Well, there's still a problem with the threats of viruses and spyware,
but Windows continues to make leaps and bounds to prevent these
threats. There are still three primary ways to avoid these threats. 1)
Use mozilla as the default browser. Use Internet Explorer if you
prefer, but when a link is clicked the system should open the link with
a non-microsoft brower as a precaution. 2) Use a third party email
system such as yahoo or gmail as your primary email system. You need an
invite to use gmail, so send me a request for an invite if you would
like one.Remove spaces from the following email address... (rob .
thrasher @ gmail.com) 3) Keep the system firewall active, unless it
is preventing
you from doing something you are use to doing on a regular basis. Then
you can deactivate it for a short period of time.

If the computer comes with antivirus software, but you do not plan to
get the virus definitions weekly, then uninstall the software and visit
housecall.trendmicro.com weekly, or better yet, daily. These virus
definitions are updated many times daily, and they also check for
spyware.