We have an entry to add on our list of free antivirus software.  I have just created a new Downloads page so that it would be easier to find software that I recommend you to download.  New on our free anti-virus software list is the Microsft Security Essentials.  Yes, its from Microsoft and its free.   It’s basically a revamped Microsoft Live One-Care but has been made very light on resources and based on some reviews, it’s actually quite effective and unobtrosive. 
 
Although Live OneCare has not gained that much popularity and trust from pc users, with MSE Microsoft has taken all the not so useful from OneCare and left all the essentials and a very simple UI which users might really appreciate.  It has virus, malware and spyware protection. The UI has been made really simple to navigate and understand. The UI is separated by multiple tabs,  a green monitor icon tells you that everything is OK with your system, or a red one which obviously tells you something’s wrong, or yellow if your potentially unprotected.  The buttons you need to press to fix issues are hard to miss, so this is very suitable to ordinay home users. 
 
If your looking for a free virus protection software then give Microsoft Security Eseentials  a spin or you can check out my first list of free anti virus software for more options.  Keep on checking our new downloads page for new free stuff which I will sure to update.

Download Microsoft Security Essentials here.

Note:  If you are using a non certified copy of Windows, MSE will know and wont allow you to download the software if you dont pass the verification process.

Google recently released a new browser plug-in called Google Sidewicki.  This allows users to add and read comments on any webpage on the internet.  This is installed together with Google Toolbar and works with both Internet Explorer and Firefox.  Google said they are currently working on integrating this with Google Chrome and other browsers as well.

I’m not really a fan of toolbars, I think they’re just clutter on  my browser.  But this cool universal comment system on the web would probably be a good thing to have.  This would be a good way to get info from other people about the reliability of the website and a good source for more information about the website as well.  I just wish we could have this as a stand-alone tool though.

However, I believe this could also be prone to abuse as well.  Uncontrolled comments from website might turn out to vandalism.  Google already thought of this as well and they’ve worked out algorithms to display the most high-quality entries on top rather than the common recent-entry-on-top style.  As per google..

We worked hard from the beginning to figure out which [entries] should appear on top and how to best order them. So instead of displaying the most recent entries first, we rank Sidewiki entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed.

This is a free download for Internet Explorer and Firefox.   Get more info about Google Sidewicki from the official Google Blog.

Are you looking for a way to protect your computer from viruses and infections while surfing the web for FREE? Heres a list of FREE Anti Virus software that you can download for your computer. I have personally tested these on my own machine, family members machine and customers machine and have not encountered any infections so far.

AVG 

“AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users for the life of the product. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy to use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements. Highlights include automatic update functionality, the AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run, free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product, and AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files.”

Website: http://www.avg.com/

Download here.

AVIRA

“Avira AntiVir Personal Free Antivirus is a comprehensive, easy to use antivirus program, designed to offer reliable free of charge virus protection to home-users only. Avira offers: Extensive Malware Recognition of viruses, Trojans, backdoor programs, worms; Automatic incremental updates of antivirus signatures, engine and entire software; Permanent virus protection, with Virus Guard real time monitoring; Install and configuration in just a couple of steps, setup to protect your PC in minutes; Virus protection against known and unknown threats, using an advanced heuristic system; Scheduler where you can set the scanner to make automatic virus scans or updates on your system; Forum and phone support; Knowledge Base with virus descriptions available on web site; Rootkit Detection and Removal; A modularized AV-search engine for improved scan performance.”

Website: http://www.avira.com/

Download here.

 AVAST!

“Avast Home Edition – Free Antivirus is a complete ICSA & Checkmark certified antivirus, Checkmark certified anti-spyware & anti-rootkit package. Avast includes the following components: On demand scanner with skinnable simple interface, just select what do you want to scan in which way and press the Play button; On access scanner, special providers to protect the most of available e-mail clients; Instant messaging–ICQ, Miranda; Network traffic–intrusion detection, lightweight firewall; P2P protection for Kazaa, BitTorrent; Web shield–monitors and filters all HTTP traffic; NNTP scanner–scans all Usenet Newsgroup traffic and all operations with files on PC; Boot time scanner–scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does.”

Website: http://www.avast.com/

Download here.

Please understand that I am not an employee of any of these companies,  I am merely sharing these awesome applications for anyone who needs it.  I do not guarantee the functionality  of these applications, but if you’re having problems, just drop a message and we will help you to the best we can.   And another thing, dont use more than one antivirus software at the same time because it will cause some conflicts in your system.  If you encounter problems after installing the software, please check this out and it might help.

I’m sure you already heard of the new Operating System Microsoft is releasing right?… Yup! Windows 7 indeed. For those who may not be familiar, Windows 7 is the latest OS that will be released by Microsoft this coming October 22, 2009.  A lot of people have already taken Windows 7 for a spin via the beta and RC versions, which unfortunately is no longer downloadable, but you surely can still find some torrents from the net.

Windows 7 promises to be everything Windows Vista was supposed to be and is touted as being the next Windows XP.   Windows 7 is basically just like Vista but has been extremely optimized, in fact is said to be as stable as Windows XP.   For those people still running XP, Windows 7 is a promising upgrade, even for Vista users.

Now the question before upgrading is whether your computer is compatible with 7.  If you are running Windows Vista right now, there is a good chance that your computer is compatible, but for XP users or others, you may download a compatibility checker from Microsoft here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1B544E90-7659-4BD9-9E51-2497C146AF15&displaylang=en.

What? Your computers not compatible?  Don’t worry, all you have to do is follow some recommendations that the checker will provide you so that your computer would be able to run Windows 7.   Upgrading your memory or video card would be an easy fix, but if your motherboard does not meet the requirements, then it may be better for you to buy a new computer with Windows 7 preinstalled.

While waiting for the release of Windows 7, it would be a good idea to start backing up your files especially for Windows XP users since Microsoft preferred a full install rather than do an in-place upgrade.  If your running Vista, you may opt to do an upgrade to Windows 7 instead, but it is still preferred that you do a full install to prevent possible problems during the update.  Remember that it is always a best practice to have a backup of your files, whether it be on an external hard drive or on a CD/DVD even if you’re not upgrading or reinstalling your operating system.