A comparison of virus protection software

There are many anti virus programs for the computer users. The major companies are Norton, MacAfee, Panda, Trend Micro Systems and many email companies are now scanning messages using these anti virus packages. About 80% of the computers on the internet have spyware and adware issues because of this email protection.

There were so many from Yahoo, AOL etc who were hit.

The issues with anti virus software is, do the customers get instructions to turn this off in order to connect to their internet, then forget to turn it back on? The answer is `yes' a lot of the time. It is majorly important to realize that a computer should be loaded with 1 virus protection program.

If you have 2 anti virus programs, each one sees the other one as a virus due to quarantined files. So they both knock each other out.

Some excellent features are included in nearly all anti virus software. Some features include automatic updates, and all major software packages have this. Another is scanning files uploading and downloading emails from the internet. All major packages have this also.

Also there are timed scans. Does the software scan at 4 AM each day? Yes if you want it to.Does it scan when you turn on the computer? Yes if you want it to. Does is scan once a week? Yes. The consumer tells the software when to scan. Most have levels of scan. You can choose a thorough scan that might take an hour, or just registry scans etc. Generally for the typical owner, the recommended scan or default scan works excellently.

MacAfee has a security suite that took honors May of 2006. This system has all the utilities of anti virus software and appears to work well with all versions of Windows. Some Apple/Mac systems also run well with it. Price is mid range for most customers and many new computers come with a trial of a few months, or a full blown version for a year or 2. MacAfee is offering a 2 year plan on many new models.

Norton is another major anti virus program that has the while gamut of utilities listed above. The most important consideration with Norton appears to be available disk space. Older computers did not have a large enough hard drive to run this AV software. Also the time required to get all of the features loaded up at boot up, seemed to be a little time consuming. Usually there are 50-90 programs loaded at boot up and the software for anti virus will usually have a verify feature.

Norton has a free online scan if you can get to the Symantec site. Actually most anti virus sites have on line cans.

Down on the task bar, there should be an icon for your AV software. If you right click this icon, you will see what is turned on or turned off. Viruses are designed to turn off the software for virus protection in this first boot up time period.

Panda also has many of the same features. It seems to load faster and the coverage appears to be typical with the others. Panda has a free on line scan. If your computer can get on the net, you can do a free anti virus scan with Panda. Their software also offers to help you fix any issues that are found.

Trend Micro was developed for Microsoft due to the thousands of hits their customers computers were taking from virus hits on the Microsoft operating systems. For some reason this operating systems were hit by about 85% of the viruses. The likelihood is, 90% of the world uses Windows. So Trend Micro was offered a few months, on the Microsoft web sites and available to home users.

Accidents happen. Somehow a user will click the wrong link and a Trojan horse has filled the PC with adware and spyware. Learn some basic techniques for beating back malicious software also called `malware'. Webroots company has combined anti virus with anti spyware packages if a user wants both together.

Other good spyware is put out called Spyware Doctor

Web reviews state the following when reviews are written:

• Recommended by experts and editors around the world as the best anti-spyware.


• FREE customer support for all users.


• Frequent advanced updates ensure that you are always protected.


• Detects, removes and blocks all types of spyware and adware threats.


• Easiest to use with automatic protection.


• 100% Money Back Guarantee.

This spyware protection is reported to be used by millions.

Spyware Doctor has been downloaded over 100 million times. Millions of people worldwide use Spyware Doctor to protect their identity and PC security.

Also winning top awards in publications such as PC Pro, PC Plus, PC Authority, PC Utilities, PC Advisor, PC Choice, Microdatorn, PC Answers Magazine and a number of CNET's Download.com and Tucows.

Another company from Colorado USA is Webroots. Their spyware software has won every internet award known all over the world. Spy Sweeper detects and removes all forms of spyware, including keyloggers, Trojan horses, system monitors, all in just one sweep of your PC.

• Includes detection and blocking, also


• Uses 16 advanced Smart Shields for real-time blocking and protection, plus


• Detects new spyware before it can infect the computer


• Automated research tools uncovered 400,000 URLs hosting spyware

Frequent Threat Updates

• Weekly spyware definition updates


• Automatic updates


• Patent-pending research technology scans over 900 URLs each second


• Spysweeper scours the web 80 times faster than manual research methods

A `new kid on the block', is software named Antivir
Using Antivir on Windows XP and Vista and there was no noticeable loss of clock speed on of them. Antivir gives the user control over all known malware scans, the advanced scan can be turned on or off. Also you can set it to three different scanning intensity levels.

The scans were thorough, and allowed the user to scan all hard drives. Additionally a user can limit the scan to just the Windows system folder, or active processes, just rootkits too, or any combination of those.

Combining the anti malware with antivirus protection is a possibility. The only problem with a complete scan took 3+ to one of the Windows XP machines. The application will stop midway and let you know when it's found a threat or maliciously hidden file. This is good for killing Trojans and worm malware as soon as they're found.

The quarantine was thorough, too.You are given the option to scan a suspected file again, restore it, delete it, or send it to someone- for instance your IT department or the Avira techs. You can choose your own update schedule, and schedule scan jobs of varying files and folders.

The updater worked slowly, but you can go to their web site and manually download a new definitions file. Antivir will take a while to get used to with it. But as long as the definitions file updates keep coming, this application's could be regarded as a real boon to your computer's protection.