Suggested Anti-virus Software:

*ONLY install one anti-virus program on your computer! Make sure to never click the paid advertisements on the side of websites they will almost always infect your computer.

  ●  AntiVir - Free to Home Users with Ads - Download Here

This anti-virus is by the far the best we have ever seen. It has consistently been the top anti-virus program for actual detection and removal of viruses for the last 3 years straight. We have recently switched our customer’s computers from AVG to Antivir due its exceptional detection and removal rate. The only real gripe we have is whenever it does an update it does display an advertisement for the full version of the software. The full version is only $27 / year and does offer some nice features such as faster update servers and an active web shield for spyware / malware.

  ●  AVG Anti-virus - Completely Free to Home Users - Download Here

In recent tests we have seen AVG's detection rate of spyware go too low for us to recommend. When AVG improves this which we are sure they will we will most likely recommend this as the main anti-virus / anti-spyware program to use. Despite it's lower than acceptable spyware detection rate, AVG's virus detection rate is still one of the best available.

  ●  AVAST! Anti-virus - Completely Free to Home Users - Download Here

We have not personally done a lot of testing of this software but we have heard very good things. If you do not like Antivir for any reason we would suggest trying this software out.

Suggested Anti-spyware Software:

*Multiple anti-spyware programs can be installed

  ●  Malwarebytes - Free for most features- Download Here

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is an easy-to-use, simple, and effective anti-malware application that is able to get rid of some of the biggest current threats such as Vundo and Smitfraud. Whether you know it or not your computer is always at risk of becoming infected with viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits, dialers, spyware, and malware that are constantly evolving and becoming harder to detect and remove. Only the most sophisticated anti-malware techniques can detect and remove these malicious programs from your computer.

  ●  Spybot Search & Destroy - Completely Free - Download Here

Probably the best anti-spyware product out there. We cannot fully recommend this product to our customers because it is not an automated program. You must update it and run it manually. If you are having a lot of problems with spyware, we suggest you download and run this product along with Windows Defender.

  ●  SuperAntiSpyware - Free for most features - Download Here

SUPERAntiSpyware is the most thorough scanner on the market. Their Multi-Dimensional Scanning and Process Interrogation Technology will detect spyware that other products miss! SUPERAntiSpyware will remove ALL the Spyware, NOT just the easy ones!

  ●  Windows Defender - Completely Free - Download Here

This anti-spyware program runs itself! With automatic scans and automatic updates this software will keep you protected fairly well with minimal user input.

  ●  Combofix - Completely Free - Download Here

Combofix is a freeware (a legitimate spyware remover created by sUBs), Combofix was designed to scan a computer for known malware, spyware (SurfSideKick, QooLogic, and Look2Me as well as any other combination of the mentioned spyware applications) and remove them.

Suggested Miscellaneous Software:

  ●  CCleaner - Completely Free - Download Here

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It will remove un-used and temporary files, safely from your system. It can also easily clean your registry, remove unwanted programs, broken entries in your add / remove programs, and best of all it can remove startup entries from the most common locations. This is a great piece of software that we highly suggest.

Schedules to keep your computer running smooth

If you are using Avira Antivir and Windows Defender they will run a scan each and every night. If you do not regularly leave your computer on, then we suggest leaving it on at least one night a week so scans can be completed. These programs will clean most viruses and spyware on their own, but it is a good idea to pay attention to the logs of the latest scans. In the Reports section under the Overview tab in Avira Antivir you can see if any viruses have been detected and if they have been successfully removed. Some viruses are very difficult to remove and you may have to read online how to manually remove a particularly nasty virus. We also suggest running CCleaner and Windows Defrag once every 2 weeks. At this time, any other anti-spyware program you use should be run as well. At the very least, all of these program should be run once a month.

• Anti-virus scans - Once every week
  
• Anti-spyware scan - Once every week
  
• CCleaner - Once every two weeks
  
• Windows Defrag - Once every two weeks