AVG Antivirus is one of the most widely known antivirus programs. It is very popular, and powerful. Plus of course, it's free :). It's been around for some time, and it's latest version 9 has been dowload over 200 million times on download.com. Due to it's vast collection of virus definitions, and access to continual updated ones this is a must to anyone concerned about getting a virus. It has active resident scanning, and email protection as well. The one downside is their later versions are a bit more controlling than I'd like as a tech, but that's only by default, so far I've been able to turn the controlling aspects off. These are aspects I don't like, but others may find useful.

  Malwarebytes is the strongest anti-malware software available today. It's algorithms in detecting malware programs is strong enough to weed out all malicious malware programs on your computer, and sophisticated enough to know the difference between what's malware, and what may simply be a regular program. It's free to use, install, scan, and remove malware to the fullest extent it's capable of. They do however charge if you wish to turn on some extended options such as real-time protection etc.

RKill is a very small, yet very powerful program. If your computer has been taken over by some form of malware then this is where you want to start. RKill is designed to scan your computer's active memory and kill any active processes of malware running on your computer. This is only the first step, it does not clean malware off of your hard drive. If you go no further, than at next reboot your computer will be right back where you started. It's best to run another form of malware fighting software such as malwarebytes, which we do have here for download. RKill simply enables you to temporarly have control once again over your computer long enough to run another program that can fight the malware infection.

Clamwin antivirus is what I use as it's free, and of all the ones I tested it was the most unobtrusive. It has a very simple and easy to use graphical interface. It used very little system resources which allow your other programs to run smoother. The downside is that it currently has no resident scanning, meaning no active scans. So if you want to know if you have a virus, you need to manually scan your computer, or specific files to find out.

  Avast is given 5 out of 5 stars by Cnet.com and 4.5 out of 5 stars by user ratings on the same site. It's no surprize however, as this is an antivirus that is said to have the highest virus definition database available. With it's compatibility with all major Windows Operating systems including Windows 7, and an easy to use graphical interface it's recommended for anyone to install. Plus it has resident protection, and protection for peer 2 peer connections (bitTorrent etc).

  Avira Antivirus is another great antivirus. Rated 5 out of 5 stars by Cnet.com this antivirus goes the extra mile to protect against other malicious attacks such as dialers and phishing. This program is in the top 3 for the most virus defintions, which gives it a good rating as far as virus detection. It's interface is simple, and easy to use.

Zone Alarm is a free firewall program that is the most widely used in the world. That's no surprize as it offers the strongest protection not only against intruders, but also from harmful programs on your computer from transmitting information from your computer to the internet without your permission. All of this and it's free.