Anti-Virus
By Daniel M. Head
September 7, 2014
It’s no fun when your computer is running slow, or won’t perform a task it used to. Sometimes, you might have to call a technical support professional like me, to troubleshoot and repair the problem, but there are a number of very easy steps that you can take to keep your computer running smoothly. That’s what this
My first suggestion is to download and maintain anti-virus software on your computer. Yes, this is for your own safety, but it’s also being a good neighbor. If your computer gets infected, it can be a door into your entire home or work network, which the bad guys can use to compromise more computers. Your computers can even be used to attack other networks, without your knowledge.
“But what if I’m on a budget?”, you ask. Great question. Luckily, you don’t have to pay big money to get big protection. There are a number of good anti-virus and anti-malware programs out there. At the end of this article, I will list a number of them. There are more free anti-virus programs than I am going to list. My list will only include free anti-virus programs that I’ve personally worked with in the real world.
“What about Windows Defender?” one might ask. “It comes with Windows 8, and it’s free.” Yes, this is all true. Windows Defender is also consistently sub-par when it comes to detecting and removing viruses. I highly recommend third-party software.
A quick hint. Only have one anti-virus program on your computer at any time. Having multiple anti-virus programs do not always play well together, and even if they do, having both of them running at the same time is an unnecessary drain on your computer’s resources. So, if your computer already has an anti-virus running, uninstall it before installing another anti-virus program.
So, about those free anti-virus programs, here is the list I promised:
Avast!: http://www.avast.com/en-us/index
AVG: http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download
Avira: http://www.avira.com/en/download/product/avira-free-antivirus
BitDefender: http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html
Panda Cloud Antivirus: http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/ |