What free software to put on my new laptop? (anti virus firewall etc etc)

Antique_Guitars

Just got a new cheap laptop to tide me over and just wondering what programs to put on it......

Usually I put on:

Avira

Commodo

Malwarebytes

Spybot

cc cleaner

But I am a bit out of the loop so need some advice.

Thankies

Hertz32

AVG Free is still available (But you'll have to look hard for it, they want to sell it to you really badly) 

Brilliant bit o kit that  

Hertz32

http://download.cnet.com/AVG-AntiVirus-Free-2014/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?part=dl-avg_free_gb&subj=dl&tag=button

Karlos

Hertz32 said:

AVG Free is still available (But you'll have to look hard for it, they want to sell it to you really badly) 

Brilliant bit o kit that  

...and then stop looking at porn  [-X

DiscoStu

Microsoft Security Essentials is actually very good. As a former AVG/Avira user, I was recommnded it by several people on here (via the old MR forum) when I bought my laptop 3 years ago. It's been brilliant.

Previously (on my old desktop) I also used Ad-Aware and Advanced System Care, both of which picked up the rogues and cleaned them. I haven't had to install them on my laptop having installed Microsoft Security Essentials though. 

DiscoStu

And if you want Office software then just install Open Office.

boogieman

Avast, Malwarebytes, Ccleaner should do you for antivirus etc.

If you do any photo editing Irfanview is a great little free program.

TheMarlin

install Chrome, and use that as your browser.

Then, install some security plugins, such as Adblock plus, Ghostery, Lastpass, Privacy Palette, and click and clean.

between this lot, it should stop you picking up nasties in the first place. 

As for Antivirus and such, it's worth reading this:

Good luck

Marlin

strumjoughlamps

DiscoStu said:

And if you want Office software then just install Open Office.

I prefer Libre now to Open, seems a bit slicker.

Audacity for free DAW, lots of plugins available

GIMP for free Photoshop style editing, IrFanview for image management and basic tweaks, MovieMaker for video/slideshows etc..

which OS you running?

fretmeister

I like Comodo AV. It stripped out loads of shit on an old lappie that other programs missed.

Malwarebytes

Super-Anti-Sypware

Megii

I've just got a new laptop too, and have been building a security suite for it. Secunia PSI is great for ensuring all your programs are updated to the latest version, which is apparently as important as anything for security. Also "Look In My PC" is a really nice program for giving you all the information you could want about all the hardware and software on your system. Open Office is good for those of us that want a free alternative to MS Office.

scrumhalf

I stopped suing AVG after it decided that it owned my PC. I now use Avast!, which turned out to be more thorough than AVG.

FX_Munkee

scrumhalf said:

I stopped suing AVG after it decided that it owned my PC. I now use Avast!, which turned out to be more thorough than AVG.

Yup AVG used to be good but has bloated quite badly recently and is far more intrusive than it needs to be. Avast is a good alternative.

Antique_Guitars

What about spybot? These day it seems to be well heavy on the cpu