HIPS

From Windowsxp

Host Intrusion Protection System (HIPS) is a term for any piece of software that tracks possibly dangerous activities and informs the user about them.

An example would be a program attempting to edit an important system file. Normally, a firewall would not detect this behavior, and an antivirus would not unless the virus was already in its database. The HIPS program would ask the user if the program is really allowed to do this.

HIPS programs are very effective in helping prevent the spread of new, undetected trojans and virii. However, they may produce many "false positives"; many possibly dangerous activities are perfectly legitimate, depending on the program that's trying to do it. This can be confusing for beginners but with the right instruction, using HIPS can be just slightly more complex than using a firewall.

HIPS Software

Comodo Personal Firewall - Includes Defense+, Comodo's version of HIPS.