Not everyone has the money or inclination to pay $50 or more for a (bloated) security suite from the big boys (McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro), but that doesn't mean you have to be content with sub-standard protection. There is quite a bit of good, free, software available that is not only as good as, but sometimes better than, commercial software.

The following is a short list of software I have used and recommend.

1. COMODO free products (firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, security suite)
2. a² Free (anti-spyware)
3. AVG Free (anti-virus)
4. Avast4Home (anti-virus)
5. WinPatrol 2010 (process guard)
6. Spybot Search & Destroy (anti-spyware, process guard)
7. Microsoft Security Essentials (anti-virus/anti-spyware)