Two Free Anti-Spyware Programs To Keep Your PC Safe

In the following articles I show how you can:

1. Keep Your PC Save From Viruses Automatically (runs at 1:00am)
2. Keep Your PC Free From Spyware Automatically (runs at 2:00am)
3. Shut Down Your PC Automatically (runs at 3:00am)

Once you’ve setup the three tasks above, the management of your PC becomes a bit more less time intensive for you. In other words, what we want is to manage our PCs automatically so they take care of themselves without too much involvement from us.

You might have to check log files to make sure the programs run at the time you think they’re running or you might need to perform some further investigation if you find something of concern in a log file, but for the most part this is an automatic system. I typically browse log files on the weekend or even once a month. Sundays work best for me because for years I’ve done summary type tasks on Sundays.

Sunday mornings I run the following two free programs as well:

1. LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware 2007 (download here)
2. SpywareBlaster 3.5.1 (download here)

Click image for larger view

Why Sunday mornings for me? I like watching some of the Sunday morning shows on TV – the various arts and political review type shows, so why not let your PC do some work of its own while you enjoy something else besides gazing into your PC monitor. I fire up LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware 2007, check for updates over the web and run a scan. There are two types of scans you can do in Ad-Aware:

1. Smart Scan – Shortest in duration, this scan scans the most critical parts of your system. I perform a Smart Scan every Sunday.
2. Full System Scan – Longest in duration (could take hours), this scan rips through your whole system – files on your hard drives, registry entries, the whole sha-bang. I do a Full System Scan twice a year. I used to do it quarterly but found it to be a bit too munch. 🙂

Lavasoft’s website has a short but informative section that talks about what spyware is, how it works and how to perform preventative tasks to help reduce spyware hitting your PCs.

Talking about a bit too much, some folks might think my process is a bit too much. You have to remember that I’m in the IT world so I don’t mind doing these tasks and I have the time to do them. I also have the experience of system restores, server restores and the benefits of preventative maintenance. These tasks are important to keep your system safe and secure and not waste time later down the road when there are problems with your PC because you didn’t take preventative measures.

If the above two steps are bit too much for you, then you might just want to do the top three tasks I mentioned at the top of this article and you’ll be good for most of your computing experience.

Javacool’s SpywareBlaster Here are three bullet points from the SpywareBlaster website:

• Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software.
• Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
• Restrict the actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer.

Here’s a screenshot of SpywareBlaster:

Click image for larger view

With SpywareBlaster you click on the “Download Latest Protection Updates” link, download the updates and “Enable” them. That’s it. No need to leave the program running by minimizing it when it’s done, just exit the program and you’re good to go.

A lot of the free software I talk about here and implement have paid for counterparts. Companies that offer free software usually have a version that has more features to entice you to pay for that version. So I encourage you to pay for the versions that you find useful in your day-to-day computing experience. The version you pay for might even save you more time managing your PC.

[techtags: Anti-Spyware, Free Software]