Best FREE antivirus, trojan, worms and malware protection

Every computer needs its protection against viruses. An antivirus software is designed to do its job which is to detect and remove viruses from your computer. But not only viruses are harmful to your computer. There are also worms, trojans and malware that can be found everywhere on the internet. There are commercial antivirus solutions that provide complete protection for your computer but do you really need to pay for the software just for your computer protection? 

The answer could be a YES and a NO.

YES if your running a business and you have the budget to buy it. Providing paid antivirus solution for your computer can ensure you that your important files are fully protected.

I'm recommending Kaspersky Antivirus for the best commercial antivirus solution. I tried it for years and viruses, trojans, worms and other malicious files never had the chance to infect my computer. Kaspersky Antivirus provides intense virus protection wherein when it detected virus patterns on your files it automatically informs you and asks for the step you want to make. It has less false-positive detection on viruses that why I'm recommending it. It is the antivirus software that most large companies and schools use.

NO if your a casual computer user. There are many free antivirus software out there that provides a complete antivirus solutions par with some of the commercial antivirus. But not all popular free antivirus software are good. Some software detects only viruses without the capability to detect other malicious content on your computer. Some antivirus software provides but hogs and slows down your whole system and comes with annoying pop-ups and advertisements.

I'm recommending Avast 5 for best free antivirus solution. It provides complete antivirus solution but costs nothing. It provides real-time protection for your computer and provide on-demand scan for thorough and light detection of virus, trojans, malwares and worms whenever you need it. It could also be set to silent/gaming mode where avast won't display notifications for updates and scanning  results. I actually like this feature.

Downloads:

Kaspersky Antivirus (30-day trial)

Avast 5 Free Edition

Buy Kaspersky on Amazon:
Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 3-User 
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 3-User 
Kaspersky Antivirus 2010 1-User 

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Top 10 Essential Software after a fresh install OS

Got a new computer? Did you format your PC? If yes, then here are the techsnitch's top ten essential software for average computer users. It is recommended to have these type of software.

1. Web browser - Even though operating systems have default web browser, I find it incomplete and has a big security hole. Thank God we have other FREE web browsers better than the default installed web browser. Welcome Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. Goodbye Internet Explorer!

Download:

Google Chrome 2.0.172.43

Firefox 3.6

Safari 4.0.4

Opera 10.10

2. Antivirus Software - Security of your computer is one of the important things that you should consider. Having full antivirus software would protect your system from any malicious files and contents. I recommend Avast over Antivir due to its complete protection. Imagine having your thesis documents being corrupted by a virus; I know you don't want that to happen to you. If you have the budget, go for Kaspersky Antivirus.

Download:

Avast 5

Buy Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 3-User

3. File Compression - Sometimes the file that you downloaded has a weird file extension like .tar or .rar. That only means that the file is compressed and you need to unpack or extract the file to be able to see what's inside the package. I use winrar although it's not completely free; you'll be able to compress/decompress files easily. The only problem is that you can't put passwords on the files you'll compress.

Download:

WinRAR 3.92 (32-bit)(demo)

WinRAR 3.92 (64-bit)(demo)
Buy WINRAR 3.60

4. Instant Messenger - You probably need to get in touch with your classmates and/or relatives that's why you need an instant messenger. It could come in handy whenever you need something from you friends.

Download:

Yahoo! Messenger 10.0.0.1102

Trillian Astra 4.1.0.24

Windows Live Messenger

Skype

5. Office Suite - Word processing, Slide Presentation, and Spreadsheets are the most common application of office suite. You probably need it whether you are working at the office, or at school. Microsoft Office is widely used in offices, schools and cafes. Open-Office is the alternative system that is free compared to Microsoft.

Download:

Open-Office (from http://www.openoffice.org/)
Buy Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007

6. Flash Player - Some of the websites that you visit

would require you to have flash player installed before you can

view the contents of the files. It is essential to have Flash Player 10 if you're playing games on facebook. :)

Download:

Flash Player for Internet Explorer

Flash Player for Other Browser

7. Optical Disk Burner - You'll need a good software to burn your files easily and with compatibility to other system. You can use IMGBurn - a free tool for burning images and files to disk. A complete Disk Utility and burner like Nero is also a good choice for burning DVD Videos and MP3s.

Download:

ImgBURN 2.5.0.0
Buy Nero 9

8. Download Manager - If you like to download multiple and larger files at the same time, it could be practical to use a download manager. Not only does it manage your downloaded files by separating them into different folders depending on the file format but it could also resume broken or interrupted downloads, saving you time.

Download:

Download Accelerator Plus 9.3 (Free)

9. All-In-One Media Player - it could be disappointing when you got a copy of the video you want to view but you can't even open the file. All-In-One Media player are great life savers when you need to play the most popular types of video and audio. I recommend using VLC Media Player to play your media files.

Download:

VLC Media Player 1.0.5 (from www.videolan.org)

10. Driver(s) - Installing your printer drivers right away could prevent you from searching for it at unwanted times like when you are in a rush to finish late documents. You're done but you find out that the printer driver is still not installed. Great. It could be troublesome, so save yourself from letting that happen to you by installing not only your printer drivers but also other peripheral drivers.

Find and download your printer driver:

Hewlett-Packard (HP)

Canon

Epson

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