Someone wrote this comprehensive for free antivirus scan and malware scan, all free, well it’s free for basic use that is.

These are a few tips to help you clean your computer of various types of infections. I am not saying this is a shore-fire way of getting rid of everything, but it can get rid of most infection related issues.

Some of these scanners (to fully get rid of infections) have to be ran in Safe Mode. To do that, before the Windows “Welcome Logo”, press F8 and in the menu that now appears, hit one of the “boot into safe mode” options.

PLEASE do not let people talk you into “you get what you pay for” .. with the few exceptions, most of my favorite and security site “best programs” are free.

Anti-viruses –

1) Avast – FREE – ( http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-down… )
Pros: Considered by many tech to be the #1 free anti-virus. Great Detection rate and no significant lag on system resources

Cons: My laptop from 2002, has SLIGHT lag running Avast. (compared to Avira)

2) Avira – FREE – ( http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antiv… )
This is the scanner that I recommend just as much as Avast.
Pros: Great Detection, comparable to Avast’s; NO system lag on any of my computers that I have ever run it on; If I am installing an Anti-virus on a system that may not have the “newest” resources, I choice to install Avira on it… Avast may be fine on it, but I KNOW Avira WILL BE.

Cons: Detection only slightly behind Avast … sites and articles tend to deduct “points” for the fact they like Avast’s Interface better. I find it very clean and easy to use, however.

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Those are Free, but if you feel the need to want to pay for one (for whatever reason), try (3) Eset NOD32, which provides great protection and no system lag

4) MS Security Essentials- FREE –
Pro: Decent (although, not the best) Detection rate .. Better than scanners like Trend Micro, Mcafee, and Norton …; ?? – System Resource impact seem low, according to other users, but I can not comment on this.

Cons: It FORCES you to download a 60MB+ update as soon as you install the 12MB+ program;

FORCES you to have Windows update on “Download and install all updates without prompt”.. even if I was on high speed internet, I want control over that feature.
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Firewall –
I would recommend Comodo’s Firewall ( http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ ) 100%

and Outpost ( http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/ ) makes a great firewall product and they have a free or pro version available. Both firewalls are easy to use and configure
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Malware/Spyware related –
These are great programs to have, but do not confuse them with anti-viruses. AV’s can detect malware and these scanners COULD detect viruses, but my advice would be to have both types of scanners on your system.

MalwareBytes ( http://www.malwarebytes.org/ ) – FREE –
Pro: The best Malware scanner out there; 100% free; have personally seen many users with scanners they think are good, have computers that are completely infected. They install Malwarebytes and after a scan or two, in safe mode, there system is running smooth again and malware free.

Cons: none

Super AntiSpyware ( http://www.superantispyware.com/) – FREE –
the only malware/spyware scanner that even comes close to Malwarebytes

Cons: none

The only other addition would be
Spyware Blaster ( http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/ ) – FREE –
Program that helps prevent (to a degree) drive-by spyware active-x installs on various browsers ..

Cons: none

Honestly, the other scanners are not worth it…. even the freeware scanners
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For badly infected computers some more options may be Combofix ( http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix… which I have seen first hand help computers that were badly infected; new users, should only use this if reformatting SEEMS like the only hope, after MalwareBytes “fails”.

There is one program, that I have no experience with myself, but many techs I trust say RKill ( http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dnzgjf ) is very good at getting rootkits and some malware infections … It seems to be used for disabling/stopping known running malware processes that may be keeping other software like your Anti-virus, or MalwareBytes