Viruses have existed before the advent of Windows operating systems. It only takes a few lines of code along with some creativity to make a software program that is self-replicating. Some of the more sophisticated viruses reside on the computer\’s boot sector making them more difficult to remove. As technology advanced, virus coders thought of more ideas on how to penetrate desktop security and even some third-party security software. You will need to equip your computer with the best antivirus software if you wish to keep these malicious threats at bay. It will take a few basic tricks that you must apply before you can find the best antivirus solutions.

Sticking with the Free Software

Many of the top companies that deliver quality antivirus still ask for a license fee and a subscription fee just to keep the updates rolling. While these programs are often piled with some useful features from in-depth scanning to firewalls and anti-spam filters, free software are quickly catching up in terms of basic and essential features. What matters most is that the system is protected from malware in real-time right after the free program is installed. This is exactly what the goals of the best free antivirus software programs, like Microsoft Security Essentials and AVG are.

Observing the User Interface

The web is full of critics that enjoy reviewing antivirus software because they want to help users make the decision as to what virus scanner to get. There are tons of antivirus programs available that promise total desktop security so these reviews can greatly help you make the choice. But users may have different opinions than the critics so it is best to judge each program yourself by looking at the screenshots. If you see that the interface is friendly for you, try the program out and see if it is easy to operate.

Experimenting with the Resource Usage

There are some desktop computers and netbooks that have low system specs so even running the best antivirus programs out there may cause more harm to the system because they take up too many system resources causing the system to bog down. It is better to go with the best free antivirus solutions in this case because they are lighter due to the stripped down features. Microsoft Security Essentials has its own advantage for deeply integrating itself with Windows. You can check how much memory the antivirus program is using by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Esc and then clicking the \”Processes\” tab and then look for the filename of the virus scanner and see how much RAM it consumes.

Security Performance Testing

When testing the performance of any desktop security program, you must make sure that the scanner is efficient in getting rid of viruses. You can test it if you have any spare USB flash drives that may have past infections. Although some people may be turned off with the programs that carry out operations slowly, long scans should be considered good because they often use bigger databases and search for every file.

Author Bio: Learn more about adware spyware removal at Safety Net Security, your source for Internet security information.

Category: Computers and Technology
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