We all know what an anti-virus is, but what is a cloud anti-virus? A cloud anti-virus is basically a virus scanner but on a social networking level. Let me give you an example. Imagine that your anti-virus is running a scan in the background (as they should). Now imagine that it's reading all the codes  of a program and it finds one that is somewhat questionable, or that could potentially contain a trojan or virus. With a cloud anti-virus, the program will submit this program file to the cloud (the internet) and find other users who may have the same program. If they have similar results, the cloud anti-virus will detect this program as a hazardous file.

So where would you get one?

 Panda Anti-Virus is a pretty good choice and it's free. Panda is a well-known anti-virus company.

You can get that here: http://www.cloudantivirus.com/

 Another option is a recently released Immunet which is also free. http://download.cnet.com/Immunet-Protect/3000-2239_4-11095587.html

 Even though neither of them technically run on Windows 7, they can and here's how.

1. Right-click the setup file (exe) and select "Properties"
2.  Go to the Compatibility tab and check "Run this program in compatibility mode for"
3. Scroll down to "Windows Vista (Service Pack 2)" (or any of the service packs)
4. Also, check the box "Run this program as an administrator"
5. Click apply, the ok. Run the setup.

Everyone has an opinion of what applications they use or prefer. A lot of people ask for my advice though. Instead of sending out a thousand links, I pre-added them into InstallPad so everyone can choose what they do or do not want to download. The best part is, they're all free!

 [Download Here]

 This list includes:

• Firefox - Webbrowser. 'Nuff said!
• iTunes - I have an iPod and no other software comes close to compatibility. I love it's music browser too
• Eraser - Computer identity theft is usually caused by used computers and people don't shred files. Shred them with this
• FileZilla - If you own a website, you can upload files via ftp with this
• OpenOffice - If you can't afford Microsoft Office, this is a good replacement
• ThunderBird - Need an e-mail client?
• Notepad++ - This is an awesome replacement for Window's notepad
• Disgby - A great chat program that replaces AIM, Yahoo, MSN, etc. and connects them all together
• Damn NFO - Got any NFO files? This reads them
• Comodo Firewall - I highly recommend this firewall
• Defraggler - A great defragment program
• Foxit Reader - Great replacement for Adobe Reader. Foxit takes up much less space and runs faster. It's also compatable with Firefox
• Avira AntiVir - A great virus scanner
• VideoLAN - The best video player
• 7-Zip - Extracts zip files and also creates the new popular 7z file
• XnView - A great replacement for windows picture viewer. Also handles more picture types
• CCleaner - This is a great replacement for windows Disk Cleaner.