Last week we concluded our little series on free-anti-spyware and even had a free anti-virus thrown in there for good measure along the way. We may continue later with a series on free anti-virus software, but not for now, unless it is requested by popular opinion.

What I want to be sure about is that everyone has an understanding of software licensing. If you don’t know what I am talking about you soon will when you read on.

You know those pesky little windows that come up when you are installing software and ask if you “agree” or “disagree” with the licensing terms or something to that affect? Yes, that stuff that almost no one reads at all, and we just click “agree” so we can get the software installed and start using it.

I am here to tell you that if you run your own home based or small business and use free software you are still required to follow the license agreement you agreed to when installing it.

So what is a software license? From Wikipedia a software license “is a legal instrument governing the usage and redistribution of copyright protected software.” Just because software is given away for free does not mean you are not beholden to the licensing agreement.
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Please read through these agreements and the big thing is pay attention to how many computers you are allowed to load your free software on. Typically my experience is that most free software allows you to load it on up to three computers.

Just like with software you pay for at the store or online, you can get yourself in big trouble legally if you do not follow the agreement you made when installing the software.

That concludes this post, if you have any requests please contact us.

This week concludes my experimentation with various free anti-spyware programs. So as my concluding program I provide a review of Super Anti-Spyware.

I would have to say this worked about as good as any of the others, but I am still a fan of Microsoft Defender and Spybot S&D as far as freebies go.

To keep things short and to the point I have provided the download link above and a video tutorial and review below. Please feel free to make your own decisions based on your own requirements. I plan on running Super Anti-Spyware along with others.

In keeping with the current theme of anti-spyware, anti-virus and other “anti-softwares”, we are going to cover Windows Defender which is an anti-spyware software. Most Windows Vista systems come with Windows Defender. So if you already have Vista, just go into your start menu and check programs for Windows Defender. You will see, unless someone has un-installed it, that it is there and ready to use.

If you have Windows XP, then you may or may not have Windows Defender. Check by going into the start menu, checking programs. If it is not there then you can download it here .

Please check out the video below for some guidance on using it.

Windows Defender is a free program helps protect your computer against little nasties that can carry malware and spyware like pop-ups and other potentially unwanted software.

Windows Defender is free and does work, but like most free anti-spyware programs, it does miss some infections, and reports say it does not always fully remove infections when they are found. Downloading, Updating and running Windows Defender requires you to also verify your Windows license. So if you are illegally running Windows (which I know you wouldn’t) you won’t be able to use it effectively and could get your version of Windows disabled by Microsoft.

Just like I recommended with the other free anti-spyware and anti-viruses, you should always run more than one software to ensure you are able to detect and clean as much as possible. By running two different brands of anti-spyware or anti-virus you can ensure as many bases as possible are covered.