From within your operating system, there are tools you can use to help ward off evil software, too. All browsers today, for instance, provide some security tools, including anti-phishing filters or lists of Web sites that are known carriers of harmful software. Use these features -- they won't slow you down. Common sense is your biggest defense.

First things first: you should have some kind of antivirus protection on your PC, especially if you surf the Internet or trade files with anyone. There are plenty of people, though, who hate antivirus programs -- and with good reason. Most of them are resource hogs, slowing down your computer; many of them throw up more false positive warnings than legitimate ones, slowing down your work and annoying you in the process. These days, most are leased on a yearly basis, meaning you must pay up every year in order to keep your antivirus signatures current.

All of that adds up to some pretty painful medicine to have to swallow to potentially rid your PC of some malicious software. Can you possibly just say "no" to antivirus software? The short answer is, "yes, you can." But to remain virus and spyware free, you'll need to adopt some precautions -- and stick with them.

Use clean software

An antivirus-free computer should start and stop with legitimate, clean software. That means eschewing copies of programs that can be downloaded through warez sites or on newsgroups, borrowed from friends through file sharing, or found on shareware and freeware sites.

Remember that being without an antivirus program often means living without on-demand scanning, so a file you download online isn't as easy to check for viruses as it would be if you had an antivirus program installed. Still, plenty of people can and do assemble systems solely with commercial, off-the-shelf applications, and you can, too.

                                                                                                 courtesy:rediffmail get ahead