You need to use more than one type of protection program. There are some great free options.
AVG 8.0 is free, easy to use & pretty much does it all by itself. This takes care of most virus's, remembering that some of the programs that cost over (AU)$100.00 won't get all of the virus's anyway.
Windows Defender is not the greatest program, but it is free & it sets up a second wall of defence that can stop some of the weirder problems. It's also set & forget.
Spybot SD is one of the best at finding malware, but it needs to be run about once every week or two depending on your surfing time.
Adaware by Lavasoft is also free & also needs to be run every week or so.
Running all of these programs together does not interfere with the Windows Operating system but is totally useless without running at least 2 other programs.
Sygate Personal Firewall - download & install this for free & then shutdown the Windows XP firewall as it is totallly useless.
That is all you need for security but there is one other program that can make your computer run much smoother & that is a program that scans your registry for changes & fixes them before they become big problems. There are several around, some you can get for free, but I am not sure how reliable they are. The only one that I have found that I really trust is Norton Systemworks. Unfortunately it costs money, (US)$50.00 for the basic version but that is all you need.
I have set up a number of computer for family & friends over the years & this combination seems to work fairly well.
Allan
