Protect Your PC and Privacy

You may think that you are reasonably safe as you surf the net, but windows has many gaping flaws that do not protect your privacy, and it it far too easy for a hacker to gain access to your privacy and others to harness your ISP etc. There are some simple steps outlined below which will allow you to surf much safer, as well as guiding you through various tweaks to help you.

Set a Restore Point or back-up your PC FIRST!

I have been using AVG free Anti-Virus for many years and install it as first choice on other peoples machines.
Get yours here: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5

Ad-Aware Personal remains the most popular anti-spyware product for computer users around the world, with nearly one million downloads every week.
http://www.lavasoft.de/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

Also worth using is ZoneAlarm free firewall available from http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

SpywareGuard, SpywareBlaster and MRU-Blaster available for free from http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/products.html

The only thing that I would actually PAY for is XoftSpy, and it is only a one off payment with lifetime updates, and a free scan so you can test it and see what it finds.
It's availabe at http://www.linkbrander.com/go/34613

Also check your PC for free at http://pcpitstop.com/

Without your knowledge or explicit permission, the Windows networking technology which connects your computer to the Internet may be offering some or all of your computer's data to the entire world at this very moment! You can check your open Ports, File Sharing etc for Free at http://www.grc.com/default.htm
Simply scroll down the page to *Hot Spots* and click on ShieldsUp.

Finally for now, I would also recommend the use of CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less than a second to run) and Free. Cleans the following:
Internet Explorer Cache, History, Cookies, Index.dat.
Recycle Bin, Temporary files and Log files.
Recently opened URLs and files.
Third-party application temp files and recent file lists (MRUs). Including: Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more...
Advanced Registry scanner and cleaner to remove unused and old entries. Including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... Backup for registry clean.
Windows Startup tool.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Hope that some of this is of some use to you.
Have a good day all
http://www.linkbrander.com/go/35000
http://www.linkbrander.com/go/33862
http://www.linkbrander.com/go/33863

Any problems then feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you asap.