold under a different name.

AV-Comparatives.org - "On this site you will find independent comparatives of Anti-Virus software. All products listed in our comparatives are already a selection of some very good anti-virus products. In order to get included in our main tests, vendors must fulfill various conditions and minimum requirements."


"West Coast Labs is one of the world's leading independent test facilities providing a range of technical services for testing a range of technologies including UTM, Malware - including Anti-Virus, Trojan, Worms, Exploits and Spyware - Spam, URL, Web and Email Filtering, Firewall, VPN, IDS, IPS and IPD."


‘"Virus Bulletin's comparative tests allow the security industry to constantly be on guard in providing us with the best in technology. It is a top priority to receive a VB100 award. This award keeps the vendors honest and their products top notch.’

ICSA Labs has provided vendor-neutral testing and certification for hundreds of security products and solutions for many of the world's top security product developers and service providers

Anti Virus Software

Incase of emergency here is a list of good "on line" scanners.

Note: using more than one AV product could cause a conflict between systems.
Read installation instructions before installing an AV or Anti Spyware product.

The same is also true among firewalls. Be careful.



Authentium Command On Demand

ESET Online Scanner

McAfee FreeScan

Kaspersky Online Scanner 7

Windows Live OneCare safety scanner

Norton Security Scan

Trend Micro HouseCall

CA Online Malware Scanner

Panda Security 2009

Quick Heal Online Scan



The above are also listed in the list below.
Also note: Most Anti maleware programs offer a free trial of their products.
This for many would be just as good as using the on-line scan. Your choice.

Acronis AntiVirus 2010 protects your family and their computers from phishing attacks and spammers.

AhnLab V3 Internet Security

Authentium's Command Anti-Malware world-class defense for your Windows PC.

AVG Technologies, formerly Grisoft virus protection .
Comprehensive real-time protection against viruses, spyware, identity theft, poisoned web pages, and all types of malware that can threaten your valuable personal information.
New AVG LinkScanner®
AVG's newest security product provides real-time protection against online threats for free-forever.
ALSO

AVG Free is for private, non-commercial, single-home computer use only

avast! Antivirus and Windows Vista
Get antivirus protection for your Windows Vista beta 2 now.
We're pleased to announce that avast! antivirus now fully supports Windows Vista.
avast! Home Edition is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use.

Avira AntiVir Personal (freeware) and AntiVir Personal Edition Premium

BitDefender 2009
The new and improved BitDefender scanning engines will scan and disinfect infected files on access, minimizing data loss. Infected documents can now be recovered, instead of being deleted.

Blink® Personal Edition with Anti-virus

CA Anti-Virus Plus CA Anti-Spyware
Free Product Trials
Free Online Threat Scan
Free PC Optimize Scan

ClamWin Free Antivirus comes with an easy installer and open source code.
You may download and use it absolutely free of charge. It features:
* High detection rates for viruses and spyware;
* Scanning Scheduler;
* Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database.
* Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer;
* Addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.
ClamWin Free Antivirus does not include an on-access real-time scanner. You need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware.

Comodo Antivirus
Price: 100% Free

Doctor Web is a Russian IT-security solutions vendor.
Dr.Web anti-virus software has been developed since 1992.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus, CNET Editors’ Choice 2009
Our product delivers the best proactive protection against increasingly sophisticated threats and is known for being fast and unnoticeable

FRISK Software International
# F-PROT Antivirus for Windows
# F-PROT Antivirus for Linux

F-Secure US F-Secure Internet Security provides complete protection against online threats.

# Immunet Protect - Free!
"Every time someone in this collective community encounters a threat everyone else in the community gains protection from that same threat in real time. Immunet Protect makes this imagining a reality. By providing its own fast and light layer of virus detection on top of your existing Anti-Virus product and linking everyone in a global community we harness a security sum that is far greater than its parts."

Intego VirusBarrier X5 DP protects both Mac OS X and Windows from all known viruses.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Products

K7 TotalSecurity 10.0

Kingsoft Internet Security 9

MicroWorld eScan Internet Security Suite 1
eScan AntiVirus (AV) for Home Users

Moon Secure Antivirus
Moon Secure Antivirus aims to be the best Free Antivirus for Windows under GPL license. It offers multiple scan engines, Net shield, Firewall, On access, on Exec scanner and rootkits preventions plus features from Commercial Antivirus applications.

Norton AntiVirus 2009

Outpost PRO: firewall with antispyware

Panda Security

ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS

Protector Plus Antivirus Software

Quick Heal Technologies (P) Ltd.

RISING Antivirus Free Edition
"RISING, world top security software vendor, announces that their personal security product Rising Internet Security 2009 (RIS) has obtained the Anti-Spyware Desktop and the Anti-Malware Checkmark Certifications, from the major international independent test centre West Coast Labs."

Download award-winning internet security and anti-spyware software from Trend Micro

Vba32 Personal is recommended for home users. It’s a reliable and, it is crucial, quick tool to detect and neutralize computer viruses, mail worms, trojan programs and other malware (backdoors, adware, spyware, etc) in real time and on-demand at computers running Windows.

Vexira Antivirus for Windows Vista and Server 2008

VIPRE combines antivirus, antispyware, anti-rootkit and other security technologies into a seamless, tightly-integrated security solution. VIPRE delivers comprehensive protection against today's highly complex spyware, viruses, and blended malware threats.

ViRobot

Webroot Internet Security Essentials
Blockbuster protection that won’t slow your PC down. Unmatched antivirus, antispyware and firewall
security plus automatic local and online backup to protect your files.

Windows Microsoft (OneCare)
OneCare helps protect your network, secure and tune-up your PCs, and backup your data all in one.

WOT is a free Internet security addon for your browser. It will keep you safe from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses and unreliable shopping sites. WOT warns you before you interact with a risky website. It's easy and it's free.

ZoneAlarm Extreme Security - Stops Attacks Others Miss!

Virustotal is a service that analyzes suspicious files
and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans,
and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines.

Anti Spyware Products

2-spyware.com
The 2-Spyware.com - everything you should know about spyware and malware.
Includes a list of the fake or deceptive products that can do more harm than good.

Ad-Aware Plus - Anniversary Edition
Real-time protection against spyware, trojans,
rootkits, hijackers, keyloggers, and more!

Find out how web sites are watching you.
Ghostery alerts you about the web bugs, ad networks and widgets on every page on the web.
Web bugs are hidden scripts that track your behavior and are used by the sites you visit to understand their own audience.

NoScript
provides extra protection for your Mozilla/Firefox or Flock browser: this extension allows JavaScript and Java execution only for trusted domains of your choice (e.g. your home-banking web site).

Spybot-S'&'D, (Search and Destroy)

SpywareBlaster
SpywareBlaster can help keep your system spyware-free and secure,
without interfering with the "good side" of the web
SpywareBlaster works on Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, or Vista.

Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus more information"

Spyware Terminator, winner of many awards and high ratings from industry experts and users. Its free comprehensive protection is comparable to competitors' paid versions!

Double Anti-Spy Professional

Twister Anti-TrojanVirus V7 R3 2nd Edition Released ! 90 Days Free !!
Twister Anti-TrojanVirus is a powerful and easy-to-use anti-trojan, anti-virus, anti-rootkit, and anti-spyware software. It provides realtime protection against trojans, spyware, viruses, hackers, adware and other harmware threats.

Windows Defender is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software.

System Requirements for Windows Defender

HijackThis : A general homepage hijackers detector and remover. Initially based on the article Hijacked!, but expanded with almost a dozen other checks against hijacker tricks. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs/URLs, just the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites. As a result, false positives are imminent and unless you are sure what you're doing, you should always consult with knowledgable folks (e.g. the forums) before deleting anything.

TrojanHunter searches for and removes trojans from your system. An easy-to-use Scanner and a Guard that scans in the background TrojanHunter is a must-have complement to your virus scanner.

SpyShelter
This anti keylogger blocks commercial and even totally unknown advanced keyloggers like the ones any hobbyist programmer can develop, and you don’t have to download the definitions database all the time.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
an easy-to-use, simple, and effective anti-malware application.

Mac products

ProtectMac Limited
ProtectMac AntiVirus has been designed to go hand-in-hand with Mac OS X.
Free 30-Day trial.

MacScan gives you the peace of mind and security needed to conduct your day-to-day personal business. MacScan, your own 24/7 personal security guard...in today's open web society... can you afford to be without MacScan?

Other utilities web sites I had book marked as interesting.

LinkExtend provides meta-site-ratings for computer safety, child safety, company ethics, and popularity. Safety results come from eight online services giving you a safer browsing experience. Site links, titles, files and reviews are also included.

NT Registry Optimizer
and
The Emergency Recovery Utility NT

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool.
It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows
to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Software '&' Services
File Scavenger® Version 3
is a file "undelete" and data recovery utility for
Windows XP®, Windows Server 2003®, Windows 2000® or Windows NT®.
File Scavenger® can recover files that have been accidentally deleted (including files removed from the Recycle Bin, in a DOS window, from a network drive, from Windows Explorer with the SHIFT key held down) provided that recovery is attempted before the files are permanently overwritten by new data.

EndItAll
lets you terminate all non-essential programs for the purpose of installing new software,
running finicky games, or writing to CD-Rs that need a big buffer.
The essential system programs Explorer and Systray cannot be terminated.
EndItAll's main window presents a list of running processes.
You can protect any process in the list from termination

Commercial but free download.

Privacy Eraser is an Internet Eraser that protects your Internet privacy by cleaning up all the tracks of your Internet and computer activities.
Supports popular web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, AOL, Netscape, Opera, and MSN Explorer.

Total Privacy 5 makes use of the most advanced washing and shredding methods available today to make sure that your own private business and computer use remains exactly that - private.

For Firefox BetterPrivacy is a Super Cookie Safeguard which protects from usually not deletable LSO's. It blocks longterm tracking on Google, YouTube Ebay and many other domains.
Note can mess up log in info and trial limits on shareware if not excluded.

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner
is a free registry repair software that allows you to safely clean and repair registry problems with a few simple mouse clicks. The Windows Registry is a crucial part of your PC's operation system.

EULAlyzer
When installing software, never just click past the license agreement. Pop it into EULAlyzer, and EULAlyze it!
No one enjoys reading software end user license agreements. It's as if the vendors count on boring you senseless before you get to the parts about allowing installation of third-party software and sacrificing your firstborn. A freebie called EULAlyzer can help by scanning EULAs and giving you a heads-up when it encounters suspicious phrases.

Total Uninstall: Install - Monitor - Uninstall
Total Uninstall
helps monitor any changes made to your system during the installation of a new application.
It allows you to perform a complete uninstall without having to rely on the supplied Add/Remove
program which can leave files or changes behind.
Is Shareware.

What's Running
is a product that gives you an inside look
into your Windows 2000/XP/2003 system.
Find out important information such as what
modules are involved in a specific process.

SIW - System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala
Everything you want to know about your computer.
SIW performs computer configuration analysis and diagnostics.
It gives detailed information about your computer properties and settings,

Microsoft acquired Sysinternals in July, 2006.
The Sysinternals web site was created in 1996 by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell
to host their advanced system utilities and technical information.

Windows Drivers (XP '&' Vista) with Drivers HQ