The Frugal Techie

Yesterday, a friend asked me if I can reformat his notebook..That notebook was infected with a slew of malware that it simply went kaput. I agreed and he sent me the notebook (one of those generic no-namers) with its driver discs and Windows XP installation disc.

Re-installing Windows XP is a no-brainer operation. All I need to do was to follow the prompts of the installation wizard and its done in a jiffy. Reinstalling the drivers also went on without a hitch. After the notebook was fully functional again, I thought that I should help this fellow out by preventing the re-invasion of malware in the system and here's what I did to accomplish that:

• Seeing that the original Windows XP is not patched, I applied Windows Service Pack 2 on the system. This has not only updated Windows but also installed the Windows Firewall into the system. Windows Firewall will prevent internet worms from entering the system through an open port.
  
• I installed ClamWin anti-virus. This is an open source anti-virus that will help my friend prevent and clean virus infections. Since the program is open source, the application is totally free and updates are available weekly.
  
• And lastly, I installed both Spybot Search & Destroy and Windows Anti-Spyware. These applications will prevent spyware from being stalthily installed into the system without the owner's knowledge.
  

The software I installed may not be the best in their class but they do provide some protection against malicious software that gets into Windows through various means. Getting them at virtually no cost at all (except for the cost of bandwidth) is proof that a safe computing environment can be achieved without having to spend a lot of cash in the process.