Essential Software
When you have a computer with an internet connection, the basic software that you will need are anti-virus programs and anti-spyware programs. To know more about PCs, see PCWorld . I would recommend avast! 5. I haven't had much problems with it, although avast! sometimes marks false positives and can be memory-intensive. Currently, I'm using avast!, but I also use Avira on one laptop because an error caused avast! to stop running and I couldn't solve the problem even after scanning & removing malware and re-installing avast!. What I would not recommend is Norton. It basically screws up your computer settings, can't detect viruses well and easily gets infected by viruses. The latest version of Norton works better and has more customisations but can be confusing for a basic user. However, Norton is still a paid subscription program and it can be rather pricey, so I'll be sticking to the free yet effective alternatives, thank y...