It’s high time you reviewed your virus protection

“Dude, you gotta help, the PC at home’s full of viruses, we need an anti virus”, is the sms I got from Nazifa, my sister. Being a nice brother, I copied one of the free Anti-Virus software I had. I knew it was just a matter of installing it and scanning the hard drive and in the process get rid of the problem. I was wrong.

On inserting the flash drive, the virus on the PC replicated itself on the flash in every folder. I couldn’t even install the Anti Virus. I restarted several times in a bid to have the anti virus installed but my efforts were futile. After a while and lots of frustration, I realised just how extensively the machine had got infected. It was simply due for an operating system overhaul.

In the mid 90s the only Anti Virus most of us knew was Norton. These days, there’s a host of Anti Viruses with branches such as Anti-Spy Ware, Anti-Malware, Anti-Ad ware, Internet Security, Site Advisor etc. Virus protection is serious business these days. All it takes is one password-stealing virus to compromise all your data or a malicious virus that’ll make your PC maddeningly slow to use. That is why you need the best Anti-Virus software.

However, most Anti Viruses used, including Norton and Mcafee, are commercial and you have to pay for subscription; the one thing I’m quite certain many of us don’t want to do. The good news is that some of the best Anti-Virus software is free for home use and as good as any Anti-Virus you can buy.

Number one question would be why do these companies give away these Anti-Virus software for free? Well, they all have pro-versions with more features that they would like you to buy.

Anti-Virus software provides an essential layer of protection from a multitude of viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, Adware, and rootkit infections. Traditionally, Anti-Virus programmes just detected viruses and spyware removers just detected spyware, but nowadays the boundary between Anti-Virus and spyware removers is blurred.

Most current Anti-Viruses have at least reasonably good detection rates of all forms of Malware. Malware includes viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, Adware and rootkit threats that perform malicious activities on a computer - for example making a once athletic machine excruciatingly slow.

Avira AntiVir Personal Edition is my top pick for the best free Anti-Virus software if you’re looking for the best protection against virus, spyware and rootkit threats. AntiVir is very light on resources and the detection rate of Malware is outstanding. However Avira AntiVir does not include web or e-mail scanning capabilities; but should you open an infected email, AntiVir will still spring into action, so it doesn’t mean that you’re not protected from email-based infections.

Microsoft Security Essentials, the newly released free Anti-Virus by Microsoft, is an excellent option. It has a clean and modern interface, with few options to confuse users. The detection rates are very good, in particular the detection of rootkits. Even more impressive, Security Essentials is light on resources. It automatically updates and removes threats. No registration is needed, apart from a quick validating of Windows and there are no nag screens or advertisements.

Avast! Free Anti-Virus is also a brilliant free Anti-Virus that many users prefer. Its detection rates are on par with AntiVir. Avast has the most features, with full real-time capabilities, including web, e-mail, and network shields, boot-time scanning, and a behavioural blocker. Avast is light on resources too.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition deserves a special mention because it is so popular. Although this venerable Anti-Virus was once highly regarded, I feel that in recent times, although it is not bad, it is not comparable to the above-mentioned free Anti-Virus software. It has grown considerably in size and resource usage.

Remember all these are small in size so you may try all of them and decide what works for you. More importantly though, with any Anti Virus, you have to constantly update. It’s quite useless having an Anti Virus you installed January 2009 that hasn’t been updated. How do you get these? Google or Bing is your best friend.

mustafa885@hotmail.com