Since I’ve been spending a lot of time on my Macs, I haven’t really been thinking about viruses and spyware like I used to when I was on Windows. When you’re a Windows user, it feels like you almost always have to brace yourself for the next threat, and while the problems are still out there in full force, I’ve noticed that the talk about protecting yourself from these threats has died down quite a bit. Virus protection on the operating system and third-party application levels has improved, but it’s still not perfect, and if you want to check and see if your computer has attracted any of these baddies, then test your system with Trend Micro’s HouseCall.

I used to use HouseCall a lot, and it’s still a great tool today. The nice thing about HouseCall is that it runs from your browser, so you don’t have to download a separate full application. Since it doesn’t constantly run on your computer, it can’t protect you from viruses and spyware, but it will let you know if you have any of this garbage. If you haven’t done a virus scan on your computer lately, then use this service to see if there’s anything that needs to be removed.