Download PC Tools Anti-virus Free Edition from here.

The installation is fast and simple. It can be installed and fully updated in about 2 minutes. This is the 2011 version 8.0.

During setup, you will see the usual prompts to accept license terms and choosing the default folder for the application. You will be prompted to choose between two installation types. The basic protection option is the free version and the advanced protection is the paid version. Since this is just for system security backup, choose basic protection. It warns that, in doing so, “you may still be at risk.” If you wish to purchase the full edition and use it as your primary antivirus suite, you may choose to do so. The suggestion is to try it out first.

During installation, you will have to completely disable the antivirus program currently installed on your computer. Otherwise there will be a conflict between PC Tools AntiVirus and the primary security software. You will be running PC Tools immediately after installation, so security will not be down very long. PC Tools installer will recommend that you uninstall other antivirus software. Do not do that unless you are going to buy the full version and use it as a primary.

One of the features of PC Tools is a feature called Smart Updates. This is similar to automatic updates found with other security software. Once PC Tolls AntiVirus is installed, it will initiate updates and it will do so any time it is run.

Next, you will see the user interface. This is a sleek GUI and it is simple to navigate. All actions and settings can be controlled from this interface to customize performance. You never need to worry about updates staying current either.

Intelli-scan is just a quick scan and only scans critical areas. This scan will run quickly. The full system scan remarkably finishes within 20 minutes, faster than most antivirus applications. Scans can be scheduled for regular times. To use this as backup security software, do not schedule scans. This is just to demonstrate that the option is available.

There is also an option for custom scanning where you can specify the files and folders to be scanned.

Overall, this is a good antivirus program that can even make a good primary security suite for your computer. To return to your primary antivirus suite, disable PC Tools AntiVirus and enable the primary security suite installed. Some security suites will not allow you to run PC Tools antivirus at all. For those that do, this is a good default security backup.

On the negative side, one could list the ads that are displayed in the free antivirus version which can be pretty annoying, and that the software best reputation when it comes to protecting the system from malware.

Malicious code will exploit security holes in operating systems, programs and applications. These are security exploits which are unknown to the vendor of your existing anti-malware software. Certainly, these security exploits will be soon recognized and antivirus security software will be updated, but what do you have to defend against freshly-born threats meanwhile? By employing ActiveDefense technology using behavior analysis, Threatfire will catch potential threats before your anti-malware software has updated the signature database.

Threatfire is a simple installation and is offered free to home users. Again, there is no conflict with existing antivirus software, so you won’t need to bother with disabling applications or creating exceptions in most cases. The installation link is: http://www.threatfire.com/

Always create a restore point prior to the installation of any new software. Set the restore point before downloading Threatfire.

Click Next to proceed. Accept the License Agreement, choose destination folder for the installation. You can go with the default folder to keep things simple. Besides, you set your restore point, right? The program opens automatically, presenting the following screen:

Click Start Scan and ThreatFire will run a quick scan. The program detected that the Windows Firewall has not been active on the system. In addition, twelve minor threats (tracking cookies) were detected on the system.

After installation, Threatfire will be running in the background to detect potential threats. As this is the free version, it will often prompt you to buy other third party software. This can be annoying, but should you decide to purchase them, you may do so and upgrade to the full version. As long as you have good anti-malware software installed on your computer, there is no need to move to the full version.

An interesting feature with Threatfire is that it will display the World Wide Detection Map, indicating the most recently identified threats detected in the community. You get an alert screen when a threat is found.

Run a full Scan

From here, run a full scan by clicking Start Scan. The scan will, of course, take some time.

The color-coded alerts indicated various degrees of threats. A yellow alert is used for potentially malicious software threats, while a red alert indicates that a malware application has been disabled and quarantined.

Threatfire opens your default web browser and opens the ThreatExpert page which details the information about the threat that was disabled. This is an interesting feature. It is always good to be educated about malware threats.

This is like a first-alert system. It is easy to operate, though some using x64 systems have had problems with it. The problems have not been major, just that the program has not worked well for everyone. For many other users, this has come in handy. The user demonstrating this article has certainly found it to be a handy addition to a PC security line-up.

Verdict:

Threatfire is a free program. The developers are not shy to advertise upgrades in various locations. New users should take note that the installation tries to install the Google Toolbar on the system. The toolbar needs to be unselected during installation to avoid this from happening.

Desktop Maestro 2 offers three functions in the main menu. The first is scanning the Registry of the computer. A run on my system found 1880 problems that were listed in several categories like Custom Controls, Startup Programs and Add/Remove Programs. Each entry that was found was classified with a priority from low to highest. The second function can be compared to programs like CCleaner. It’s called Privacy Guardian and deletes temporary files and settings like the history. This section is divided into five parts including Windows, Browsers and Plugins.

The optimize button finally leads to a page with system information and three ways to optimize the system. It is possible to compress the Registry, defragment the hard drive and click on a Optimize the System button which apparently adds some tweaks and patches to the Windows Registry.

Several free programs can do the same, if you already have them installed there is not much need to install Desktop Maestro. If you want to take a look do the following.

• Head over to this or this url and enter your name and email to receive a free license key in your inbox. Then download the version of Desktop Maestro that was mentioned in the comments at the Tip and Trick website, the one hosted at Depositfile. Do not download it from the PC Tools website because your serial number will not work with that version.
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