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My Favorite (and FREE) Antivirus Programs

It seems not a day goes by that I don’t get a question from a customer about what antivirus program to use.  This can be a tricky question because every tech-guy you run into will have a different opinion.  Here’s mine:

The necessity to “buy” an antivirus program is slowly going away.  Large companies are now adding them in to their software offerings at little or no charge.  Sometimes, when you buy a new computer, you will get a “free for a limited time” installation of some program, but eventually they will start hounding you for money.

As of this week, my favorite antivirus program is Microsoft Security Essentials.  For my Mac friends, check out iAntivirus.They run  unobtrusively in the background and have been very good at finding these nasty digital creatures.

However, I typically don’t rely on just ONE solution.  Sometimes you get a varmint that is truly slippery, so every once and a while I will check my entire system with Malware Bytes and SuperAntiSpyware.  These two programs don’t need to run all the time.  I just fire them up once a month or so, update them, and let them run (one at a time), while I go to lunch.

Remember, install these programs BEFORE you get a virus. Many viruses will attempt to infect any programs you install AFTER they have taken root!

If you truly get a bad virus, though, give our friendly techs a call at 806-353-0004.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2011 at 9:56 am and is filed under Newspaper Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Eric Spellmann is the Owner and President of Spellmann & Associates, a technology company offering Amarillo Website Design, PC repair, and network maintenance. He is a featured speaker at a number of state and national technology conferences and writes a syndicated column in fourteen newspapers. In addition, he produces a weekly television segment for his local ABC affiliate. As a Texas Panhandle native, he earned his MBA from West Texas A&M University and enjoys every minute with his wonderful wife and three kids at their home in Amarillo.