Computers and computer protection

Most computer users have experienced security and protection issues when surfing the internet or when opening email attachments. Different operating systems vary in their ability to deal with malicious code. The threat that all Windows users have heard of is that of a virus.

There is a misconception among computer users about antivirus and antispyware programs. Not everybody understands that viruses and spy programs are different, but most importantly that the tools for their prevention and removal are different. It is important to improve security by protecting your computer with at least one antispyware program and an antivirus.

Beware! There are several threats disguised as anti-spyware programs and PC-tuning software. As well as using some free tools, it is good practice to password protect your account, and if you do not install programs very often, to run as (Microsoft term) a limited user.

There is no need to spend money in antivirus and antispyware programs for personal use. Some very good programs are free to download for non commercial users. A very good mix of security software for Windows machines is composed of AVG anti-virus in cooperation with Spybot 1.6.

Please note that AVG anti-spyware is not free for download and use any longer.

It is good practise to cross scan with different tools.

If your machine is already infected with some malware, you should run the complete scans and most of the times the problems will be resolved. I would recommend to start with Spybot.

If you have a machine running Vista and you want to get rid of the annoying "Do you want to continue message" and black screen, you can turn off the User Account Control UAC from: Control Panel > User Accounts > Turn User Account Control On or Off

You can then turn the UAC off.

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