Service Pack 2 is a collection of the latest windows updates for microsoft windows XP. Security updates are ciritcal for keeping your computer safe from all the new viruses and worms emering on the internet.
But not only does it contain these updates, it adds functionality to windows.

For more information about Service Pack 2 read the Service Pack 2 page.

To protest against viruses you will need a good antivirus program. I recomend you keep your antivirus program's resident protection always running. That way your antivirus program will tell you when a virus enters your system as it enters, and you will be able to fix it before it does any damage. In addition to this run a scan of all your hard drives every week or so.

Some good recomendations are:

·         NOD32 This program is great on resources. The interface is very simple and easy to use. One of the best antivirus programs out there.
 

·         AVG This program is good on resources, and the free version is great as a second-opinion scanner.
 

·         Kaspersky Another great antivirus app that uses little resources and has a great chance of finding viruses.
 

·         Trendmicro PC-Cillin This program also features a great interface, and was recently rated as the top antivirus program by PCworld Magazine. Also good on resources.
 

·         Norton/Symantec Antivirus This program is one of the most widely used programs, and features a great interface, but uses a lot of resources...
 

·         McAfee Antivirus This program, like Norton, is also one of the most widely used programs, and also has a great interface. I have found it to use less resources than Norton, but still too much.
 

·         Avast Antivirus This program is one of my favorites, because the free version which is hosted on their website has all of the features of the very expensive AV programs like Norton and McAfee.
 

·         Panda Antivirus This one uses moderate resources, with a great interface.
 

·         eTrust ezAntivirus This virus scanner isn’t that great, I would only use it as a second-opinion scanner.  

It is good to leave your firewall running all of the time, especially if you are using DSL or Cable internet, or another type that is always on.
If you have a router then you may not need to use a firewall, depends how many ports you have open and what kind of security setting you have enabled.

Some good recomendations are:

·         Zonealarm Zone alarm is one of the most secure firewalls available, and is very easy to use. It has tutorials for beginners, and also has many extra options for network admins\power users.
 

·         Sygate This one uses the least resources, but the interface needs a bit of work. This one is recomended for power users who need a lot of security features.
 

·         Tiny Personal Firewall Another great firewall, made by Tinysoftware. Uses little resources, and is a very simple firewall.
 

·         Norton Internet Security While this firewall is one of the best on protection and ease of use, it also uses a lot of ram and cpu time.
 

·         Outpost Firewall Pro Another great, little resource using, firewall.
 

·         Kerio Firewall This firewall seems to give you A LOT of info on your network\internet connection status and on hacker's or other malicious attacks to your computer.
 

·         Look ‘N Stop Small firewall. Ugly interface but it gets the job done.
 

·         Armor2Net Small little firewall, works good.
 

·         eTrust EZ Firewall This firewall looks exactly like ZoneAlarm. Probably runs on the same core and just changed the names.
 

·         Primedius Another great firewall that will Detect, review and screen any entry through Winsock layer. It also helps block Messenger Popups.
 

·         PeerGuardian This firewall doesn't provide full protection, but it is a very secure IP blocker. It operates at system level with a special driver that uses very little system resources. I recomend running this with another firewall or a router.
 

Trojans are malicious, security-breaking programs that are disguised are something else, such as a directory lister, archiver, game or even programs that say they are to find and detroy viruses! Trojans are a lot like viruses in the way that they make computers less secure and are hidden from the user, but most antivirus apps don't detect them, This is why an anti-trojan scanner, which i recomend running once a week, should be installed on your computer.

Some good recomendations are:

·         Trojan Hunter This program is one of the best and msot updated trojan scanners.
 

·         Tauscan Same makers as outpost firewall. This tojan scanner’s program isn’t updated anymore, but the definitions are updated daily.
 

·         TheCleaner The program hasn’t changed in a long time, but the definitions are updated daily.
 

·         TDS-3 One of the best, if not the best, Trojan scanners.
 

·         A Squared a² Personal is the latest generation Malware scanner and remover. Beside Trojan Horses and Backdoors, it also detects other harmful software like Worm-Viruses, Dialers and other dangerous programs used by attackers to spy on or damage your private data. The advanced background guard prevents these harmful programs running on your PC. It blocks Malware before it can become active.
 

·         Trojan Remover Trojan Remover is very simple, with limited options. The program disinfects Trojans by renaming them so they can't load on reboot. It will also repair Registry entries that Trojans have made.
 

·         PC Doorguard A very extensive and thorough intrusion scanner that scans any media on your PC for backdoors and trojan horses.
 

·         WormGuard This scanner is very advanced…more advanced than any other. It provides worm-detection for ALL executed files and filetypes, ensuring the file is safe BEFORE it is allowed to run, making infection almost impossible.
 

·         Online Scanner This scanner runs from within your browser so you don’t have to install anything.

Antispyware

Spyware is a piece of spyware which is used to collect information about a user, or to display ads on a user's computer. It is considered malicious. A good anti-spyware app is another important thing to have on your computer. Run your Spyware searching program every week or so, and always after installing a freeware program which may contain spyware or adware.

Some good recomendations are:

• Spysweeper This program can be set to run in the background, or just as an ondemand scanner. It updates it's definitions automatically, and is very easy to use.
   
• Giant Antispyware (DISCONTINUED) This great new spyware app has proven itself to be one of the best antispyware apps available!

• Counterspy Antispyware This great new antispyware app is made by the same people who made the Giant antispyware, but features a new look and name, and is still updated regularly. Highly Recomended!
   
• Microsoft Antispyware This program is also based on the same core as Giant antispyware, so it's a great program. (At the time of writing) it is still in beta, but is still good. New definitions are out often.
   
• Ad-aware This program is great for all kinds of spyware; to be used as an ondemand scanner. This one teamed with Spybot Search and Destroy make the ultimate protection.
   
• Spybot Search and Destroy This program is also great for all kinds of spyware. When teamed up with Adaware this gives you the ultimate protection against spyware.
   
• Pest Patrol This program is also great for all kinds of spyware. It features key patrol, cookie patrol, and memcheck.

·         Spyware Blaster! SpywareBlaster prevents a lot of spyware to enter your system and gives you great control on ActiveX objects... VERY Nice and you don’t need to have it running on your computer…Just start it when you want to update it!
 

 X Cleaner xCleaner is a good privacy software product but lacks features that many other products have.
 

Bazooka This program is just a scanner. It doesn’t remove any spyware or adware, it just links you to an encyclopedia on the found spyware\adware.
 

After running one of these spyware removers, download and install the latest version of HijackThis! and save the log file. If you understand the results that HiJackThis! gives you then you can repair the problems it finds yourself. If not then you can submit it to this website and it will hilight any nastys it finds.

Popup blockers will stop those annoying popups and some banner ads that you always notice when browsing webpages with Internet Explorer. Of course, if you just used Firefox instead of Internet explorer, you wouldn't need a popup blocker...

If you still want to use Internet Explorer, Some good recomendations are:

·         AdBlock Very Handy and also it is freeware... You just enter their website and then download it.. it will come with a window asking if you want to install it.. You click Yes, and then it works.. Can easily be uninstalled from your computer.. AdBlock is also a great extension for Firefox!
 

·         Webroot Popup Blocker I have not really tested this one yet, but give it a try…should be good, webroot has made a long line of great products.
 

·         AdMuncher Admuncher is the best popup blocker out there that I have tried. Give it a go, it's great. It isn't freeware though, so you will need to aquire it somehow.
 

·         Google Toolbar The Google Toolbar includes a built in popup blocker, along with other Google search functions.
 

·         MSN Toolbar A rip off of the Google toolbar. It also includes a popup blocker and other MSN search functions.
 

AdBlock is a very handy ad\image blocker. You can choose to block any ads or images on a certain page, then it is retained in the AdBlock list until deleted, or AdBlock is uninstalled. You can even choose to block a certain website\it's images by just putting the domain name (example: putting in "pagead2.google.com" will block all google ads.).

This is an extension for the Mozilla browser and Mozilla Firefox. The extension can be installed from here. There is more info there as well.

To use AdBlock: Right click an image you would like blocked>click 'AdBlock image'>click 'OK'
To block all images from a domain: Right click an image>click 'AdBlock image'>make the necessary change to the URL to make leave it with just the domain and possibly a folder (for example www.adsite.com or www.site.com/ads/).

 

Premade Adblock Lists

Wouldn't it be great if you could just install an already made list of known ad sites? Well you can!
You can find the latest version of this list at Filterset.G. Be sure to make sure you have the latest version by checking back and updating your lists every week.
 

It's great to test your security apps to make sure they are working. Nothing's worse than thinking your computer is secure then having the computer stop working due to a virus, trojan or spyware, or to have the computer hacked and private files copied.

To test your firewall try this test. I recommend doing at least the common ports test.
To test your Antivirus app try this test. Don't worry the file isn't a real virus, it is only a file to fool your AV app.
To test for popup blockage go to this site.

Good luck!
 

Cleanup

Like keeping your room or house clean, keeping your computer's hard drive clean is also important. Keeping your computer's files organisedcleaned is important for keeping your computer running fast, having the most disk space available, and for security. Here are some ways of cleaning up files on your computer.
 

Registry cleaners will clean your registry of all that excess junk and old or broken shortcuts left in the registry for you.

Some Good Recomendations are:
 

·         Regseeker - Very Handy and also it is freeware. This program is one of the best registry cleaners.
 

·         Regcleaner - Great program. One of the best registry cleaners for sure.
 

·         Registry Mehanic - Another very poular, and great working, registry cleaning program.
 

·         Reg Supreme - Another great registry cleaning program. Part of JV16 power tools. Try out the other great apps as well.
 

·         Registry Restorer - Another great registry cleaner program.
 

·         Registry First Aid - This one fixes all the errors in the registry and cleans parts that aren’t needed.
 

·         Tweaknow Registry Cleaner - Another registry cleaner.
 

·         Registry Commander - The commander of all registry cleaners.
 

A way to free up a lot of space is to delete the files in your 'temp' and 'temporary internet files' folders.

The internet browser you use will accumulate the most "junk files" and is the main reason that computers require a regular cleanup. Modern browsers such as Firefox include built in cleanup options. To use them just click Tools>Options>Privacy then click 'clear' next to the items you want to clean (cache is the largest).
If you use Internet Explorer or another browser which doesn't "self clean" (well) then you can use one of these apps (remember that there is still more than just your temp internet files to clean, so another cleaning app should be used anyway):
 

·         WindowWasher - This program, by the same company as Spysweeper, can scan your hard drive and delete all of the temporary files, cookies and other unnecessary files on your hard drive. Thus, freeing up space.
 

·         System Mechanic - Another great program which does the same as Window Washer.
 

·         CrapCleaner - This program can clean a lot of the useless crap on your hard drive, and very fast at that! Not to mention it's free
 

·         Cleanup! - This program can also clean up all of the temp files, your index.dat file, and can even delete your Solitaire and Minesweeper scores!
 

·         Privacy Defender - This program helps you protect your privacy at home and work by removing all the personal information which is stored in your Internet browser.
 

·         12 Ghosts Wash - Removes your Internet history, cookies and temporary cached files. You may extend clearing with custom files, folders and registry keys. It comes with a pop-up killer that blocks pop-ups without requiring you to keep a black list. The auto-wash function works automatically when IE is closed and a boss-key hides all IE windows with one key press.

·         System Security Suite - Removes internet tracks and junk files from your computer. It allows you to delete Cookies, clear Internet Explorer Cache, delete index.dat Files, clear Typed URLs, Windows Temp Folder and much more. You can also specify custom folder locations with file masks, which will be cleaned along with the selected items. In addition, the program allows you to view and optionally remove programs that launch automatically at Windows startup.
 

·         Spider - Even after cleaning your cache, there may still be hidden information stored in the index.dat files. This program shows all the URLs and cookies stored in the dat file and lets you remove them. A great tool for privacy concerned users. It can also be used to reclaim disk space since index.dat can grow quiet large over time.
 

·         CacheSentry for Internet Explorer - A program that takes over the job of managing the cache from Internet Explorer. The program removes the index.dat file and un-needed files from the cache and fixes a few other bugs that are present in most versions of Internet Explorer, including IE6 and XP. In addition, it can automatically remove unused cookies after a given number of days.
 

·         Free History Cleaner - The program includes an easy to use interface with features such as; clean the index.dat file, history URL, cookies, temporary Internet files, recently used documents, real-time user interactive forum, auto upgrade features, etc.. Free History Cleaner supports Internet Explorer, AOL, Netscape, and Opera. It also allows you to set the Internet Explorer home page and delete Microsoft Office Most Recently Used (MRU) list.
 

If you haven't formatted your hard drive in a while, then you will be surprised by how much space these programs can free up!