How can I protect my computer most effectively against viruses? (appart from keeping it in its box!)

We brought our computer no more than six months ago and it has broken down/crashed due to viruses in as many times in this period. We have had a number of virus protection systems on the computer and now we ave totally safeguarded it

How can I protect my computer most effectively against viruses? (appart from keeping it in its box!)?network security

cuite (answer above) has given good advice. Here's a reply I made to someone else....just to add a little more for you to choose from:

Be careful what you install and run. For instance, Avast is an anti-virus program. You already have AVG (same one I use, and it's great, but keep it updated). Anyway, DO NOT install two different anti-virus programs. They'll work against each other and cause nothing but headaches.

As for HijackThis (HJT), DO NOT use it by yourself. It can solve a lot of problems, but if you check the wrong thing and tell it to Fix, you could do irreparable damage to your computer. Don't use HJT unless you are getting help from a forum where experts are telling you how to do it, then do ONLY what they tell you to do with it. HJT is a tool used to get rid of malicious things on your computer, and you MUST have help with it if you don't know about adware/spyware/virus removal. Just Google search for ''free computer help,'' and you'll find several free computer help forums -- most all of them have a virus/malware removal section.