Speed Up Your PC, and Make it Safer!

The internet is a dangerous place. Very few people would debate that, but sadly, very few people know what they can do to make the net safer. Most PC owners run whatever anti-virus software is included with their system, applications like Norton or McAfee, which are good at detecting some threats, but miss the vast majority of them. This is because the people who produce viruses and other bad stuff go to great lengths to bypass the protections that these very popular applications offer. How can you get ahead of the curve? Here's a list of free or reasonably-priced software that can help keep your system one step ahead of the people who make viruses.

The Best Protection is Prevention!
Before we begin, let's start out with a quick pre-amble about internet security, and the laws of the virtual land. Preventing viruses, malware, adware, and spyware from infiltrating your computer starts with your willingness to avoid websites that aren't noteworthy, and to never download programs/ applications that you aren't entirely sure of. Never, ever download a file simply because a website tells you to. Always be sure to Google any programs/ apps that you're going to download, and see what the internet at large has to say about an application. If it's safe to use, someone on the web will back that up. Also, always be sure to read the licensing agreements and privacy policies of whatever software you're installing, because many spyware and virus makers are crass enough to tell you what they're about to do! With that said, let's take a look at some handy software that can keep your computer running smoothly.

ESET Nod32 Antivirus: (www.eset.com) My friend Jake turned me on to ESET's Nod32 software, and I've never looked back since. In all of my time using the internet, since the early-to-mid 1990's, I have never found an antivirus tool as handy, helpful, and all-around useful as Nod32. It very easily detects viruses, spyware, malware, adware, and other junk that harms your computer. It can even find rootkits, and if you know what a rootkit is, then you know how impressive that is! Nod32 is the only product listed in this article that costs money to use, but in my opinion, it is definitely money well spent. Best of all, Nod32 leaves a very small fingerprint on your system resources. Most antivirus software can be extremely pushy, hogging your computer's power and interupting other programs that you're running. Of all the antivirus software I've used, Nod32 has the smallest impact on your resources... impressive, because it also detects more junk and makes your PC safer than those bigger, more sluggish programs. It's important to note that you should not have more than one antivirus program installed and running on your system at a time, as the two will end up detecting each other and causing all sorts of conflicts.

AVG Free: (http://free.avg.com) For those of you who don't want to spend any money whatsoever, AVG Free is a decent alternative to Nod32. Its impact on your system's resources is far greater, but still smaller than most commercial applications (and smaller than many other free ones, too). It's detection is great if you're highly cautious on the internet, but if you use this software, be sure to tip-toe whenever you're visiting a website you're unsure of. I rate this as better than Norton or McAfee, but not nearly as good as Nod32. It's important to note that you should not have more than one antivirus program installed and running on your system at a time, as the two will end up detecting each other and causing all sorts of conflicts. I said that in the Nod32 review as well, but I'm sure some people may have skipped ahead when they saw that Nod32 isn't free.

SUPERAntiSpyware Free (www.superantispyware.com) Antivirus programs are extremely powerful, but they're designed to hunt down viruses, and there's always a risk that they might miss spyware, adware, and malware. This is where SUPERAntiSpyware ("SAS") comes into play. In my experience, SAS is able to detect more harmful and intrusive software than any other anti-spyware applications I've seen. It can even detect viruses and rootkits, something that very few anti-spyware apps can claim.

Ad-Aware Free: (www.lavasoft.com) It's rare that you'll find a computer nerd who doesn't know about Ad-Aware. Even though it's an older application, Ad-Aware is able to detect a handful of infiltrations that SAS can't. I run Ad-Aware every other time that I run SAS, just to be on the safe side, and on occasion it does find something harmful.

Spybot S&D: (www.safer-networking.org)Spybot Search & Destroy has been on the scene for an extremely long time. I remember having this installed on my Windows 98 PC! But old doesn't always translate to "bad" or "ineffective." Spybot S&D is still able to find a couple of infiltrations that others can't, and it has a very handy immunization tool that prevents a large quantity of bad things from getting into your system.

CCleaner: (www.ccleaner.com) The programs listed before all work to make your computer safer, but they do very little to help make your computer cleaner. This is where CCleaner comes in. CCleaner is a tool that cleans up your hard drive, removing unnecessary files and information. It also has a tool that cleans up your Windows registry, finding broken links and unnecessary registry keys. The very first time you run CCleaner, you'll immediately notice that your computer is loading programs faster, accessing websites more efficiently, and otherwise performing better than it has since you first bought it. The only down-side to using CCleaner is that it will clean out your "autofill" data. If you allow your web browser to save your passwords and login names, you'll lose that after running CCleaner, and any pages that you've set to log you in automatically will need to be logged into again. A very small price to pay for drastically-improved PC performance!

WinPatrol (www.winpatrol.com) This is a very nifty little tool that I only just recently discovered. Winpatrol lists every program running on your computer, even the ones you can't see, and tells you what they are with a decent amount of detail. This is great if you're looking to speed up your computer and turn off unnecessary programs, but aren't sure what applications you need to leave on. It also lets you know what applications are installed into your Internet Explorer, which can help you track down and get rid of viruses. WinPatrol is intended for more advanced users, so don't download this unless you feel confident in your ability to figure out how software works!

HijackThis!: (http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis) No matter how powerful your antivirus program is, or how many anti-spyware programs you run periodically, there's no such thing as 100% immunity. As I've said before, the internet is a dangerous place! You should have a copy of HijackThis! installed on your computer just in case an unpleasant disaster should strike. HijackThis! creates a log that you can post to a helpful internet forum, and people can use the information it generates to help you out. My fingers are crossed that you never have a problem that serious, but I'm listing HijackThis! just in case.

Mozilla Firefox: (www.mozilla.com/firefox) Remember earlier when I told you that the best protection is prevention? Mozilla's Firefox web browser is a means to that end. The people who create viruses, spyware, malware, etc. focus their efforts towards Internet Explorer users. By simply using a different web browser, you can avoid a wide variety of harmful programs. Mozilla Firefox is easy to use, pretty to look at, and has many of the same features as Internet Explorer. It has created legions of die-hard loyalists all over the world, and it's definitely worthwhile to download it, even if you only take a look around and see how it works.