New to XP (been a '98 user) and have the following free applications now installed on my new HP computer: Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, Ad-Aware, ProcessGuard, and Outpost Firewall? Does this constitute as having "anti-virus protection"? If not, is there a recommended "shareware" that I should add to the mix? In case it's relevant, Firefox and Thunderbird are my browser and email programs.Thanks for any help with this question. Bob

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A:  No.

Avast and AVG free AV programs seem to be popular among the regulars.

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The single best thing you can do for yourself to prevent problems with XP is to do 
you everyday computing with a Limited User account, and only use a Computer Administrator 
account when the task at hand demands that level of power.

With XP, typically an attacking nasty generally will have the same level of privilege 
on the system as the logged on user account.  Since a Limited User cannot write to 
most areas of the registry, nor to the Program Files folder or to the Windows folder, 
damage from an attacking nasty can be, well, "limited."  ;-)

Note this is not a panacea, but is one componenet of defense-in-depth tactics.

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No! use AVG Free - listed in my
PreventiveMaintenance
MrC

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a couple of free choices here...

AVG Free Edition
Avast! AntiVirus
Bit Defender 8 Free Edition
EZ AntiVirus One Year FREE Trial

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