What are some must have programs to protect your computer?

[Frogman316]

I use Avast, always keep it up to date, I used to the free zonalarm, but they don't support 64bit OSes.

I currently run Vista Home Premuim x64.

For a firewall I just use the Windows one.

My real complaint is, with some of the security features built into Vista I actually get BSODs from running legitamate software, mostly bittorrent types, so I won't use those anymore. Never had good download speeds from them anyway, far too dependant on whether others are seeding.

I do think that the BSODs might be caused by my motherboard bios though, or else the fact that I am running a PCIe 2.0 card in a 1.0 slot. It definetly contributes to some of the errors I have been getting.

As far as virus's go, I don't really have any problems, I rarely get them, and I only get them when I do something really stupid that I know better than to do, but did it anyway.

My choice of using Avast is based on the fact that:
1) it's free
2) it runs on 64bit OSes
3) it caught a lot of viruses that none of the other Antiviruses I used to run never did, based on the fact that I would hit the same sites with Avast installed and the scanner would catch basicly what the other anti's didn't even know was there. Helped me avoid a lot of websites that I thought were safe, based on the fact that their scanners didn't report anything bad.

I know that Comodo firewall supports 64bit but it is far to restrictive for me as all I do is surf, play games, and email with my computer.

My system is just a glorified gaming machine, only reason I even have internet is for patching them and playing MMO's.

Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo e8400, 3.0Ghz dual core
EVGA nForce 650i ultra, motherboard
EVGA geForce 8800GT 512MB, PCIe 2.0 GPU
4 gigabytes Transcend Axe ram, DDR2 800 MHZ, 4-4-4-12 timings
Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme music
Wolfking Laser mouse
LG Flatron 19 inch LCD, 3000:1 ratio, 2ms timing monitor
Basic Microsoft USB keyboard, slightly ergonomic
WD 250 GB SATA2 Harddrive

[UrbanSniper]

I would recommend at least AvG Anti-virus and either Spyware Doctor or Ad-Aware. Get rid of anything from Norton and McAfee, since they just screw up your computer and eventualy start blocking most things from browsing. Plus, AVG and AdAware are totally free, which is a plus.

[Mabus]

The combo that has never let me down, even though it says it has a conflict is Avast Home edition Anti-Virus and Zone Alarm free firewall. Both are top notch free software. If you don't want any conflicts then try this

AVG Free edition and Zone Alarm Firewall. Both out perform most pay for anti-virus and firewall solutions and they are way better than Norton (way too intrusive a program!!!).

[Drachnon]

I don't use any anti virus or firewall. In fact I haven't for quite some time now. But I haven't encountered any problems. I do use spybot against spyware but even that doesn't seem to find all that much on my PC.
If you want a good defence against virusses just make sure you don't open shady attachments to emails and don't open files send to you over MSN and the like.

But even if I was somehow affected by a virus I have backups of all important files and can just format my harddrive to start over.

[dr_jackal]

System Restore is my defensive tool against viruses and spyware.