We know very well now how easy it is for malware to infiltrate computers in any form, not necessarily in the guise of viruses, to spy on computers or to bring advertising by inserting it in every browsing session on the internet. Digital infections in the form of viruses, Trojans, spyware or malware can endanger data integrity and system stability, even causing data and password theft in more serious cases. So everyone has (I hope) an antivirus that protects your computer in real time, continuously, by intercepting viruses the moment they occur. The most prudent and under certain conditions, many users could add to the antivirus, an antimalware that acts in real time, that is with continuous protection in real time so as to render threats inoffensive immediately, without waiting for the occurrence of symptoms and problems on the computer.
Real-time anti-malware protection is different from on-demand scanner.
The scanner checks for malware only when the program is launched, searching all over the PC and reporting any infections. A real time protection typical of antivirus instead is continuous, the program works in the background and signals (or should report) the presence of the computer infection at the same moment in which it enters the computer .
Two antiviruses together cannot be kept on one computer because they conflict; an antivirus and an antimalware coexist very well instead . When you buy a full paid antivirus suite such as that of Kaspersky, Symantec, Nod32, GData, BitDefender or others (see how to download the paid antivirus, try it for free), in addition to the antivirus there is also antimalware and others types of protection.
If, on the other hand, you use a free antivirus such as AVG, Avast, MSE or Avira, you have real time protection from viruses but not protection against specific malware.
On Windows 7, XP and Vista there is a service called Windows Defender that protects against spyware but doesn't seem to be very powerful.
You can then download one of these free anti-malware programs, which offer continuous and real time protection .
1) Ad-Aware by Lavasoft is a very famous antivirus and anti-spyware tool, also because it was born several years ago and is still developed and downloadable for free.
In the past I had used Adaware then it got heavier and today it is still a heavy program.
However, Ad-Aware is one of the few computer security programs that offers free and real-time protection against spyware and malware, thanks to the Ad-Watch tool that checks files, logs and network data.
Like the programs on this list, Ad-Aware works in collaboration with its antivirus.
Ad-Aware always shows a bit too slow, both in uploads and in scans, also on older computers it weighs down Windows because it consumes a lot of memory.
2) Immunet Protect is a famous antivirus supplement that works in real time, enhancing the installed antivirus and making it more secure.
3) Spyware Terminator was mentioned in the article on the best antimalware and antispyware programs.
Spyware Terminator is a scanner with continuous, memory-resident real-time protection . Unlike its competitors, Spyware Terminator is only free and there are no paid versions. This means that Spyware Terminator can be downloaded and installed for free for both personal and commercial use. Spyware Terminator, during the installation, tries to add an absolutely useless and to be rejected Security Toolbar . After installing the Italian version, you can select real-time spyware protection. The settings can be changed from the Spyware Center, which has a lot of more or less complex options.
4) The best choice and the real novelty of this category of security programs, at least for the moment, is the IObit Malware Fighter Free program, heir to Iobit Security 360 (which no longer exists). This program comes from a fairly renowned and reputable software house like IoBit, it is free and provides both a scanner and real time protection against malware . IoBit also remains lighter than Adaware and acts in the background without getting too noticed. Secondary features are a clean and simple to use interface, also in Italian.
IObit Malware Fighter includes the Startup, Browser, Internet, Files, Cookies, Processes, Discs etc.
Updates are frequent, it works against spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, bots, worms, hijackers, doing everything automatically.
5) The most famous and best anti-spyware program is SpyBot, a scanner that everybody should use every now and then on the computer to make sure there are no known spyware and malware. On Spybot you can enable the Tea Timer tool (now it is paid) that acts in the background and, especially when you surf the internet, it signals in real time when malware is downloaded to your computer.
Tea Timer checks the processes started on Windows and detects the harmful ones by stopping them.
6) To this list I also add the best free SpyShelter anti-keylogger program because keyloggers are, in fact, the most dangerous types of malware to always keep away from a computer so this may suffice.
Protection from real-time malware is important but not essential, it depends a lot on how and where you use your computer.
Personally I do not use a resident and continuous antimalware but I prefer to do one-off scans, whenever there are symptoms of slowdowns or errors on Windows, with programs such as Malware Bytes, NovirusThanks and SuperAntispyare which I talked about in the guide on how to remove malware from your computer .
For those who ask me for advice, I would say to try the programs listed above and choose one to support your antivirus, if you use one of the free antivirus, good and safe but always essential and not complete.
Let me know your opinion about it.
