I thought it would be a good idea to get a list of useful programs that we could keep here. If a mod comes across this - could you sticky it please. It would be quite helpful. I'm bound to have missed some programs, so if there is some that you think should be on this list - post here or PM me and I'll add them to the list.

With all these programs, there is no right or wrong one to use. Many of these programs are free or at least will offer evaluation periods. Try a few of them and see which one you like the best.

Virus Scanners

If you don't have a virus scanner on your PC - get one and fast. New viruses are released every week and some scan spread all around the world in a matter of hours. The news nowadays is constantly filled with talks of new viruses trying to do this and that. The best way of putting a stop to them is to have a virus checker constantly running on your PC. Here are a few to select from:

Norton Antivirus - One of the most popular virus scanners out there. My personal choice.
McAfee VirusScan - Also another of the more popular virus scanners out there.
Eset Nod32 Antivirus
Kaspersky Antivirus
Kaspersky Online virus checker - Kaspersky also offer a free, online virus check for those who don't want to buy a virus scanner (tisk tisk).
AVG Antivirus


Firewalls

Firewalls are another great way to stop many threats out there on the internet today. A firewall will only let programs send/receive if you say it can. This way you can make sure that your internet browser can access the internet, but any nasty spyware that sneaks in won't be able to. Windows XP comes with a built in firewall but if you don't have XP, or want more control, consider the following.

ZoneAlarm - Very user friendly but still powerful. Comes in several version - including a free one
McAfee Personal Firewall
Norton Personal Firewall
Sygate Personal Firewall - Free for personal use


Spyware Removal Tools

Do you keep getting annoying adverts popping up while surfing the internet? Does your browser keep setting your homepage to some rubbish? Well then you have some spyware on your PC my friend. Try downloading one of these bad boys to get rid of it,

Adaware - Along with Spyware: S&D, a must have on your PC. Looks good, updated regularly.
Spyware: Search & Destroy - Another great spyware removal tool.

Combined with Adaware, your PC should be adware free.

Also check out the sites for McAfee, Symantec (Norton) etc. for Spyware removal tools as well. You will have to pay for these ones I'm afraid though.

Internet Browsers

Firefox - Unless you have been hiding under a rock somewhere, you should have heard of Firefox. It's a free internet browser that is rapidly taking away market share from IE. It's faster, safer and has a number of nice extras like themes and extensions.
Internet Explorer - Out of fairness I put this here. I think Firefox is much better but IE is still the most widely used.
Opera - Another alternative to IE.
Avant Browser - Before Firefox, this was my browser of choice. It is actually just a wrapper round IE adding some extra features to it like tabbed browsing.

Email Clients

Fed up with Outlook Express? Well why not try on one of these email clients for size.

Mozilla Thunderbird - Firefox's sister program. Lovely email client with tonnes of features. Like Firefox you can download extra themes and extensions to make the app even more appealling,
Pegasus Mail - Some nice features like allowing you to OK attachments before they are downloaded from your email server.



I'll add some more useful programs on here later, but for now - this will do. Some linux programs may also follow I guess. Finally, sorry for being so bias towards Firefox/Thunderbird. As you can tell I'm not Microsoft's biggest fan.

SabbzR

Norton and McCaffee are really bad.

NOD32 is by far the best, although not being rated high - the south african government use it and they haven't had a virus intrusion in the last two years or so - or so my bud who works for them tells me :P

chek101

I agree!

MrsFoxxy2u

make sure you have no cookies in your puter and always run defrag

davejacobs

I frequently visit a number of sites that feature only software that is free. My favorite is Free Internet Security Software. This site has done a great job of finding the best free internet security software of all types. The free products from Comodo are especially amazing. We have totally replaced expired trials and expired commercial software such as Norton Antivirus with the free programs this site has collected. The web master has also answered a number of questions for me about product selection. This is the must visit site for free internet security software that can totally protect your computer!

interinfinity

Bitdefender anti virus is FREE and ive used it since 2002, and it has never let me down.

zoom_gfx8

Wendy225 thanks for the information it helps me a lot to find which is the best antivirus well, as you suggest i try one of them

morgaine300

Can't think of anything new, cause most of it has been named already. But I'm going to throw a vote in for Avast. I used to use McAfee but they have become too big for their britches, and at this point I can't even install it cause it's having a fit over some security setting and I have never figured out what it wants. (I've done this offline, and turned everything on my computer down/off.) And Norton just stinks. I liked their old stuff but not anything w/in about the last 10 years. It many times locks up the computer, and it's obtrusive as heck. It doesn't play nice with other things.

The Avast has worked for me, is unobtrusive, and I've never had to turn it off for anything. I too have gone without an "official" firewall and just keep the Netshield and Web Shield on in Avast. Haven't had a problem.

And rather than disagreeing with Tommy, I'm going to agree with him that I don't like having more than one program to do the same job, IF it runs in residency. i.e. I won't use more than one firewall, AV, etc. However, I have two spyware ones (Ad-Aware and Spybot, the second of which I believe is much better) and they don't mind each other, I assume because they're not running unless I tell them to.

invisibleman_productions