AntivirusThis past weekend I spent six hours working on one of our home computers - “working” meaning running virus scans, spyware scans, and CrapCleaner scans. Eventually, I wound up giving in to the malware that had taken this PC over (the antivirus program had been turned off at some point a couple of months ago), forcing me to completely reinstall Windows.  How can you help yourself avoid spending a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon stuck in front of an almost inoperable, non-cooperative PC? (I’m not bitter… really) Let’s find out!

What is Malware?

As discussed here before, PCs inevitably slow down over time through normal use - benign activities like surfing the web and installing and uninstalling programs wind up cluttering up your PC with unnecessary files. A free utility called the CrapCleaner works wonders for this, as mentioned in the CrapCleaner post.

What we’re talking about here is much more serious than unnecessary files - it’s the kind of thing that will easily burn up a Saturday afternoon (or even worse, you’ll wind up calling the Geek Squad and have to pay someone to fix your PC!). It’s called malware. Read it, say it, and tuck it away in your memory - malware. It’s the kind of thing that teenagers using PCs just seem to attract… a lot.

The term malware refers to the many forms of malicious software that can make its way on to your PC -  viruses, worms, trojan horses, adware, and spyware are all forms of malware. These sound like fun, don’t they? Well, they’re not!

A lot of times you’ll hear people say that their PC has a “virus”, when in fact it’s really a worm or spyware or some other form of malware. Each of the forms of malware are somewhat different in their characteristics, though the line between them is graying a bit these days. As a typical home PC user and WiredParent, it’s really not that important to understand each of the different forms of malware, but rather how to avoid them in the first place.

How Do You Get Malware?

Malware seems to “just have a way” (or so my teens have claimed) of getting on people’s PCs. Infected screen savers, sneaky email attachments, fake email links, free online games - these are just a few of the many ways these programs are spread. In today’s wired world, malware is spread predominantly through email and the Internet - the very things many of us use almost daily, especially our teens.

The people who spend their time making these malicious programs are very good at targeting their audience. They purposefully design their method of attack to attract vulnerable users to click on a link, or open an attachment, or install an attractive (but infected) screen saver. Bam! You just got infected (well, your PC did anyway).

How Do You Protect Your PC from Malware?

There are several effective tools available for you to use to protect yourself from malware. Many choose to go the route of subscribing to one of the commonly used paid services from the likes of Symantec or McAfee. Both provide comprehensive protection at a reasonable price - generally costing around $30 to $50 a year for a subscription. Setup is relatively easy and protection rates are excellent with both of these tools.

If you’d like save a little money and not go with one of the paid subscriptions, there are some effective free protection programs available as well. AVG, Avast, and Avira (AntiVir) are the current leaders in this area. Each offers a paid subscription version of their protection programs that contain some additional features that the free versions do not. However, the free versions of all three of these do provide reliable protection against most malware. I’ve personally used both AVG and Avast with much success.

A quick Google search for “free antivirus comparison” will provide you with some websites to look through to compare the latest features of each of these free protection tools and what people are saying about them (the features and effectiveness can vary over time).

You may have heard of or used other free utilities like AdAware or Spybot Search and Destroy. These tools are designed to specifically target spyware and adware forms of malware. Keep these in your back pocket as well.

Watch Out for Fake Malware Protection!

Something else that needs to be mentioned in an article about malware are the many fake protection applications that are out there. VirusProtectPro, AntiVirus2008Scanner, Antivirus2008… these just scratch the surface of several programs that claim to scan, protect, and rid your PC of malware. In actuality, they’re really adding to the problem - many of them contain adware or spyware or viruses.

Keep a watchful eye out for these types of programs. Stick with the more well known, widely-used protection programs mentioned in this post. If you’re ever unsure, Google the program’s name before installing or clicking on something. If you see a lot of search results explaining how to “get rid of xxxxxx”, then stay away - it’s likely something harmful!

Additional Helpful Web Resources

Luckily we live in the era of the information age when almost any problem (including malware) you encounter can be solved with some good web research. A couple of invaluable resources for protecting and keeping PCs malware free are MajorGeeks and Bleeping Computer. Both of these websites include step by step tutorials for removing specific pests, links to legitimate malware protection tools, and forums to post problems and read how others successfully resolved their malware nightmares.

The information provided here will give you the tools necessary to arm yourself against all forms of malware. You might hear your son or daughter complain about a scheduled scan that’s slowing their Myspace surfing down, or how a virus definition update window popped up interrupting the game of Call of Duty they were playing - but persevere, it’s very much worth it.

What malware protection programs do you use? Have you had success with them or have you run into problems? Do you have any “sunny Saturday afternoon nightmare” malware stories? Share your experiences in the Comments.

Photo courtesy of Chris Dewey,