How to Keep Your Computer Secure

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Welcome to Computer Secure

This site is about easy steps we can (and should) take to make our computers more safe and secure, private and reliable.

Computer security in general is not a simple matter. But we can – easily, quickly and cheaply – get protection from common online threats like spyware, viruses and worms.

Read on for more information or go straight to:

Need Urgent Virus Help?

You could also use a free trial of Kaspersky Antivirus to help with an immediate virus emergency.
(Look for the 'Downloads' tab to get the free trial.)

Kaspersky Free Trial (North America)
(Look for the 'Downloads' tab to get the free trial.)

photo credit: juanpol

Improving Security Can Be Easy

Popular computer magazines and websites always have articles about PC security, and they have software reviews, shopping guides and recommendations.

And there are web sites about PC security written by specialists, where you can read well-informed discussions about security, spyware, virus defense, firewalls and so on.

But a lot of PC users just need to know how to quickly get protection from the main security threats.

That's what we are here for.

Our main pages about anti-spyware and anti-virus programs will answer questions such as:

• Which brands are trusted anti-spyware software? Click the link to find out.
• Which brands are respected anti-virus software? Find out here.
• Are there good quality FREE anti-spyware and anti-virus programs? (Yes!)
• Do I need a firewall? Probably. Find out more here.
• I think my PC has a virus/worm/trojan horse. Can I get free help to remove a virus etc? Yes: click the link.
• There are a lot of anti-spyware and anti-virus programs available: aren't they all equally good? NO! There are a lot of scam anti-spyware and anti-virus programs, also known as rogue programs.

We also have lots of articles, and links to articles, about all kinds of security related topics.

In case we have already been too long-winded about it, here are quick links to anti-spyware and anti-virus tools from reputable sources:

• Free, quality anti-spyware tools
• Other good quality anti-spyware tools
• Free antivirus tools.
• Other reputable antivirus tools.

If you haven't so far done anything about PC security, then making a big improvement to your security is as simple as installing some good anti-spyware and anti-virus programs.

Below is a discussion about computer security in general. It just amounts to saying that our PCs should be private and reliable: we keep our data safe and we keep intruders out.

Also below, we discuss security software in general: i.e. about anti-virus programs, internet security suites etc.

If you don't want to read all that, you might to skip to the last section of the page: Good News about Computer Security. That's about some of the free software available from trusted security companies.

Promises, promises:

We'd like to give you excellent, brief, easy to understand information on every PC security topic, right now. But it turns out we can never write it as fast as we hope we can.

So, for now, this site concentrates on topics central to online security, i.e.:
safer browsing, the problems of adware and spyware, virus protection, using a firewall. Also, some information about using passwords in a safe and secure way.

And we have pages about keeping children safe on the web: i.e. internet filters and parental control software that helps keep children away from offensive sites, scams and predators.

Also, we have page about registry tools linking to some respectable free tools to tweak or repair your registry or optimize your Windows system.

The page is here because some registry utilities are aggressively advertised although they are not very good. Some even contain adware or spware. Those are rogue programs.

In other words, they would not help to keep your computer secure and reliable. You don't want poor quality software working in your system registry. You need a quality tool. See our page about registry reapair software.

If you don't know what a rogue program is you might want to read our information page about rogue programs and the unethical advertising that is used to sell them.

Basic requirements for online security

A set-up to keep yourself secure online needs to include the following:

• Making your browser more secure (or maybe using a different browser).
• Using anti-spyware software.It's best to use more than one: but don't worry about expense, because we can point you to very good free antispyware programs.
• Using antivirus software. (Just one good one that runs all the time.)
• Using a firewall. (Just one.)
• Using email safely. (Some antivirus and anti-spyware tools will monitor incoming and outgoing emails.)

Also, we need to be smart about how we use passwords.

To keep your computer very secure you need a number of tools, including, for example, more than one anti-spyware tool.

We will explain that having all these tools need not cost very much, because:

• You can get free software to do some of these jobs.
• There are tools that do more than one job.

We have lots of links in every section to the most respected free software for computer security. (I don't know how this site is ever going to pay its bills when I keep pointing visitors to all the good free secuity software.)

Different kinds of security programs

• The online security software mentioned in our pages (and anywhere else) can be grouped as follows:
• Dedicated specialist tools: e.g. a specialist anti-virus tool, a firewall. (Free tools are usually one-job specialist tools.)
• Combined tools: e.g.

• Combined anti-virus + anti-spyware
• Combined anti-spyware + firewall.

• Security 'suites', that are often often called something like 'Internet Security Suite'. These usually aim to do most of the jobs you want for online security, e.g. monitor (always running) for virus and spyware threats, provide a software firewall, scan emails for viruses – maybe have spam filters too, enable 'parental controls' so you can keep your children within acceptable areas of the web.

This brings up some questions:

Which tools are best?

Which are best for you? Specialised tools, combined tools or a security suite?

Specialised tools, combined tools or security suite?

Here are some things to consider.
What we keep in mind is: ease of use, saving money and the quality of the software.

Pros and cons of specialised tools:

• For:
• Specialised tools tend to be more small and light – that is, they do not use much of your system's memory or processor to run.
• You can easily add, remove, upgrade or replace separate tools one at a time.
• Most free tools are specialised one-job tools.

So if you want to start your online security set-up with all free tools you would get a separate tool for each job, e.g. a firewall, an anti-virus tool and some separate spyware tools.

By the way, you could do this very quickly with the following:

1. Free anti-virus tool: E.g. free tools are offered by avast!, BitDefender and ClamWin.
2. Free anti-spyware tools: Ad-Aware, SpyBot, SUPERAntiSpyware etc. (See the free anti-spyware tools on our adware and spyware page here.)
3. Free firewall: ZoneAlarm Firewall

• Against:
• Inexperienced computer users may not want to download and install a lot of separate programs.
• Compatibility problems might occur.
  This is most likely to happen with a combination of an anti-virus program along with a firewall from different vendors. It is more likely to be a problem with a sophisticated firewall, not just a simple data filter.

Pros and cons of combined tools:

• For:
• Saving money:
  If you are about to buy one tool, e.g. an anti-virus program, you can often get another tool with it for just a few dollars more. So you save some money.
• Avoid compatibility problems:
  Some vendors offer an anti-virus + firewall tool. This ensures these two functions co-operate well.

• Against:
• You might not be able to replace or remove the combined tools individually. It depends on how the tools are delivered to you, e.g. as one dual-function program or as two separate programs.

Pros and cons of security suites:

• For:
• Using a complete suite is convenient and might be the best "ease of use" solution.
• You only have to deal with one purchase, one vendor, one support center.
• Some security suites are packed with features, including things like email security tools and 'parental control' tools to keep children safe on the web.

• Against:
• Security suites are bigger software applications and create more load on your system – that is, they might need a lot of your system's memory or processor to run.
• The tools might not all be of equal quality. You might get an excellent anti-spyware tool and firewall, but find out that the anti-virus tool is not so good.
• You probably cannot easily add, remove, upgrade or replace separate tools one at a time.

Good News about Computer Security

The trusted security specialists – e.g. respected anti-virus and anti-spyware vendors – usually offer free software we can use to keep our computers secure.

Of course these companies would like us to buy their latest products with full customer support.

But one thing you will notice on this site is that honest suppliers of security software believe that basic security measures are a necessity. And they are happy to give us the basics for free.

Whether or not we want to buy the latest fully-featured products for defence against the latest spyware and virus threats, these companies will give us the security essentials.

These companies give us, free:

1. Anti-spyware tools: Ad-Aware, SpyBot, SUPERAntiSpyware etc. (See the free anti-spyware tools on our adware and spyware page here.)
2. Anti-virus programs: Free software is offered by Avast!, BitDefender and ClamWin. See details on our main anti-virus page.
3. Firewalls: e.g. ZoneAlarm Firewall

Also these companies offer free, dedicated or specialized tools to remove known worms and other widespread malware.

That is, in case you need help right now for a virus, worm or other malware that you already have, you can get help from the companies that offer free and online scanners and removers for worms, viruses, trojans etc.

In summary:

Although there is an information overload, it's easy for us to start protecting our computers. Learn a little more about it when you can: implement whatever precautions you can.

Our main message is that computer security is important and users – especially internet users – need to know something about it. Otherwise, using the internet will become like walking through treacle – or through a minefield.