Few common misconceptions about antivirus
- Antivirus will make my computer 100% Safe.
False.
Educated PC user who knows which links and files he shouldn't not open is best defense. Antivirus will protect you 90% of the time. Nothing can make you safe 100%. - Free antiviruses do not have the necessary protection level for my computer, compared to paid ones.
False.
First of all, there are only 6 best antiviruses in the world. The rest are pretty much junk.
Why some are free and some paid? Well, paid ones expand by spending millions on marketing. Free ones expand by offering free product with 90% of the features and since most customers enjoy the product - many choose buy a full version of it. - AVG is a good free antivirus, I heard. And it's the most downloadable program at download.cnet.com
Sigh. Yes, it used to be a good antivirus 7 years ago. Now it scores very low in tests, performs bad in real life and is not recommended by professionals. Don't come anywhere close to it. I have to spend that much time talking about it because it's still very popular among not so tech savvy people for some reason. - I still don't believe you. How you tell which ones are good or bad?
Well, first of all, many antiviruses have these ads: Detects 99.9% of threats or Our product is 67% better than competitor's. Those numbers AVs company's put on there banners don't mean squat.
There is only one Non-Profit-Organization that does independent AVs testing http://www.av-comparatives.org/ And As I said, there are 6 antiviruses that are far ahead of the rest. And let me tell you what they are.
List of recommended antiviruses.
While these AVs perform around the same, what starts to matter is ease of use. When you can just install it and forget that it's there without constant notifications. My recommendation is free version of Avast or MSE
Avast (Free version / Buy full version for $39.99)
I recommend using free version. It should be enough for all the people.
MSE (Free version)
My second choice of free antivirus. But make sure your Windows Automatic Update is on.
ESET NOD32 (30 day trial / Buy full version for $39.99)
If you want to pay for AV this is my choice. Does the job well and you hardly notice it working.
Norton (30 day trial / Buy full version for $39.99)
This is the one who spends a ton of cash on marketing. Used to be as bad as AVG, but came back 3 years ago. Be aware that it is kind of invasive and irritating and you will notice it running. If you bought into marketing, or you friend recommended it or you use it at work you can go ahead and buy it. Nothing wrong with it.
Kaspersky (30 day trial / Buy full version for $39.99)
Also, one of the good antiviruses.
