Trust your gut. If you get an email attachment or receive a file on your computer, or through email that looks suspicious or that you’re not expecting, don’t open it, no matter how tempting.

Keep Windows up-to-date. Every second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft releases patches and updates for Windows. You need to run Windows Update and install them as soon as possible to protect against internet threats.

Don’t visit websites that aren’t well-known or trusted. There are millions of websites that look perfectly legitimate, but contain code that takes advantage of exploits in Windows that may or may not be patched.

There are a lot of products that claim to protect your computer from the threats of the internet. The trouble is, there are a lot of options, and some products work much better then others.

Norton and McAfee are the most well known. The most notorious problem with both products is as much as they protect, they slow the system down, and impact performance.

Products like Norton SystemWorks try to be an all-in-one solution. The trouble is, since it’s trying to do too many things at once, it doesn’t do any one of them very well.

There are free choices that are very effective. Tens of millions use them because they cost nothing. Once people use a product, they’re more likely to pay for the paid versions down the road if they like it. AVG and BitDefender are some free choices that also have paid versions available.

The best security software on the market today is NOD32. It was designed to be highly effective while having a limited impact on system performance. and it’s easy to use. NOD32 isn’t free, $30 for the antivirus, and $60 for the Smart Security suite.

The other highly effective choice is Kaspersky. They also have a security suite that is highly regarded. While it does have a slightly larger system footprint in terms of performance then NOD32, it’s equally as effective. Kaspersky starts at $60.

Never run more then one anti-virus or firewall program on your computer. They don’t get along, and can sometimes detect each other as threats, and crash your computer.

You may have heard of “spyware”. As you surf the net, files are downloaded to your computer that monitor your computing habits and report them to a third party.

These days you don’t really need more then one anti-spyware program, in fact the one that comes with your security software is usually good enough.

Some spyware are almost as bad as a virus. They’re constantly communicating with the internet, and some contain scripts that change system settings. Ad-Aware was one of the first products to detect and eliminate such threats.

Modern anti-virus solutions now monitor and eliminate spyware and viruses, replacing the need for a separate solution. The most effective standalone product is Spyware Terminator, which is free.

Pay attention when the computer prompts you to accept or deny a program from doing something. If your security software isn’t sure, it will ask you, and if you ok something you shouldn’t, you might as well not be secured at all.

Originally posted 2008-10-31 04:16:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

First, let me explain what BitDefender Free Edition does. Simply put, it’s a free anti-virus solution that I’ve heard great things about. I know of a couple of computer geek friends of mine that swear by it. It’s a straight-forward, easy to navigate program that detects and removes viruses and other malware.

I decided to install BitDefender Free Edition on my laptop, which is running Windows 7 RC1. The version of Windows is irrelevant, since it runs fine on it. My issue is with the program itself and the unforgivable headaches involved in downloading and installing it.

Downloading BitDefender Free Edition

When you first go to the BitDefender website. Go to Downloads –> Home/Home Office –> and click the small ‘Free Edition’ link.

Click the big ‘Download’ button, and on the next page, enter the email address you want the link to the program sent to.

Sounds easy so far, doesn’t it? The headaches are next. They make it very easy to find it on their website, but not easy at all to download or install.

In your e-mail account, you’ll find the link to download BitDefender Free Edition. What you’ll find out is that it’s simply a mini-version of the program that will proceed to attempt to download the full program once you try and install it. However, when it tried to download the full program, it couldn’t.

I found myself having to do a Google search for ‘BitDefender Free Edition’, and downloading the full program from Softpedia.com.

Installing BitDefender Free Edition

After downloading it from Softpedia, it installed just fine, no hiccups or anything. However, the program proceeds to force the user to register an account with BitDefender, at which point they will send an activation e-mail to the e-mail account you registered with.

Ok, at this point the program is installed, registered, and activated. Finally. The next annoyance is that from now on, whenever I reboot the computer, I get nagged with a screen compelling me to buy the paid version of the software.

I guarantee that an average user will not go through all of these steps to use the product, free or not. It’s too much hassle and too time consuming. I doubt even a power user would go through all of this. The only reason I did was because I wanted the experience.

Get your act together, BitDefender. If you’re going to offer a product, free or not, at least make it so your users actually want to use it. Make the process simple.

I will say it’s a fantastic product, and I mean that, but it’s not worth all that trouble.

Originally posted 2009-07-07 00:39:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter