Some have the money to spare paying for protection but some of you do not, that is when you resort to free scanners.
This is a collection of well known scanners and firewalls from around the web in no specific order. All which are 100% free! The list will be updated when needed.
BE SURE TO READ ABOUT THEM ALL.
Warning
You should have only one anti-virus, spyware scanner and firewall running on your computer at a time. NEVER run more then one of each at once.
They do not always ask you to uninstall another scanner or firewall to kill competition. This is because they conflict with one another.
You risk your computers stability when running more then one.
Virus and Spyware Scanners
Stuck with a virus that is all over your computer like a plague or getting pop-ups to buy a strange product? These scanners are a MUST when browsing the web.
AVG Free
AVG scans offers real time protection from viruses and spyware around the web. Also includes a Safe Search tool called Linkscanner to help keep you safe from bad websites on search engines.
http://free.avg.com/
Avast! Anti-Virus and Spyware
Avast! offers removal and real time protection from viruses and spyware.
Includes removal of rootkits and has websheilds, antivirus kernel, resident protection, P2P and IM shield and more.
Requires free e-mail registration.
Avira
Avira offers removal and real time protection from viruses and rootkits.
Includes protection from dialers and rootkit detection.
http://www.free-av.com/
Spybot Search and Destroy
Spybot S&D offers you spyware removal. It includes a Tea-Timers which monitors your computer for unusual changes and asks you if they should be made.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Ad-Aware Free
Ad-Aware offers you spyware removal. Includes a basic real time protection tool, rootkit removal and is integrated with Windows Defender.
http://www.lavasoft.com/
TheatFire Anti-Virus
ThreatFire combines itself with any antivirus software to help improve protection by determining the behavior of things happening on your computer.
http://www.threatfire.com/download/
MalwareBytes Anti-Malware
MalwareBytes in a new scanner for detecting and removing spyware. It offers great spyware detection rates with easy removal. Free for scanning but requires payment for real time protection.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
Spyware Terminator
Spyware Terminator offers virus and spyware scanning with removal and real-time protection. Also includes HIPS protection.
http://www.spywareterminator.com/download/download.aspx
Spyware Doctors Starter Edition
Spyware Doctors offers a large definition database of spyware to help remove nearly every threat, includes a File Guard to protect files and Immunizer to make your compute immune to some threats.
http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/download/
Firewalls
Sometimes Windows Firewall is not enough. Windows firewall offers great protection from threats on the outside but offers little protection from programs connecting to the Internet from inside your computer. It also does not stealth your ports proving that your computer exists and could lead to further probing.
Comodo Firewall
Comodo firewall monitors any communication to and from the Internet, pausing the programs Internet connection until you allow its request.
Also comes with optional AntiVirus and includes Defence+ to monitor any suspicious changes to your computer. Keeps your computer ports stealthed.
http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/
ZoneAlarm
ZoneAlarm offers the same protection as Comodo Firewall, monitoring all communication to and from the Internet making sure you give the program permission to connect to the Internet. Keeps your computer ports stealthed.
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en...e-firewall.htm
PC Tools Firewall Plus
PC Tools offers you protection on the Internet, while working, surfing and playing. Includes advanced rules and is easy to use from novices to experts.
http://www.pctools.com/firewall/
Online Virus and Spyware Scanners
Most malware now block scanners from running, what can you do? You can try visiting these free websites that perform scans of your computer showing whats infected and where it's located and some will remove it for you.
Trend Micro Housecall
Trend Micro will check your computer for viruses, spyware and malware as well as other vulnerabilities. It will remove anything it finds.
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Kaspersky Online Scan
Kaspersky offers one of the largest definition databases on the Internet and will scan your computer thoroughly. It will give any locations of infected objects for you to remove manually.
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
VirusTotal
VirusTotal will scan a single file you upload to their website with 28 scanners for infection and for the more advanced, file analyzers to show MD5 hashes and more. Only one file may be scanned at once or you can upload multiple files inside a compressed file for scanning.
http://www.virustotal.com/
Panda ActiveScan
Panda offers scanning for viruses, spyware and malware. They claim their scanner uses Collective Intelligence (in-the-cloud) to find infections where other scanners cannot. Requires manual removal of infected objects.
http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeuse...ns/activescan/
Jotti's Malware Scan
Jotti offers a single file scan like VirusTotal with 20 scanners. Only one file may be scanned at once or you can upload multiple files inside a compressed file for scanning.
http://virusscan.jotti.org/en