Avast Free Antivirus 5

A new version of Avast antivirus has been released.

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The new avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 has a completely revamped interface and significantly enhanced malware protection. Its new heuristic anti-malware engine offers code-emulator technology, and powerful boot-time scan. Avast is one of my favorite FREE Antivirus offerings. One of the best things about it is the boot-time scan, which can help remove some nasties that other anti-virus protection cannot, even paid ones like Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 or McAfee AntiVirus.  The plus for the paid versions are for businesses who need support.

Check out the review of avast 5 on pcmag.com.  You can download avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 for XP, Vista or Windows 7 here.

Alternative Free Antivirus Software

• AVG Antivirus version 9 - Another favorite of mine
• Avira Antivir - My current recommendation.  It's simple to use and you get updates daily
• Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft did a good job with this one.  Will be testing on a few systems with this soon.
• Clamwin - Open Source Antivirus.  If you love Open Source, this is a product for you.
• Norton Security Scan - A free product from a leading antivirus maker.  It's simple, but may not offer as much as some of the others above.

Do you use avast!? What Antivirus software do you use and why?

My Current Recommended Books

• You can buy the Learning FreeNAS: Configure and manage a network attached storage solution book if you are looking for a good FreeNAS reference book.
• Network Know-How: An Essential Guide for the Accidental Admin
• Absolute FreeBSD: The Complete Guide to FreeBSD, 2nd Edition

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Prevent Your PC From Being Hacked

More bugs have been found on Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6).  If you are still using this old browser, you are likely either very lucky or don't browse the web much.  If you have been keeping up with Windows updates, you should have gotten at least IE 7 by now.  This Zero day exploit is known as the Aurora IE vulnerability.

To keep your pc safe, it's best to update your browser to one of the following:

1. Google Chrome
2. Firefox 3.5.7
3. Safari 4
4. Internet Explorer 8
5. Opera 10.10

Browser related books:






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10 Ways To Free Up Disk Space Quickly

If your pc is running low on disk space, you will experience all kinds of "weird" issues.  Systems can hang or freeze.  Programs can close out unexpectedly and other unexplained issues will arrive more often.  Sometimes it might seem like your pc has a virus or other malware.  When in a pinch and you don't know how to free up disk space quickly, here are ten tips on how to do just that.

1. Remove the system pagefile if you have enough RAM
2. Remove the hibernation mode
3. Empty your Recycle Bin
4. Run Disk Cleanup
5. Uninstall applications, starting with the largest app first
6. Move large media files to external drives
7. Delete large files you no longer need
8. Delete Application install files you no longer need
9. Uninstall large applications and reinstall in another drive or partition
10. Empty your browser cache

The above list should help you quickly remove large files so you can get a stable system back ASAP.  I'll go into details on how to do some of the above in future posts.

For additional links to tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way, contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.