Norton used to be the "king" of virus protection, but those days are long gone. I know this from the experience of having a virus sneak on my pc, and having to go to another website to find it, and dispose of it. If it hadn't been for TrendMicro's free online scan, my pc would have been destroyed by the virus.

Just because your computer is running slow, it doesn't mean you have a virus. There are also nasty little spies, that are called "Malware". The "Mal" stands for Malicious, and that's just what they are. They are on your pc for one reason: To follow your keystrokes and know everything you do.  Ever wonder why you get junk mail for subjects you recently googled?

People think firewalls keep all this out.  If that was true there wouldn't be so many virus & malware programs. This article will point you to the free programs I use.  These programs remain free because many of those who try it, upgrade to get premium service.

AVG Free Antivirus & Antispyware

AVG Free 8.5 gives you basic anti-virus and anti-spyware protection for Windows and you can download it for free. It is compatible with Windows 7, Vista & Windows XP programs. When a virus or spyware is detected, you see a pop-up window informing you of this. With one click, it is safely removed to a vault and will remain there until you dispose of it. You control when you want it to scan your pc. Unlike Norton or McAfee, it doesn't use all your pc's resources. You can even play games or chat in messenger, while the scan is running. AVG also doesn't use as much space on your hard drive. I've been using AVG for years. It's saved me from some pretty nasty viruses!

Options offered for AVG Free 8.5:

1) Lifetime license

2) Anti-Virus

3) Anti-Spyware

4) Email Scanner

5) Link Scanner

6) Resident Shield

7) Update Manager

Link to download Free (Direct from AVG site): http://free.avg.com/223204

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TrendMicro - Free Online Scans

Housecall

Housecall can be used in a free online scan, or downloaded to your computer free for 30 days. The first time you use it, it may take a few hours, depending on the size of your hard drive. It downloads some files, but not much. It will take less time on the 2nd time of use. It is thorough and will detect even the minut pest on your pc. Upon completion, it will show you all the malware & virus' it detected and let you choose how you want to get rid of them. For best results, I recommend you let it run with no interference from other programs.

Link to Housecall: http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/

Hijack-This

Hijack is a free utility that makes a complete report of registry and file settings from your pc. It makes no separation between safe and unsafe settings in its scan results. You choose what items you want to remove. It has several tools to manually remove malware from your pc. If you have any questions, you can access many forums on the web by googling Hijack-This.

Link to Hijack-This: http://free.antivirus.com/tools/hijackthis/

For a complete list of all FREE clean-up tools, go to: http://free.antivirus.com/clean-up-tools/

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Malware Scan by Microsoft

One Care Live

This is a free online scan. it will take HOURS to run and finish. but it is YOUR FIRST AND BEST START to your problems. If you have a problem running this program it may be blocked by the malware/spyware on your pc. You can try Restoring to a previous date, when your pc wasn't acting up, and then try running it again. This free scan checks for and remove viruses, spyware, and other unwanted software and locates vulnerabilities in your Internet connection.

Link to Mal Sfw Scan by Microsoft: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/center/howsafe.htm?s_cid=mscom_msrt - Start by clicking on "Protection Scan"

I also recommend taking a trip to Windows Updates, to make sure your pc is up-to-date with all the Microsoft downloads & installs.

Take advantage of these free programs & scan. Your pc will thank you for it, by staying trouble free!