Originally Posted By: haertig
If you want to allow Mr. Porn to view his websites, and you want to protect your computer, and you want it to be running Windows - sorry Charlie, no way on that one. You can add a ton of software, causing all kinds of conflicts and slowdowns, and end up not much better than you were in the fist place.

Well... You could install VMware and then install a linux guest. You could surf away with impunity on the guest with no risk to the host machine. Maybe a little more work than its worth though.

But I do agree with the general fact that adding all the spyware blockers/av software and so on is counter-productive to the point of ludicrous. The amount of resources that most of these products use is higher than than most spyware. You can stop most all threats by not using IE, not using an email client and using a web email interface, not opening attachements unless you are expecting them, and only downloading stuff from reputable sources.