Computing

How to get free effective antivirus software for your computer

If you are downloading files from the internet and receiving many emails with attachments, it is critical that you have antivirus software. But for some, the initial cost plus annual renewals are too expensive making free antivirus solutions very attractive. Sometimes, free antivirus solutions lack some critical features so you want to keep the following tips in mind when procuring this software:

.  Make sure that the software has an active protection component. For example, it runs memory resident and checks all traffic introduced to your computer. Some free solutions only do scans of your disk drives when you request it. This may be too late after an attack.

.  Email scanning is critical in virus scanning. This is because some email clients will display a message page in html or rich text by only highlighting the inbox index entry. This could open up a virus that would have been trapped prior to reaching the inbox.

.  If the antivirus solution has memory scanning (it should), try it out for awhile and make sure it does not adversely impact system performance by its running. If it seems to, disable it and see if performance improves dramatically.

.  Get information on how the virus signature file gets updated. This is critical to any antivirus solutions because if the signature file gets out of date, then the scanner will have a potential leak and a new virus or worm can get by.

.  See if the interface for the scanner is easy and intuitive to use. Sometimes, if the package is free, it will lack in ease of use.

.  Keep in mind that free software is free software. Someone had to sacrifice something to make if free and could have cut corners somewhere.