If you surf the net, and do you know any computer user who doesn’t, then you need antivirus protection. It’s a simple but sad fact of life that there are people out there who devote a lot of time to writing malicious code. An infected computer can, at best, be a mild irritant and at worse be rendered virtually useless with the potential loss of all your valuable personal data.
So what a do you need to look for in a good antivirus program?
W
ell, first of all, it should be free! Why pay for something when there are perfectly good, free alternatives out there? I don’t know why but people do. Avast and AVG, to name but two, offer free versions of their antivirus software products which work perfectly well and offer excellent levels of protection.
There are, however, other considerations besides price. Does the antivirus provider offer regular updates to their software? If they don’t then it’s as good as useless. An antivirus package is only as good as its last update. New viruses appear all the time and the best providers wage a constant battle to counter them.
Good antivirus software needs to be simple to install and configure, work effectively from its default settings and have minimal impact on your computer’s performance. You want to be able to install it, run it and then essentially leave it to get on with the business of protection in the background!
Ideally, it should also employ heuristic analysis. This is simply a clever method the better programs use to identify potential new viruses or variants on existing viruses before they have become formally recognized – in other words whilst they are at their most dangerous.
Here at MyPC Surgery we recommend Avast Free Edition for the home user. It ticks all the boxes. 
However, a final word. No antivirus program is foolproof. It still relies on you to be careful and follow simple rules.
Be careful where you visit on the web, don’t download software from unknown sites and never open email attachments from anybody you don’t know.
Happy Surfing!