A great number of people in the Internet doesn't know about its dangers.
It's important to notice that the days when in order to feel yourself in safety it was enough to have an antivirus have left behind. Today to provide a reasonable level of protection you need to have several programs. Here they will be described.
This article is aimed on the beginners, so we choosed the programs that are easy to use.
First of all, it's essential to have all critical updates of Windows
1. Firewall is used to protect system from malware that uses different vulnerabilities to infect computers connected to the Internet. An antivirus isn't helpful in this case. You can read a more detailed article about firewalls here
If you don't know and don't what to know what a firewall is, the minimum level of protection is provided by the firewall built into Windows XP. (Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Windows Firewall)
For those who are ready to spend some time on self-education we advise to use Agnitum Outpost Firewall (free version 1.0). It is very simple but provides the minimum level of protection. There is also payed, but more advanced version.
Sygate Pro is also suitable for the beginners, it has a convinient monitor of applications and invasions and allows to set a password on exit and making changes. There is a free version but it provides less security.
We recommend to install a firewall immediately after the system's installation before the first connect to the Internet, because without it you can catch the malware within minutes, and then you will have to deal with consequences.
If your computer is connected to a local network, which may include infected computers, we advise to disable the network cable until the firewall installation.
2. Antiviruses. We advise one of the following:
Kaspersky
Dr. Web
Macafee
NOD32
BitDefender
However, if you do not have enough money to buy antivirus then put at least one of the free antiviruses.
It is important to update the antivirus databases regularly (at least daily).
3. Programs to detect adware\spyware:
Ad-aware - there is a free version
SpyBot-S&D - free version
AVZ - free - multilingual.
Ewido - fee, but after the end of the trial period you can update it manually.
After that you need to learn one simple thing. Malware sometimes can not be cured/removed normally.
If a malicious program was found on your computer and you can't remove it then you need to restart the computer in "safe mode" (Press F8 on the Windows startup and choose "safe mode"), then scan the computer by listed above programs.
And if you can't get rid of malware on your own, we will help you in case you follow the instructions published here
Adapted from russian section