Paul Doherty — Security Software

Security Software

This article suggests some software that every Windows user should be running if using a broadband connection. It covers software to detect and remove spyware, remove pop-ups, provide a firewall and defend against viruses.

Free products mentioned here are displayed in bold. The other products are generally inexpensive, and in many cases have a free version which offers slightly fewer facilities.

It seems strange to many people new to PCs, but the free products are at least as good — and in many cases far better — than similar paid-for products.

Summary

These are the products I currently like and use. My views are my own, other people may disagree.

For anti-virus products, I currently like Microsoft Security Essentials. The free version of AVG is still OK, although it's got bigger and slower with each new version, and I don't like all the bells and whistles (I turn them all off during the installation process).

I don't find any paid-for anti-virus software particularly worthwhile, and I continue to see many problems caused by Norton and McAfee products. They may be the market leaders, but I assume it's because they pay to have their "trial versions" installed on new PCs, and because they are actively pushed by the likes of PC World, not because of their technical merits.

For most people, there's no longer any need for the Google toolbar (or indeed any add-on toolbars), and I still find people who have Winzip installed unnecessarily — Windows has been able to zip and unzip files all by itself for years.

For a general-purpose spyware scanner, I like Malwarebytes.

Almost no-one needs to buy firewall software any more. Most people are using routers instead of modems now, and these operate as hardware firewalls, and anyway Windows Vista and Windows 7 (and all but the earliest version of Windows XP) have a built-in software firewall which is more than adequate, so I don't see the need for products like ZoneAlarm.

Recent versions of Internet Explorere (IE8) and Outlook Express (OE6) and Windows Mail are fine, so I no longer recommend that people use alternaive browsers or mail clients, although products like Firefox, Chrome and Thunderbird are still fine if you prefer them. When I set up IE8 I turn off all the "accerators" and such like, and change the built-on search to Google.

For more "under the bonnet" work, Autoruns and Process Explorer are very useful, as are some of the many utilities on the Nirsoft site.

For automated backup, I use Carbonite.

Security Software

Summary

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