Since i have bought a new computer i am looking for a way to protect it. Can anyone please give me thier suggestions on what free antivirus, spyware and firewalll they think is best. Since my old computer was very prone to viruses i am sure that this onewill be too, i like to search and download a lot so i am very vunreble to viruses

AVG free is a good choice. I wonder what'll happen if I do this ?

>> Since my old computer was very prone to viruses i am sure that this one will be too << There is no such thing as a computer that is prone to viruses, only user that are prone to allowing viruses to get onto their computer. Look in the Security and Virus forum on this site. It is loaded with information. Stuart

echo StuartS (post-2) Meanwhile... avast - avast.com - has an excellent freebie; very low demands on system; easy to install etc. Auto updates without any problems. Been using it for over a year - very satisfied... AVG gets good reports too; but I (and a few others..) have had some problems with it and ME - and one or two minor mentions with XP as well... ZoneAlarm is a good/well tried/proven freebie in terms of software firewall; wise to install it (or similar) even if you do have arouter (with its own built-in firewall). AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ SpyBot http://www.safer-networking.org/ are two well proven malware utils... ccleaner gets generally good reports - as a malware/pest remover... However I had a serious problem with it and XP-Home; disabled my OS... had to go back a restore point (made it prior to installing ccleaner). (Had no problem with and the earlier M$-OS... but am avoiding it for now...)

You are forgetting "best practices". Consider all tools to prevent or otherwise defeat damage. One example is least privilege and use runas. Consider too virtual machines. Don't forget backups