If you have thought about clicking on one of the many "Free Registry Scan" ads seen online, be prepared to be told that your Registry is indeed infected and that it can be fixed for about $36.  If you decide to respond with "No, thank you," you may discover that you've downloaded a program and will be required to pay about $36 to have it removed.

The good news is that a Free Registry Repair is available from Microsoft at http://onecare.live.com/scan and a Free Registry Pruner is available from www.KarenWare.com.

Personally, I've gone for years without having my Registry checked and have never had any trouble with it.  Nevertheless, I decided to try the OneCare offer.  Well, Microsoft said some issues were found — and they removed them at no charge.  However, to use this service Microsoft asks you to read a very lengthy "Terms of Use" agreement and then requires you to download an ActiveX file to do the complete job.

Along the way, Microsoft tries to get you to sign up for its OneCareLive Internet Security package, which is not free, but which purports to give you all kinds of real time protection against viruses and spyware.  However, I've successfully used AVG (Grifsoft's free anti-virus program) and LavasoftUSA's free Ad-Aware anti-spyware/adware program for years, along with Microsoft's free Defender anti-spyware.

The bottom line is: I have used these free Internet security programs for years, which get rid of any spyware I might pick up and which protect my PC from being virus-infected.  Links to these services can be found on my site at www.pcdon.com.

Does this mean these programs are guaranteed fool-proof and will always keep me safe?   No!

Bear in mind that new viruses are being launched all the time, and that it may take a few days for any anti-virus service to detect them, create a remedy, and distribute the fix to its subscribers.  The best protection from viruses is to use common sense and NOT OPEN any email attachments you aren't expecting and to avoid clicking on any Internet links that you are unsure of.  Even a prompt as seemingly benign as "Click on your choice for President" can lead to a deadly scam — unless it's found on a reputable site such as, say, CNN.com.

As for the spyware/adware that is encountered nearly everywhere on the web nowadays, most of it is in the form of "cookies" that are placed on your computer by various commercial sites.  However, they can be removed by going to Start>Control Panel>Internet Optionsand clicking on Delete Cookies (which I do every day).

You should also be suspicious of other "Free Scan" ads that you encounter.  You will always be told that issues were found and that you need their particular "service" to fix the problem.