Software that integrates antivirus and spyware removal is becoming more common, but separate solutions are usually more thorough and offer you a better feature set. As newer products are released, it’s important to read reviews and see how “all-in-one” solutions stack up. Some fall victim to overkill with too many programs on their PC for threat protection. Multiple programs that perform the same functions can interfere with each other. If you have one solid antivirus program and one solid spy/adware tool, you should be in good shape.
I can only comment on the products I have used extensively. There are very good free options out there and I try to take advantage of them.
- For antivirus protection, I use a program called Avast. The home edition is free with yearly registration renewal. I have been using it for years and am very content.
- For spyware and adware, I use the free versions of Ad-Aware. The free versions do not do real-time scanning (which I recommend for most users), but I do manual scans once every few days or so, and my PC is clean as a whistle.
- The last program I use is CCleaner. It’s a system optimizer program that basically cleans your computer of broken files and DLLs from removed software. It will also clean out temporary directories, etc.