What's The Best Antivirus Software?

Computer viruses are clearly a massive problem. In 2008, the number of viruses and other harmful software types (i.e. malware) in circulation reached 1 million. Now the figure stands at more than 1.2 million viruses.

And whilst many anti-virus software programs do a decent job at keeping viruses at bay, it is an unfortunate truth that some antivirus software is better and more effective than other antivirus software. As a result, it's no longer true that simply having an antivirus program on your computer will definitely protect your computer.

This is because different antivirus companies have slightly different algorithms ('programming instructions') that they use to monitor a computer. And they also usually use slightly different techniques to monitor the internet (and other sources) to learn about any new viruses which are spreading. These two factors both combine to mean that the question Well, what's the best anti virus software program? is very valid.

As a result we have created the following article and picked out three well known antivirus programs which are on the market today. We will look at the features they offer and discuss how effective they are at keeping viruses at bay.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Kaspersky has been around for 13 years, although it has only been in the past 3-4 years that it has started to become very well known. The core functionality of this anti-virus software is very effective (scanning the computer itself, all internet traffic, all e-mails and also protects against USB sticks and CDs/DVDs inserted into the computer) and it monitors for all types of harmful software (viruses, trojans, spyware, adware, rootkits, keyloggers and other more complex threats too!). As you can tell, it's a very thorough antivirus checker. It's worth nothing that - despite being so thorough - it doesn't seem to cause the computer to slowdown at all when in normal use. So it's very protective and pretty efficient too.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus also comes with a vulnerability scanner (which checks the computer for 'weak points' where viruses could come in), a built-in system restore facility (to enable you to repair any damage which is done by viruses) and more. Overall we were very impressed with Kaspersky; it's probably the most effective antivirus software we have used and it's the one we would recommend that you strongly consider purchasing.

Norton Antivirus

Norton have been a well known computer security provider for a fairly long time now. And whilst its antivirus software seemed to gain a bit of a shaky reputation a few years ago, its most recent antivirus product (currently Norton Antivirus 2010, although 2011 is due out soon) has been getting some great reviews. Just like Kaspersky, Norton Antivirus has a fairly comprehensive core protection which includes scanning a range of sources for all the various types of harmful software too. So it is definitely very safe in this regard.

It doesn't have some of the extra features that Kaspersky has, although it does come with 'PC Tuneup' tools to help speed up your computer and free up space (features which Kaspersky doesn't offer). Norton Antivirus is available for roughly the same price as Kaspersky Antivirus too. Hence it seems that these two products are fairly similar (both have good protection and good reviews), and so we feel either would be a good choice.

BitDefender Antivirus

BitDefender Antivirus is another relatively new name to the antivirus market. Its core protection features seem good - whilst not specific about exactly which type of malicious software it protects against, it seems that BitDefender Antivirus protects against viruses, spyware and rootkits at the very least (although we unfortunately weren't able to find any mention of protection against trojans, adware or keyloggers on the BitDefender website). It scans all potential sources of where viruses can enter your system too, hence its protection seems good overall.

BitDefender also comes with a range of extra features including some interesting performance features to help improve the efficiency of the software. It is also worth pointing out that BitDefender can be purchased for around half the price of the other two antivirus programs reviewed on this page, so it is a good budget option. However despite this, there are a fair number of bad reviews on the internet about this product (25% of the reviews on Amazon - at the time of writing - were negative). Hence we'd suggest that - if your budget permits - you look to buy one of the other products. Although if you are on a budget, this antivirus software should be good overall.


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What's The Best Antivirus Software?: An analysis of the best and most protecting antivirus software on the market

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