The Internet is literally a virtual information superhighway crawling with malicious codes and scripts that can wreak havoc on your computer. Many people take their computers' security for granted, thus allowing virtually endless sorts of viruses and PC bugs to infect their systems. Therefore, security measures are vital to one's PC.

This means anti-virus software is essential, if not compulsory, in one's computer. McAfee, Norton and Symantec are highly popular anti-virus companies that specialize in writing excellent anti-virus software. However, these cost an arm and a leg to purchase. For the majority of home PC users like you and me, free yet highly effective anti-virus software is what we need.

Personally, I would recommend AntiVir anti-virus software from Avira. By pure statistical comparison, Avira's AntiVir has a higher virus detection rate than Grisoft's AVG or Avast! 4 Home Edition. In a recent malware test run by AV-Test.org, AntiVir has an excellent 99.42% detection rate and can detect 10,086 virus, compared to Avast's 96.32% and 9,707 respectively, while AVG comes in third with 96.15% and 9,507 respectively. AntiVir is an award-winning anti-virus software that protects against virus, worms, Trojans and dialers, besides providing protection against rootkits and deletes them as well. Avira claims to have 30 million users worldwide and can detect up to 250,000 virus crawling all over in the Internet. I have used AntiVir for quite some time now and it gives me absolutely no problem. With its excellent auto-schedule and auto-update features, one can have peace of mind surfing the Internet without fearing for new emerging viruses that might infect their computer. One minor drawback for AntiVir is that it does not have real-time scanning option, thus users will have to scan their computers manually and periodically. AntiVir takes up minimal memory space compared to other expensive, heavyweight anti-virus software, thus it has less strain on computer resources. One would not complain about its drawbacks, because PersonalEdition Classic provides all these features for free.

To make up for potential loopholes due to usage of free anti-virus software, an anti-spyware or anti-adware programme is also a must for home PC users. An anti-spyware programme specializes in detecting spywares, adwares and various other malwares or malicious codes that might be downloaded into your computer while you were surfing on the net. Spyware Terminator is a good choice

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