Everyday worries emerge about getting malware components (i.e. viruses, spyware…etc) installed from malicious websites, programs or games. The most frequent solution you will be hearing to overcome such worries and protect yourself from malware components is to get one of those popular Anti Virus and Anti Spyware products installed.
Well in a way we must agree that this is a good solution, but we also must remember that Anti Virus and Anti Spyware products can only protect us from malware components which ‘they know’! We must also remember that by the time ‘they know’ a lot of things could happen starting from infecting important files, messing up with Windows files and up to stealing sensitive information!
We believe the best way to protect yourself from any potential malware attacks is simply by following the old proverb “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”, in other words by installing some essential tools that will help prevent malware components from reaching your PC in the first place.
Below are three essential software programs which we believe can help prevent malware components from reaching your PC
1. Sandboxie
Sandboxie offers a complete isolated space on your PC where you can download, install and run any browser, IM tool, game or program without having to worry about any of those programs accessing or changing other programs and data on your PC.
This way even if any of the program you were installing contained malware component, this component will remain on your Sandboxie isolated area.
2. Oracle VirtualBox
Oracle VirtualBox is a free open-source virtualizer which you can use to build Windows virtual environments on your PC. Windows virtual environment is like having another Window running under your Windows, yet this time it is totally isolated from your main Window and files.
Whatever you do on the virtual environment remains on the virtual environment. Similar to Sandboxie if any of the programs you were installing inside your Windows virtual environment contained malware component, this component will remain on your Sandboxie isolated area.
3. TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a free open-source disk encryption software, offering strong files and disk encryption. Using TrueCrypt you can securely protect your private and important data, drives by encrypting them.
This way even if your files were accessed, no one will be able to capture their content.
