Antivirus Software

I asked several of my friends at MIT what antivirus/antispyware software they recommend for people running windows. Note that only one of the four actually runs windows (the other three use a combination of mac os x and linux).

The number one suggestion is go buy one of these:
Apple - Mac mini

If you are not willing to do that, the next best thing is to make sure you are running firefox instead of internet explorer and if you can use webmail (such as yahoo or gmail). If you cannot use webmail, use Thunderbird instead of outlook. And of course run windows update regularly!

Once you have made those changes you can get/buy some software to help out. For antivirus it is not that big of a deal which one you get (McAfee and Nortan are the two most popular), the important thing is to pay for the update service and keep virus definitions up to date.

To cut down on the adware and spyware, you can get Ad-Aware and SpyBot off the web (I believe both are free). Be warned that they are a little over sensitive and might report that you have thousands of questionable cookies, you can just ignore those warnings and tell it to clean up whatever it can.

If you have any other suggestions please hit the comment link and leave a message.

Thanks to Susanna, Max, Steve, and Mike for their recommendations.