Malware, viruses, pop-ups, trojans, whatever the name if you haven’t had one by now you’re pretty lucky. They are getting more sophisticated at finding ways into your computer, and smarter about preventing you removing them. Fortunately several Antivirus software companies are also lifting their game and creating programs to help tackle both the prevention and removal of these unwanted parasites.
About 2 months before your antivirus subscription is up for renewal you are likely to start getting annoying pop up messages reminding you that the antivirus company would like you to stay with their services. In a similar way to insurance companies, you may find that shopping around rather than the ‘easy-click renew’ can actually save you some dollars. Shop around for deals on multiple computers if you have several in the house, or look for discount codes that are frequently offered before you renew.
Choosing a new Antivirus
If you do feel the need to jump ship and change vendors, make sure you completely uninstall the current software and reboot prior to attempting to install another vendor package. You may need to uninstall more than one package to remove all traces of the various components of an antivirus suite, so check the ‘installed programs’ section after a reboot to confirm.
Get some feedback from reviews of your shortlisted software but be wary, some websites are have alliances to particular vendors and are not impartial. Try Amazon customer reviews paying particular attention to the issues mentioned. Some software doesn’t run well on older computers with lower memory, while other software packages may have a minimum RAM or CPU requirement.
If you find your chosen package is slowing your machine down too much, try switching off some components that are not needed. For example, if you are using Gmail for your email, Google does a great job of removing spam and viruses so you can switch off the email component of the antivirus package thus saving a little CPU and RAM resources where is wasn’t needed. If you are happy with Windows Firewall, then maybe you don’t need the firewall component of the antivirus package?
Still infected?
If some malware is still getting through, maybe start to question where you are web surfing and what content you are downloading. I know many users who don’t use an AV package at all and have remained bug free through prudent internet use and cautious browsing. That free software or app you just downloaded from overseas might be free for a reason!