Choosing an antivirus service is a personal decision and your decision depends on your tastes and needs. There are a lot of reviews available that compare many different software programs, and we have composed a list of a few of the best options. Antivir is available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Linux/Unix. Free for personal use, it comes with an active monitoring feature for downloaded files as well as custom storage scanning. Antivir automatically downloads updates and can detect threats, including spyware and rootkits.

Avast runs on Windows and searches automatically for daily updates. Its web filter is quite efficient, and it also comes with protection for mail, chat, and P2P.

AVG offers custom and complete analysis of the drives. It self-updates daily and also lets you perform manual updates.

Microsoft Security Essentials offers computers real-time protection from viruses, spyware, and other threats. MSE, which is freely downloadable from Microsoft servers, is easy to use and updates automatically. It will only display a warning when a threat is detected; otherwise it runs silently in background.

N.B. When using Windows 8, MSE is called Windows Defender.

Some professional antivirus comparing sites include Anti-Malware Test Lab, AV-comparatifs AV-Comparatives, LightSpeed Systems,

http://www.virusbtnom/news/2008/03_13a.xml, and TopTenREVIEWS.

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