In the race to beat evil malware, it's best to be fore-armed with trusted and reliable tools to protect your system and remove anything that does get through. But how do you tell the reliable from the so-so or even the down-right dubious? Choose from this list and you won't go far wrong. We trust most of the software listed below enough to use it ourselves and those we don't use, we've seen in use often enough to recommend them.

Free Online AntiVirus Scanning Tools Kapersky online scan F-Secure Online Scan TrendMicro HouseCall online scan BitDefender online scan

Free Temp Cleaners CCleaner

Free Anti Spyware Downloads Spybot Search & Destroy Ad Aware Spyware Blaster A-Squared Antispyware SpywareGuard Spyware Terminator

Free Anti Virus Downloads Avast! AntiVir ClamWin Grisoft AVG

Comodo Firewall
Hijack This A free utility that generates an in depth report of registry and file settings from your computer. Can help track down and remove troublesome maleware but you do need to be very careful with it. Please read the help files before using it.
Memtest86
Great memory testing software.
CPU-Z
This application gives detailed information about your system in a nice layout
Speedfan
Returns and monitors system temperatures.
Windows Updates
It is very important to make sure that both Internet Explorer and Windows are kept current with the latest critical security patches from Microsoft. To do this just start Internet Explorer and select Tools | Windows Update, and follow the online instructions.