Please Don't Take My Stapler!

I am an IT guy during the day, and I often get asked about what to do for anti-virus. It is a good question. My first thought is to use Linux(like Ubuntu) or a MAC and then you don't need it. The way Windows was desinged is the biggest cause of many of the viruses we have. Since many of us for many diferent reasons have to use windows, I hope I can bring some clarity to the Anti-Virus issue.

On a side note/rant, I am idealogically oposed to ever buying any anit-virus from Microsoft.  Windows Live OneCare is their current offering, and I am not willing to pay Microsoft more money to secure an Operating system they designed insecurely to begin with.

When you buy your computer new from the store or even direct from DELL, it usually comes with an Anti-Virus suite pre-installed. Usually it is a Norton or Mcaffee 90 day trial. The margins are so small in the computer building industry that the manufacturers bundle these products because those companies pay them too, not necesarilly because they are a good option for the consumer. I have found that the offerings from Norton and Mcaffe, while probably very secure, do so many things and are such bloated software, that they drastically reduce the performance of your computer. Therefore I am going to recomend a few options that are going to provide good protection without being worse than the viruses they are protecting you from.

 I recomend that people check out AVG and AVAST. Both are free for non-business use, and don't completely bring your computer to its knees when you use them.

The other option is ClamWin. It is also free and it is OPEN SOURCE. I really like this tool, but there is one downside. It doesn't do active scanning. In another words, It only scans once a night, so it isn't actively watching what you are doing to catch viruses as they happen like the other two do. If you are a smart computer user and you are confident in your ability to keep your computer out of harms way(the websites you visit, the emails you read)then it is a great solution, but if not, then the other two are great options for you.

The biggest tool for stopping viruses is the user, so be smart, keep your comptuer and your software up to date,and that is half the battle. In the nexty post I will cover Anti-spyware. 

Nathan