5 FREE security tools to Protect your Computer

Here's a list of 5 free security tools you can and should be using to help protect, disinfect and manage your Windows computer.

1# Secunia Personal Software Inspector

Number one is the Secunia Personal Software Inspector, quite possibly the most useful and important free application you can have running on your Windows machine.

It can be used to scan all the installed applications on the PC to determine which programs are missing security patches/updates.

The tool works by by examining files on your computer (primarily .exe, .dll, and .ocx files) for meta information on specific software builds installed. After examining all the files on the machine, the collected data is sent to Secunia’s servers and matched against the Secunia File Signatures engine determine the exact applications installed on your system.

It can be used to flag insecure/end-of-life software and find direct download links to missing security updates.

2# Haute Secure

Haute Secure is a browser plug-in currently available for Microsoft's Internet Explorer that does realtime blocking of drive-by malware downloads.The tool, the brainchild of for ex-Microsoft staffers, fits behavior-based profiling algorithms into the browser (Firefox support is coming soon) to identify and intercept malicious files in real-time.

See this gallery for the Haute Secure experience.

Another free alternative is Exploit Prevention Labs' LinkScanner Lite, a product that supports Firefox.

3# GMER anti-rootkit

GMER does an excellent job of finding hidden processes hidden services, hidden files hidden registry keys, hidden drivers and all kinds of driver hooking.

It can also serve as a process explorer to monitor the creating of processes, the loading of drivers and libraries and file function and registry entries.

In addition to GMER, there are several free anti-rootkit scanners available: DarkSpy AntiRootkit, Trend Micro's Rootkit Buster and McAfee's Rootkit Detective.

4# File Shredder

With File Shredder you can remove files from your hard drive without fear they could be recovered. There are quite a few software tools today for retrieval of deleted files under Windows OS. Those tools, often referred to as "file recovery" software, are taking advantage of shortcoming of WIndows "delete" command that we all use regularly to delete files. Actually, the "delete" operation in Windows only removes bits of information from files so they appear deleted in OS. It is easy to retrieve those files using aforementioned specialized file recovery software.

In order to remove, or shred files permanently from your system you have to use a program that is capable of rewriting the files with random series of binary data multiple times. This process is often called shredding. That way, the actual content of the file has been overwritten and the possibilities to recover such a shredded file are mostly theoretical.

File Shredder is a must-have privacy tool that wipes/destroys documents beyond recovery.With File Shredder, you can choose between 5 different shredding algorithms, each one gradually stronger than the previous one to get rid of files forever.

5# CCleaner

This free system optimization and privacy tool can be used to remove unused files from your system -- allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.

CCleaner (free download here) also temporary files, URL history, cookies from the three main Web browsers (IE, Firefox and Opera).

It can also be used to delete temp files and recent file lists for all those third-party applications sitting on your PC.