In even the best case scenarios, sometimes spyware can still get you no matter what you do.  This is why I am a firm believer in a few small changes to the software you use to help protect your computer just a little bit more.

If you use the following tools, you will be shocked at how much less of a hassle the Internet in general will be to you.

Try this out and see how it suits you:

1. Install Mozilla Firefox

This is going to be the new baseline for your web browsing experience.  Firefox’s greatest strengths are its ability to update itself when a new version comes out (YES PLEASE ALWAYS CLICK OK WHEN IT ASKS TO UPDATE!) and its large selection of quality add-ons that make the software even better.

2. While in Firefox, visit addons.mozilla.org

You’re going to want to pimp out your browser with a few essentials.  This is crucial. I’m going to list these extensions by order of annoyance, starting with the least invasive one first.

3. Install Adblock Plus

This is the single greatest weapon in your arsenal.  It will remove the shiny objects that distract you from the content on web pages. This one is a set it and forget it.

4. Install Web of Trust

A very popular addon that will flag bad sites outright for you.  A traffic light appears at the top of your browser bar and flags any site others have found issues with.

5. Install RefControl

One of the ways websites track you is by seeing where you are coming from so they know how to tailor the content to you.  This is a growing problem specifically on sites like Facebook.

RefControl allows you to block this information while passing from site to site protecting your computer just a little bit more.  Once you have it installed, do the following:

After restarted, right-click the document looking guy on the far left in the picture above.

Click RefControl Options.

In the “Default for sites not listed” click Edit and select “Block”.

Hit “Ok”

Now all your referrals will be blocked outright.  On some sites (like newegg.com) you’ll see some odd strangeness like not being able to use the shopping cart.  Just go back into this option panel and add the website (like newegg.com) to the exclusion list and everything will work fine!

6. Install FlashBlock

Ever been annoyed by a webpage that just finishes loading only to see some animation fly over the entire page and prevent you from clicking anywhere?  Flashblock blocks all animated flash to run ONLY when you want it to.

If a page has Flash on it, a giant play button will appear.  Click it if you want to watch that YouTube video or see that dancing bear, but until you do, it’ll stay neatly tucked away from annoying the crap out of you.

7. Advanced: Install RequestPolicy

This bad boy takes some getting used to, but whoa nelly is it powerful.

RequestPolicy (or RP) blocks any request a web page makes to other web sites not on the same server.  This means that cross site scripts that send information to and from other websites will be stopped cold in their tracks.

RP has a great new subscription service they just added which takes a lot of the pain away from the original version, but some websites need a quick click to make them work:

Click the flag in the bottom right hand corner of your web browser in the status bar.

If you trust the website you are on, click “Allow requests from…” and then all requests in that site will work fine.

This can be a learning curve (and an annoyance) in the beginning, but the more you use it, the safer your browser becomes and the less it will need your interaction.

Just be sure to use it properly, and only allow requests from websites you know and trust.

8. Advanced: Install NoScript

There is a lot of fence-sitting in the tech community about this add-on.  NoScript is going to be flat out the most cumbersome of these addons to install but it can also make your browser virtually bulletproof.

The idea is that all javascript is bad. Period.  Just like RequestPolicy, you get a little icon in the status bar that you click and allow javascript to run.  This means you get to pick and choose what gets executed directly in your browser.

The problem is that when you visit any new website, you’re almost assured you are going to have to decipher what javascript is good and bad.  While this isn’t a bad thing, its a hurdle to learn that some of your favorite sites uses content distributors like Akamai and cdn to execute some code, so it looks nefarious.

I recommend trying it, and you can always uninstall it.

If you install these add-ons, you can be assured that your browser is going to be a lot less of a weak link that it currently is on most systems.  Its not going to allow you to be completely blind to security, but its a step in the right direction.