Recently, I was asked to outline my personal security protection against malicious files and applications infecting my computer. There are as many choices in protection as there are opinions as to what applications work best. What I tell people is to find what works best for Your Specific Computer Usage. What works best for one person may not work for another person.

As I reviewed the other WikiDocuments within this forum, I found this WikiDocument from SpiritWind detailing the applications he use to protect his system. Within this WikiDocument, I will detail a similar approach with different applications. As long as one follows one main philosophy, the applications that one uses really do not matter...

You can use as many security applications your heart desires; however, you should only have one application providing real time protection.

The one major exception to this rule is that Norton and McAfee do not work well with other applications. Additionally, they are both resource hogs. If you have these applications and no longer want to use them, you need to use the respective Removal Tools for each:

Norton Removal Tool

McAfee Removal Tool

The following are the applications that I use and the protection each provide:
(In the order I use them during my weekly scanning) (Hyperlinks lead to the download page of each application)

First Tier (Layer)

• Zone Alarm Pro (hyperlink is to Free version - difference between Free and Pro is the added Anti-Spyware Protection within Pro) - Real-Time Firewall Protection (auto scan every morning at 4am)

• AVG Anti-Virus - Real-Time Virus Protection (auto scan every morning at 2am)

• CCleaner - Personal Data Eraser (Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, Cache, etc.)

• Spybot Search & Destroy - Spyware Protection

• Spyware Blaster - Spyware Protection for browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.)

• Ad-Aware SE Plus - Real-Time Spyware Protection

• AVG Anti-Spyware - Spyware Protection

• XoftSpySE - Spyware Protection

• AVG Anti-Rootkit - Rootkit Protection

• Eusing Free Registry Cleaner - Registry Cleaner

• Error Nuker Registry Cleaner

Second Tier (Layer) (Only Used If There Is a Significant Need)+

• SuperAntiSpyware - Spyware Protection (very thorough scanner...four hours for my 3TB system)

• Dr. Web Cure It - Virus Protection

• HiJackThis - Versatile Scanner (Detects HiJacks) (Interpreted by select sites in an attempt to removal malicious files)

Popular HiJackThis Sites:

Bleeping Computer

MajorGeeks

GeeksToGo

The first Tier takes approximately 4-5 hours to complete each Saturday but is well worth it. Why? Well, I have not had to run the second Tier scans in over a year. This list is not the be all and end all of security. As stated earlier, find what works best for you.