How To – Protect your PC from viruses and spyware
We all know Windows’ weak spot has been security – but software companies and passionate programmers alike – have come up with some great software that can help users to both prevent and remove potential threats like viruses, trojans, worms, spyware and malware.
This article assumes that the user has a fair amount of experience with Windows and uses the software I’ve mentioned responsibly. Use the comments section to post your queries.
#1. Choose a good browser: We all know Internet Explorer sucks. It is common knowledge that most threats spread through the Internet, and logically enough, your browser is the easiest entry-point for all that crap. So dump IE and get a good browser like Firefox, Opera or Chrome. My personal favourite is Opera, which I have stuck with since the days of my 256 MB RAM. 
#2. Get a good antivirus: Seriously, if you’re one of those people still using Symantec’s Norton AV, you need to uninstall it right away. The reason is pretty simple. Norton is very very resource-hungry. Personally, I never was an AVG person either. So what are my suggestions? I would recommend ESET’s NOD32 or Kaspersky. I use NOD32 on my machine and I love it for its simplicity and elegance. As an added bonus, it is extremely lightweight! Get it from here.
#3. Monitor your task manager: The C-A-D has been around, saving our asses for a long time now. Hit the combination on your Windows PC now and take a look at your task manager. Go to the Processes tab and click on the Username column header to sort all the processes by username. Now, all the processes that belong to your username (i.e the login name you use for Windows) were started by you.. Ahem.. My point is, all threats would be listed alongside your name too. So look for mysterious-looking process names and immediately look them up on some trusted website like ProcessList or Task List. Or, an even simpler way to do this is to use some third-party task manager that lets you lookup process information with a simple click. The MKN Task Explorer is a neat piece of software that fits the bill perfectly.
#4. Protect against USB drive-based threats: USB drives are common everywhere now. Hackers have found ways to easily spread viruses and worms through USB drives. Even when Autoplay is disabled, viruses can be unknowingly activated by the user when he/she double-clicks the drive’s icon. Out of the very few USB autorun scanners, iKill takes the prize for the most intuitive application. Simply download it from the link and install it and you’re well protected from USB-based attacks.
#5. Geek Mode – Analyze your stuff: For geeks and the curious species, Trend (the makers of a popular AV of the ’90s, PC-Cillin) has come up with a simple yet powerful tool called HijackThis that generates a detailed log of all the backstage stuff on your PC – which includes a list of ActiveX controls installed, startup entries in the registry, services that run automatically and a whole world of information. It helps you in removing suspicious entries (with a backup too, of course!) and you can even send the log file generated to an expert (feel free to post yours in the comment section, I will help you with it) to find any potential threats.
#6. Meet your friendly neighborhood delete-tool: Users often come across files that they’re pretty darned sure that its a virus but can’t delete them. Fear not, for you have the Pocket Killbox! This nifty utility can pretty much delete anything you want (if not immediately, on the next boot-up). It features a backup feature too.
killbox.exe
Download Pocket Killbox – 72 KB
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Tagged as download, software, tutorial, virus + Categorized under Technology, How To | »
Good one!…I’m gonna try that ikill asap
Hi Friends,
http://www.for-ever.cn/nod32/
you can get activation key for NOD32 and SmartSecurity Enjoy
Theres another force delete software called Unlocker….. its very good!!! and HiJack this is one of the best softwares ever if u want to get rid of doubtful tasks…..
Apart from this there are several portable applications which prevent ur thumb drive (flash drive, wateva!) from getting affected…. http://portableapps.com/suite
Clamwin is a good portable antivirus….!!
Oh and if u really want to u know have complete control over your system(near complete) then try getting TuneUp utilities’09…. Its a fabulous software, very powerful with a groovy interface. It gets rid of registry errors, activex faults, unused shortcuts, clipboard history, even manages your startups and well lots more…!!! (ganesh is gonna be annoyed
coz this software’s not free but u can download the trial anytime to try it out
and @ganesh : wat do u think of chrome? is it good? i downloaded it when it was first released…… opened few tabs and voila it got palpitations!!!! i see my task manager to find out that each tab is opened as a seperate process and not as one eating more resourse…… i dunno if this has been fixed yet but i stopped using chrome rite then!!! its firefox for me! but opera is great for handheld devices!
@Parikshith: I do use Unlocker and HijackThis, but they’re both for power users who know precisely what to remove! And yes, TuneUp is awesome but its not exactly a security tool
And regarding Chrome, looks like you missed out on a lot of the hype it created before its release. You need to check out the Chrome comic strip. One of the most important security-related features is what they call Sandboxing. Chrome was purposely built in such a way that every tab/window maintains its own process. This way, if one of them freezes, it won’t bring your whole browser (and all your tabs) down! Don’t forget to check out the Chrome comic!
Hmmm…… But chrome becomes slow when i open multiple pdfs(large ones) unlike in firefox(recovers faster)…. hmmm……. this was in my old rig!!! will give it a try in new rig!!!!
Theres one more application called “USB safely remove” (its not a security thing nor is it a free ware) it helps to safely remove usb devices by finding out any active process and ending it(useful when a virus has taken control
), oh it also enables u to add a keyboard shortcut to safely remove the devices!!
@Parikshith: Actually, I just yank out pen drives without doing that
i got nothing else to say than “:p”
Chrome has issues with windows 7
@Parikshith: Windows 7 is only in Beta dude.
Wait till April for the RC, maybe people at Google would’ve fixed your issues!. The latest Beta version of Chrome works flawlessly in Windows 7me not trying beta version of browsers!!!! no way :p too much security risk! bt i’m tryin chrome in xp now and even now it gets a bit slow but better than wat it was in my last rig!