So you’re probably wondering why I called this post Anti-Virus instead of Virus… Well, the wrong antivirus software can slow your computer down immensely.

As you may or may not know, you have many different options for antivirus software. You of course have the big 2, Symantec (Norton) and MaAfee. Then you also have antivirus programs from

• Microsoft
• Panda
• TrustPort
• Sophos
• AVG Grisoft
• Trend Micro
• Dr Web
• ClamAV
• ZoneAlarm
• AVK (G Data)
• Avast
• Avira Antivir
• Kaspersky Labs

There are tons of antivirus programs and they all catch different viruses and different percentages of them. Yes, some are better than others.

Symantec (Norton) and MaAfee (and probably many others) have a bunch of background process happening at one time, therefore reducing the speed of your computer. They do this to provide as many services to you as is possible. They provide a firewall, active virus scanning, active spyware scanning, online child protection, online personal data protection, and others. Expect to see them protecting you from traffic accidents and the flu in future releases. (Just kidding about the traffic accident and flu protection.)

There are other AntiVirus programs that find and remove more viruses than they do and they do it faster without the large strain to your system resources. Check the most recent test results from av-test.org at Virus Bulletin.

So there is a lot of data at the above sites. You’re probably wondering which ones I use or recommend. In the past I have recommended Grisoft’s AVG but I’ve recently switched to Avira Antivir and I’ve been quite happy with it. It performs active scanning on every file that is written and read from any drive but doesn’t slow the computer nearly as much as the big 2.

If you think you would like to try another product, I encourage you to examine the test results from av-test.org at Virus Bulletin and make your own informed decision from them. But if your subscription has not yet run out, I would recommend you keep your current anti-virus software so you can save your money until the subscription runs out.

Also Norton and Symantec can be difficult to remove and if you do so, you do it at your own risk. Click here to remove Norton and here to remove McAfee.

I hope this has been informative for you. If you have any questions or feel that this may be best left to a computer service professional, please email Biden PC here.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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