Anti-Virus is essential

We are going to cover the need for anti-virus on your pc or laptop, i can hear what you are thinking, “pretty silly topic to cover, everyone knows you should have anti-virus don’t they?” Well you would think so, but you would be wrong! Considering the number of laptops and pc’s that i see coming into Ross-IT everyday that have no anti-virus protection what so ever, not even having Windows defender eneabled. Having some form of anti-virus installed on your machine is absoloutley critical wheter it is a fully paid subscription or even ajust a free basic form of protection, or you could be booking your computer in for a virus removal much sooner than you think!

Free or Paid Subscription?

This is a very common question that i am asked by customers and friends alike, “should i be paying £30, £40 or even £50 for a paid subscription of anti-virus, or just stick with the free option?” I have seen computers with even the most expensive anti-virus programs fall victim to a virus intrusion. I generally find that 9 times out of 10 it is down to the user being sensible enough to know what to and what not to click on, shall i open that suspicious looking attachment, that you will generally find dropping into your inbox from a bank that we don’t actually bank with. Also being sensible in choosing what we are downloading onto our computers. Bypassing your anti-virus to install some cracked software or games will do exactly that bypass all of your security inplace that is there to protect you, usually found when “UAC” user account access pop-up usually makes an appearance asking if you are sure you want to open a certain .exe file or allow a program acces to the hard drive, by clicking yes to this you are simply brushing asside your security. I am a firm beleiver that a FREE anti-virus is usually just as good as the paid counter part the main benefit being that the majority of the tasks such as updates are all automated leaving less for the user to worry about. With obviously a few added bonuses such as instant messaging protection and email sorting. So in conclusion if you feel it is worth shelling out the extra £££’s for having this luxary then the paid service is probally for you.

Which Anti-Virus is the best?

Another question that i am frequently asked is, “which anti-virus is the best? Which will offer me the best protection?” As i have previously covered in this article that is normally down to the user that the majority of infections are caused by the user and not a gap in the protection, it really boils down to which you, the user prefers, or even which you are used to, have used on a previous system. There are a few major companies such as AVG, McAfee and Norton, these you will generally find pre-installed when you purchase a new laptop or pc, these are the few that many people have heard of (good marketing on their end) so people tend to stick with what is familiar. I personally work on the basis that they have all been around for quite some time, so they can’t be completley useless or they would have gone out of business a long time ago. I often use the example that if i was a hacker the first thing i would do is go out and purchase all of the big name anti-virus programs and try and find ways around them. I would however suggest (if you are that way inclined) have a look at their respective websites and see which looks the best to you, they all have a main user panel which is pretty easy to use. I use AVG FREE anti-virus protection purely because of my experience i can usually spot a fake email or dodgy looking link a mile off and i don’t tend to use any cracked software so that generally tends to keep me out of harms way most of the time, and from experience all of the added on features in the paid for subscriptions generally tend to slow down my machine which i find VERY annoying, so i choose the free version so it doesn’t tend to dent my system performance too much. But overall the decision is yours, they are all as i have stated pretty much as good as each other, i find most people tend to stick with what works, and what they can get on with, and then you can decide if you want to stick with the free version or pay out for a subscription with the added extras.