It is extremely difficult to explain how to prevent harmful malware to get into your computer but it all starts with one source… You.

That’s right, I haven’t used an anti-virus or anti-spyware program on my machine for about 5 years now and still going strong. How do I do it? From experience I have began to notice patterns of malicious sites, certain names of executable files, and even how long it takes for a webpage to load…

I am not trying to brag about my abilities because frankly, I have gotten lucky a few times that I’ve caught a trojan virus before it could spread around my machine. Everyone should have some level of protection no matter how basic. My point on the paragraph above is to show people that the internet is not some hot zone of malware, nor does it infect your machine as soon as you connect to the internet. These myths are simply not true.

The internet works by you sending a request out to the World Wide Web to view a specific address and in return you get a website and download its contents. If you know what you’re typing in the address bar, chances are you are fine. If you typed www.Google.com and Google loaded up you risked little with the process. The main danger comes from websites with ad-link clusters. These websites are out there and numerous so you must pay careful attention to the nature of the content in them before you go on clicking and visiting.

Not to pick sides on the matter but Google honestly has some of the safest search results around. I would say that for any word or phrase that you search on Google.com the top 10 or 20 of them are safe and genuine websites that provide you with relevant content based on what you searched. Of course if you search for “Windows XP Crack Keygen” you are already in trouble because no genuine website would carry such content and still be operational.

Since everyone is connected to the web I would say that safe browsing is the number 1 protection for your computer against all types of malware. Up next… protection programs.

Top 5 on my list of the best protection software for your Windows computer:

1). AVG Anti-Virus - Detects more malware than Symantec and McAfee combined and is free for personal use with updates! Can’t beat that.

2). Ad-Aware Anti-Spyware - And old time favorite of mine… kicks some serious butt when it comes to removing pests in your machine.

3). PC-Tools - A very thorough machine examiner that digs out even the worst malware threats out there.

4). Spybot Search & Destroy - Another awesome cleaning tool from the Spybot team.

5). Kaspersky Anti-Virus - A true giant in the fight against Malware. It is a solid performer and continues to provide some of the highest level protection against threats. Not free but worth the money!

Except for AVG and Spybot S&D the other 3 require that you purchase a license but I would say it’s money well spent considering the high cost of cleaning a computer after an infenction.

Have a protection program running at all times (You pick the best one, I can’t impose these 5 on you) and always mind your browing on the web. If a website has a weird sounding name like warez / xxx / crack / keygen etc… Don’t visit that website, you just never know what might be waiting at the other end.

If you click on a link and it seems to be loading for a long time hit the stop button on your browser and close the windows immediately. No need to risk getting scripts that download in your Temporary Files folder and then are executed once the website fully loads. I’ve seen it all

Like I said before, the ultimate machine protection derives from you.