Windows Defender is a free program that helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software.

This download is available to customers running genuine Microsoft Windows.

However, as many spyware experts have noted, no one anti-spyware product catches all malware and spyware. For this reason, LOCL.net also recommends that you download and manually run another anti-spyware product regularly. The best non-Microsoft solution is Webroot Spy Sweeper, but if you'd rather not pay for protection, the free version of Lavasoft Ad-aware is decent but not excellent.

Between Windows AntiSpyware beta and one of these products, you should see a marked decrease in spyware on your systems. The best way to avoid spyware, of course, is to use a safer Web browser. On that note, I strongly recommend Mozilla Firefox over Internet Explorer.