Virus protection - Virus scan software

Virus protection and prevention is an on-going concern for all who use computers. If it was sufficient to simply scan the entire computer for viruses once then never have to worry about it again, companies like Norton and McAfee would not spend so much time and effort releasing updates to the pattern files of their software.

It is not enough to assume that if your PC is clear of malicious code at the time you scan for viruses it will remain that way indefinitely. This particularly applies to computer users who have the internet. Everyone who uses the internet is at risk from viruses, trojans and hackers. The fact that your computer is linking to those of people on the other side of the world opens up possibilities for the transfer of any form of data.

One of the primary carriers of viruses are executable files. Many items are distributed on the internet as executable files: software demos, self-extracting ZIP files, and many more. However, it is important to be careful when downloading anything of this sort as even downloads from reputable sites may contain malicious coding that the average user would prefer not to have on their computer.

There is only so much care the casual computer user can take. Sometimes it is unavoidable to have to download files. Therefore, the best course of action is to install software that takes the responsibility away from the computer user, leaving them free to get on with what they want to do on the computer. Most virus scan software takes up very little of the computer's resources, particularly with regard to the importance of the job that it is doing. It is therefore a good idea to always have the software running in the background to check incoming files.

Prevention is better than cure, and the best form of virus prevention is to have a piece of software constantly monitoring the activities that you may not be able to see.

Our current preferred software for constant protection is: