-Keep 1 or 2 resident shields on at ALL times
-Scan every executable (especially .rar files) with at least 3 scanners before using
-Some handy programs you should have :
1. Acronis True Image- for backing up your hard drive (paid product though im sure all of you out there know methods of gettin p2u programs for free
) 
2. Ad-Aware for removing spyware (free)
3. Spybot Search and Destroy same as ad-aware (also free)
4. Zone Alarm (free, though there are paid versions) ? free excellent firewall.
5. Crap Cleaner? as the name says, it cleans crap,lol.
6. Process Guard 3 as the name states, it guards the system processes, though it also used to be able to hide hax from gameguard in the early days
EDIT: lol,forgot any good antivirus programs..will add some now...
7. AVG antivirus free- one of the most popular antivir scanners
8. Kaspersky antivirus - i reconmend you turn kaspersky's resident shield off as its a piece of crap that east at your CPU. not sure if its free, but as i said b4, you know others ways to get it
9. McAffee stinger - instead of searching for all virus, stinger searches for specific variants or viruses/worms/trojans.
(though a lot of other sites have it up for download also)10. Norton antivirus- very useful and dam good resident shield, you cant download it for free,but it comes with most computers these days.
11. Spoofstick - works only with firefox, and it forces the site to show its real address so you can tell if its authentic. too tired to search for the link, will add if requested,lol :P
(thanks for some technical forums for listing those programs :P as i have lost the links ages ago)
-Update your antivir and scan with all scanners as often as possible
-Try to wait for other users to confirm safety of a program before using yourself
-Try do download files in a safer format if possible (e.g .zip file)
-If you suspect you have installed a virus/keylogger/trojan/whatever check through your task manager>processes and if there seems to be something strange there, google it to check.
-To remove annoying startup programs, type "msconfig" into run (without " of course) and then go to >startup and uncheck the process, and remember to uncheck anything related in the processes tab. though this isnt permanent, im not gonna say the other ways via the registry as i know some noob will screw up and start flaming me. regcleaner is a good program though, for those of you out there who know not to screw over the registry.
well,thats all i can think up of right now, but i might edit it to add more when i next come on and have time to :P. i am sure some of you use things like WPE to check packets and hex editors and such, but as it says, its a guide for noobies,lol :P
EDIT: oh yea,suggestions and comments welcome.
happy hacking/botting
