You don't need to be a techie to keep your computer safe from threats and protect your personal information. Many of the ways to protect your computer are simple things that you can do without having to invest in any extra security programs.

The following are a few simple ways to protect your computer that anyone can implement.

After a very long wait, very popular free spyware cleaning software Spybot - Search & Destroy has been updated to version 1.5.1, the new version is 100% compatible with windows vista and has a new user interface.

Here is the official changelog:
System support

* Restored Win95 compatibility
* Improved Wine compatibility
* Fixed HyperThreading issues
* Improved 64 bit immunization
* Create Portable.ini in main folder to use app folder as data folder as well
* New warnings about missing admin rights on Windows Vista
* Support for multi-line bookmarks (IE 7 / Vista)
* New Immunization for Firefox & Mozilla
* Improved Immunization for Opera

Reports

* Added version info to bug report
* Include Errors.log now includes timestamps
* Improved Windows version display

Misc

* "Single excludes" now include filenames to be more unique
* Improved settings retrieval from registry (mixed installations)
* Fixed .reg import bugs
* Added support for automated removal of F/Ps from host lists
* Changed update UserAgent and Referrer
* Improved (Vista-compatible) support for fast user switching
* Updater now in separate executable file
* Vista manifests for assigning required rights to each application
* Deactivated list of active ports per process for Vista (incompatible)
* Fixed support for handle list on 64 bit systems
* Improved disabling/enabling BHOs
* New special error reporting for beta versions
* Support for Windows Error Reporting for public versions
* Fixed update-related crashes on Vista
* Fixed memory leaks (replaced Indy with Synapse)
* Vista-compatible MSI installer for those who like/need that
* Support for alpha tests on services and domains lists
* Added hundreds of new automated tests of internal functionality for prerelease QA
* Added TeaTimer hide icon (disabled) registry value in installer

Detection and removal of threats

* Improved PE detection all over the place
* New 64 bit detection all over the place
* Improved file removal methods
* Added optional custom RecoveryDir setting in Default.ini
* Automatic guessing of "Download Dir" folders
* Added support for renaming services before stopping/killing/deleting them
* Improved plugin support (example: current TCP/IP Plugin)
* Support for regular expressions nearly all over the SBI interface
* Much improved logic connections between files, registry and API detections (others would invent a new TLA for that *g*)
* Speed-ups through improved caches
* File version checking
* Authenticode checking
* Improved archives checking
* Faster fulltext checking
* Improved Sys Internals file location algo
* Improved hosts file location algo
* Added some more Opera 9 detection schemes

User interface changes

* Fixed "show more information" panels
* Implemented workarounds for misarranged buttons (including TeaTimer)
* Improved support for /allhives in tools section (inactive installation support)
* Fixed flag shown on shortcut bar after changes
* Fixed IE proxy import in wizard
* Changed "use proxy" button to checkbox
* Improved localization on simple dialogs
* Added option to add a proxy inside app if running on Win PE
* Improved localization of list of updates
* Added Firefox icon on Cookie exclude page
* Fixed bad keyboard handling on some exclude lists
* Fixed cookie removal selection problems
* New confirmation dialog for system restore points
* Changed default font to Tahoma
* Red cross (trademarked) replaced with green cross
* Made "Check" option unavailable during fix
* Process list now is a bit less eager on tooltips
* Improved "delay start" dialogs
* Now displays checksum for each result for better trackback of results
* Fixed "Ignore Products" column width problems on Vista
* Improved localization of product descriptions
* Adjusted wizard for new situation (external updater etc.)
* Fixed Tools snapshot comparison highlighting
* Made display of registry changes in results list less confusing
* Improved SDHelper dialogs and block/allow choices
* Update date format on info page now localized
* Displayed app version is now four digits (e.g. 1.5.1.12)
* (De+)Select all in list of old reports
* Improved Warning/Confirmation dialog IE plugin
* Configuration & Information dialog in IE plugin