by Maxwell Payne

Created on: July 15, 2008   Last Updated: March 22, 2012

You don't need to pay a penny for good anti-virus software because many organizations and people work hard to create, provide, and maintain open source and free license software. The best software should protect against viruses and hackers primarily; programs that also fight spam and ads are only good if they are also good anti-virus programs.

But how do you know you are getting a good free program that isn't filled with useless features, spam, and too many limitations? You don't go for trial products or introductory software offers, rather you'll need to look for a 100% free program with little restrictions.

For the PC (any computer running Windows) I've found that the best free program out there is AVG by Grisoft. While this company offers both a Free and Premium edition, the Free edition is one of the only free ones out there used by thousands of businesses as well as millions of individual users around the world. It isn't just some trial version of their premium version; rather a full fledged anti-virus program that mainly focuses on protecting your computer from viruses, spyware, and hacker attacks. The main difference between the Free AVG and other AVG is additional features such as ad blocking; and most of these additional features aren't needed for basic virus prevention.

For Macs most people will tell you that Macs are generally safe from virus and hacker attacks. While nothing is 100% foolproof, the popular reasoning here is that Macs are generally favored by the hacker and virus creating population. Another popular reason it that Macs run a better operating system that some say allow far less points of access for potential hackers or virus attacks. However the most likely reason that Macs face far less virus/hacker attacks is due to sheer numbers.

The number of computers that are Macs running OSX are outnumbered vastly by PCs running Windows. So from a sheer numbers perspective, a hacker gains more and a virus does more damage by being directed at Windows systems rather then OSX systems. A Mac could benefit from some ad and pop up blocking software but as for virus protection there are a number of programs one can purchase however over 95% (give or take a few percentage points) of malicious attacks or invasions of a computer are written for and directed at computers running Windows.

So in the end if you are a PC user running Windows, check out AVG by Grisoft; the free edition. It is a good start to protecting your Windows computer and far better then no protection at all.

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