OH boy...
As a long time windows user and long time security fanatic, I would NEVER recommend the crap that is AVG.
See this site for an apparently unbiased anti-virus comparative: http://av-comparatives.org
Notice the detection tests.
Unlike cthulu, I remember the last time I was infected... I knew I was going to get infected, but, heck, I wanted to watch that video!... in the end, I didn't get to watch it .... GRRRRRRRRR....
Unknowingly infected... that... I don't remember. perhaps the barrotes virus when I used DOS.
Anyway, the one most important rule to follow: DO NOT USE THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT FOR EVERYDAY USE! You can do this in windows ever since XP.
Only go into the administrator account for installing the programs you want... but beware of their origin. If downloading from warez or torrents, don't be the first nut to install the new game out... wait for comments from the idiots, or the lucky guys.
In winXP, you can do almost everything from the user account, with a right click and "run as..." to run as the administrator.
In win Vista (and 7 & 8), this feature became a must and works really well... so well, I wanted it on my linux machine!... I hate having to sudo everything from the command line! fedora 18 seems to prompt me for root password for a few programs that require it.... which is a step in the right direction...
As for firewall, ever since XP SP2, the built in firewall is good enough for most users. Unless you have some very special need, just stick with it.
Anti-virus, from the site I posted above, you can see that the one software that detects the most malware is G-data (commercial) closely followed by AVIRA (commercial, but with a free version!)... I use avira free and it catches everything that could have infected me, mostly, infected usb sticks.
The browser, I use flashblock and adblock to prevent stupid content from being downloaded to my computer... and it has the strange side effect of leaving webpages looking real slick!
As a long time windows user and long time security fanatic, I would NEVER recommend the crap that is AVG.
See this site for an apparently unbiased anti-virus comparative: http://av-comparatives.org
Notice the detection tests.
Unlike cthulu, I remember the last time I was infected... I knew I was going to get infected, but, heck, I wanted to watch that video!... in the end, I didn't get to watch it .... GRRRRRRRRR....
Unknowingly infected... that... I don't remember. perhaps the barrotes virus when I used DOS.
Anyway, the one most important rule to follow: DO NOT USE THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT FOR EVERYDAY USE! You can do this in windows ever since XP.
Only go into the administrator account for installing the programs you want... but beware of their origin. If downloading from warez or torrents, don't be the first nut to install the new game out... wait for comments from the idiots, or the lucky guys.
In winXP, you can do almost everything from the user account, with a right click and "run as..." to run as the administrator.
In win Vista (and 7 & 8), this feature became a must and works really well... so well, I wanted it on my linux machine!... I hate having to sudo everything from the command line! fedora 18 seems to prompt me for root password for a few programs that require it.... which is a step in the right direction...
As for firewall, ever since XP SP2, the built in firewall is good enough for most users. Unless you have some very special need, just stick with it.
Anti-virus, from the site I posted above, you can see that the one software that detects the most malware is G-data (commercial) closely followed by AVIRA (commercial, but with a free version!)... I use avira free and it catches everything that could have infected me, mostly, infected usb sticks.
The browser, I use flashblock and adblock to prevent stupid content from being downloaded to my computer... and it has the strange side effect of leaving webpages looking real slick!
