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Have you maybe been eyeballing some things you’d rather other people didn’t know about? Clear your internet history and … leave your anxiety behind.

1. When you install ZoneAlarm to your home computer, you’ll be asked if you want to program to scan for browsers and other Windows utilities that require Internet access- this will save you having to configure then later on. You’ll also need to reboot your PC after the installation is completed.
2. This is the main ZoneAlarm window, showing the status of the program and the number of threats it has dealt with. Different program components are accessible via the menu on the left hand side of the window. If you get stuck at any point, click the Help button in the top right hand corner.
3. Whenever a new program tries to transmit data to or from your PC, you’ll receive a warning like this one. If you trust the program involved, click on Allow (you might want to do some web searches to verify). Check the Remember this setting box always allows or block the application in question.
4. Switch to the Firewall tab and you can adjust ZoneAlarm’s settings using the sliders show here - the High/Med combination is recommended for most scenarios, though you might want to make changes. Switch to the Zones tab to add other PC’s on your network that can be trusted.
5. Open up the Program Control screen and click the Programs tab to see which applications are allowed to communicate through the firewall. Click on a particular program if you want to make changes. To add a new program to the list, click on the Add button in the bottom right hand corner.
6. ZoneAlarm will sit in the system tray and keep your system protected while you work. Right-click on the ZoneAlarm icon to access a range of different options - you can lock down your PC, for example, cutting off all communication with the internet until you deactivate the feature.

1. When you install Spybot you get the option to enable permanent protection, once the install is complete the program will launch a wizard that takes you through the basic setup. This will allow you to create a registry backup and will let you perform an initial update of the definitions.
2. When you perform an update the program will ask you to select your closest server in order to speed up the download. Once you’ve selected this you’ll see a list of the available files (it’s important to also download the latest detection rules and immunization database). Click Download to begin.
3. When the update is complete, click the Immunize button - this will ensure that your real-time protection is brought up to date using the latest database. You can see the number of protected and unprotected threats in the top right corner. Click Immunize to enable protection for the selected items.
4. Once you’ve immunized the system, click the Search & Destroy button, then click Check for problems. This will perform a scan of the machine for any existing issues. Not that the scan may take several minutes to complete depending on the size and performance of your system.
5. When the scan has completed you’ll see a list of all the problems that have been identified. For further information, select an item and click the blue arrow on the right, which opens a new pane with a longer description, together with a link to the website where the threat originates from.
6. Select all of the items you want to get rid of and the click Fix selected problems. Click Yes to confirm and the program will run through the clean up process. You’ll see green ticks appear on the list as the items are removed. You can rerun the scan to check that the threats have been deleted.
7. The real-time protection will alert you when changes are made to the Windows Registry so that you have the option to allow of deny the request. If you know the change comes from a trusted program, you can tick a box to remember the decision.
8. Open the Mode menu and select Advanced Mode and you’ll see more options appear in the left hand menu. Under the Tools heading you can manage the startup entries, securely delete files and handle others tasks. Under Settings you can configure the way Spybot works and change program defaults.

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Keep unwelcome visitors out of your PC system with the help of this leading security tool.

1. Once you’ve downloaded and installed AVG Antivirus, you can access the Control Center by double-clicking the program’s icon in the system tray. You’ll then be shown an overview of all the application’s various components - click on an individual entry to see more details and options underneath.
2. If you’ve set the program up correctly, updates should be handled automatically. To change the update settings, click the Update Manager entry, then the Properties or Settings button underneath. You can modify how updates are handled, and choose to specify the update source each time.
3. The Resident Shield utility will monitor new files to make sure they don’t pose a threat to your system, though some of the advanced features aren’t available in the free version of the program. The E-mail Scanner, meanwhile, can be used to check for and flag any messaged that appear suspicious.
4. You can make use of the Scheduler to set up regular scans of your hard drive - this saves you having to remember to run them yourself. Use the Edit Schedule button to specify a time for the antivirus test. Again, you’ll find that some features are disabled for users of the free version.
5. The Test Center window (click the Test Center button on the left) enables you to run customized scans of the hard drive. You can choose to run a full, comprehensive scan, or limit it to files and folders where you think there may be a threat. Click on any of the large icons for more options.
6. Any files deemed to potentially pose a threat will be moved to the Virus Vault, where you can study then at your leisure - you can run a Web search to find out more about particular files. Right-click on a particular file and you’ll be given the choice of deleting it or restoring it to a particular folder.

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