Top 5 PC Security Utilities

Security of a device is a important concern for every user. Almost every day we hear about incidents around security. The question is how do we protest our devices and protect the same. This blog post talks about a list of five free security tools that one may consider to protect their Windows PC.

Secunia PSI

Secunia Personal Software Inspector tops the list of the security tools, it is one on the must haves that your desktop must contain. It scans all the installed applications on your PC and determines the security updates or patches which might be missing by some programs.

The tool further examines all the exe.’s, dll’s and .ocx’s in order to collect meta information on specific software builds. After data collection is completed it is sent to Secunia’s servers and matched against Secunia's File Signature engine which determines exact applications that are installed in your system. Further, the software also flags insecure/end-of-life software and look for direct download links to missing security updates. Patch management software for business plays an important role to provide security to businesses and Secunia PSI does that perfectly. The software monitors as many as 4200 desktop applications.

OpenDNS

Second comes OpenDNS , its specialty is that no install-able is required, it enhances your web surfing speed, mends domain typos as well as give you a protective sheer against phishing scams. The thing required form your end would be to change your DNS settings to OpenDNS servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. In addition to above listed features, OpenDNS also offers parental controls, shortcuts and other nifty features to enjoy a secure and reliable browsing experience.

America Online's Active Virus Shield

Now let us talk about another security tool, America Online's Active Virus Shield, it is powered by Kaspersky Lab, and is amongst the best free anti-virus packages available for Windows users. The program installs effortlessly, pulls down hourly virus definition signatures from Kaspersky Lab and features real-time protection (including e-mail scanning).

Haute Secure 

Haute Secure comes as a browser plug-in available for Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It blocks drive-by malware downloads in real time. The tool is acceptable for behavior-based profiling algorithms into the browser (Firefox support is launching soon) to categorize and seize malicious files in real-time.

GMER

GMER, is also a free rootkit scanning tool programmed by Polish Windows internals guru, is generally addressed as the top at hunting out secrecy rootkits from PCs. It excellently finds hidden processes, services, files, registry keys, drives etc. It can also aid to monitor the creating of processes, the loading of drivers and libraries and file function and registry entries as a process explorer

In addition to the above listed five tools there are many free security tools available, but the best among the list is Secunia Personal Software Inspector. Its features, aid provided and security guaranteed outperforms any other tool listed.