Reinstalling XP From Scratch - Protection Advice ?

It is about that time. I am going to reinstall XP after an good ol' fdisk and format. I have been getting random crashes and there is just too much going on in there to fix I think.

So - what steps can I take from the start to keep Spyware and Adware away? Is there a good payware program out there? I know of a few shareware/freeware programs but I think they are fixes and not for prevention.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

1st pointer, would be to stay away from the naughty sites ...j/k first off, make sure you have all of your important files backed up, and for the spyware, i would suggest adaware, and spybot. just go to download.com and type in adaware, then spybot, it should be the first one, if not just read the reviews.

 

Everything you need to protect your PC is right here at Major Geeks.

How to Protect yourself from malware!

The above sticky is from the Spyware forum.

 

Firewalls, choose 1.

Sygate Personal Firewall http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3356.html
Zone Alarm http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=388 or
Zone Alarm http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=744
Anti Virus, choose 1

AVG http://www.majorgeeks.com/ download886.html

Avast download http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1968.html


ADware and cleanup stuff as follows:-

Install them all, run them at least once a week.
Ad-Aware SE Personal http://www.majorgeeks.com/download506.html

Cleanup! http://www.stevengould.org/

EmpTemp http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1575

and CrapCleaner aka CCleaner http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4191

SpyBot Search & Destroy http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2471

All, bar 1, are available from MajorGeeks. Bazza

 

Well said. MajorGeeks is truly everything you need. Just check out the Spyware Specific forum stickies.