We are asked often about the tools we use to help combat unwanted critters from infecting someone’s PC. As always, it comes down to how much protection you can afford. For those on a budget, here are some free alternatives to keeping your PC safe, we have found the following packages to be very effective.
Malware – Malwarebytes. Great package for detecting and removing any hitchhiking malware you may have picked up on the internet. They have regular updates and the database is updated constantly. During install simply uncheck the option for the premium free trial and you’re good to go for the free version, it won’t expire.
PC Cleaner – CCleaner by Piriform. Powerful utility for ridding your PC of unnecessary baggage. Also corrects registry issues, and gives you the ability to disable or delete anything in the startup for windows or your browser(s). Only for those who have a good familiarity with Windows operating systems.
Backup – Macrium Reflect Free – Your recovery options are only as good (or as bad) as your last backup. Macrium Reflect is an excellent backup solution and version 6 is awesome. A lot of features that were heretofore only available in the paid version are included in this latest free version release, such as emailed reports, incremental backups, and disk management where older backups are automatically deleted.
Antivirus – We are hesitant to include this because of a recent review that ranked Microsoft Security Essentials dead last but dead last is better than nothing. SE comes in 32 or 64-bit flavors, offers real-time protection, scheduled scanning, and regular updates. Anyone running Windows 8 already has it installed as this is what Windows Defender is.