Comprehensive guide to keeping your PC clean.

[DrLecter]

Below is a guide that many don't follow. And probably should.
It's way too common for people to ignore anti-virus programs, firewall, and a better password.




First off, here's some software.


Paid Anti-virus: ESET NOD 32. One of the best Anti-virus programs. If you can, get the Internet Security version. For less than $50 a year you can keep your PC clean, with anti-spyware, anti-virus and a firewall.


Without buying ESET, you'll need a few separate programs to keep your system clean from malware etc.


Anti Virus: AVG / Avast! Free editions.
You wont get much better, both are a little on the heavy side though.


Possibility: Ad-Aware Free Internet Security (kind of all-in-one).


Spyware Remover: Spybot (Search & Destroy)


Also: CCleaner. Does many jobs. Useful for anyone.


Firewall: Comodo Personal Firewall (Firewall Antivirus Software Free Download from Comodo™) don't enable their anti-virus, it's pretty bad.
The Windows in-built one is OK - but not great. I'm not sure if the above programs include a firewall. It's most likely they do, and are not great.
Router firewalls are an excellent piece of hardware. I'd highly recommend reading guides and setting it up. Some ISP's also include a firewall on their end to help in additional to your own solutions. Might be worthwhile looking into it to see if you have yours enabled.


Using the above program(s) will generally make life easier in terms of removal of malware, as well as general protection.




Secondly some helpful tips and common sense.
When signing up to websites such as warez and perhaps hacking forums, it's best to use a disposable email. One such place to get one in Mailinator - Let Them Eat Spam! however it's not permanent. If you feel you need a permanent address, or perhaps one adress for all such websites use GMail or any other free place to get emails.


A general rule of thumb: if you get scam emails, or perhaps emails from game companies saying "omg your account in super red danger zone" it's clearly a scam. Hover over any links they get you and read the whole address carefully. Many scam emails use slight typos - such as worldotwarcraft.com. They also use free domain providers - .co.cc. Definitely they are bona-fide scams. Follow that simple rule and you'll save yourself a lot of pain in future.


Also in conjunction to the above, make sure your email program blocks images by default. One such (free) program is Thunderbird by Mozilla.


Also, when visiting questionable sites, don't click on the ads unless they are by Google. Obviously only click on the Google ads if you genuinely want to go there.
Free iPad and such ads are genuinely bad, and you wont get anything free.
If it's too good to be true. It most likely is.
Also:
- Keep your OS up to date. Install updates!
- Software updates also help fix security holes.
- Use a strong password. (See here (Create a better password))




Third, keeping your PC in peak performance.


- CCleaner can clean a lot of shit from your PC and free up space.


-Scan for viruses monthly. Weekly ideally.


-Defragment once a month (never defrag Solid-State-Disks!)
You can use Windows in-built-one or use Defraggler (Google it).
- Empty your recycle bin, remove any downloads you don't need (favourites - Downloads, or C:\Downloads are generally the most used browser download locations).
Usually with 1TB disks you can leave this rule go a little while. But it's nice to have more space anyway.




Finally, using all of the above mentioned you can be safe. But common sense goes a long way, and would take a lot of time to write. The above is a brief guide which many people sometimes forget to follow, and some deviate from.
I wish the best of luck, and I hope I helped in some way!

P.S Excuse any formatting errors. Editing in Word and C+P into a WYSIWYG editor is generally a bad idea