Software

This page is only about FREE software to help protect your computer.   Make sure to have one of these immediately installed on your computer to prevent any problems, and make sure you keep it updated.

Microsoft Security Essentials

First one I’d recommend is a very new (just released in September 2009) product from Microsoft.

MSE provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Download MSE here.

AVG

I’ve been using this for years, for work and home.  Only problem I’ve seen with this is on slower machines where if you have a full computer scan setup in the middle of the day, you can see some slowness on your computer while the virus scan is running.  That setting is easily changed so it runs in the middle of the night.

Download AVG here.

Other free programs include Avast, which I haven’t used, but gets good reviews.