Virus protection free

Archive for the ‘Antivirus tips and advice’ Category

Anti virus software is essential for keeping your computer free of viruses. When we think of software to protect us against viruses we usually think of virus protection programs which scan our computer for viruses which could potentially already be on the computer. At the same time this software will protect us in real time – meaning it will recognize potential threats that would try to attack us when we surf the internet or open e-mails. A good software will also take care of getting regular updates to be prepared on attacks of new viruses that emerge daily.

There are quite a few articles about virus protection on this site, also reviews of some virus protection programs, that a home user can use for free. Basically all of these anti-viruses are great pieces of software which will do everything mentioned above – and they will do it great.

The most important thing about anti-viruses software is that you trust your chosen protector. Someone’s anti-virus of choice is AVG Free, someone else prefers Avira Free, while others will go with the free Microsoft antivirus Security Essentials. All of them will keep you safe, no matter which one you choose. You just have to install it and keep the settings for regular updates – this way they will be able to do their job just fine.

We all know that virus protection is important and this whole site is dedicated to virus protection, mostly free virus protection. But what exactly is a virus? Let’s check out what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Antivirus (or anti-virus) software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses. Such programs may also prevent and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware.

Of course the main goal of antivirus protection programs is to protect computers from viruses. They started to appear rather early in the age of massive computer use but the real expansion started with the use of internet which gave viruses the possibility to spread fast and easy.

But it has not stopped there – today viruses represent only a small portion of threats that lurk on the internet to infest your computer. Mostly there are worms and trojan horses, adware and spyware. They are technically not viruses but the bottom line is, you do want them on your computer.

Some of the free virus protection programs we have reviewed on this site also provide some protection against other forms of malware, not only viruses. However, most of them offer advanced protection in their full versions, which cost approximately about $30 a year for a home user licence. If you are not certain, that free virus protection is enough for you, you might take a look at some of the paid products.

I’m writing this because we have received some questions from users asking exactly this – is it smarter to use the paid solution? Does the difference in protection justify the money?

I cannot give you a simple answer regarding this question, so I have decided to start posting reviews of paid virus protection programs to help you decide, whether you should stick to free versions or invest a few dollars into extra protection.