Finding the proper antivirus to protect your machine from hackers and scammers is crucial. Let's look at some antivirus software tips to help you pick the right program for your computer.
What Does it Protect Me From?
Choosing the best antivirus software starts with knowing what protection it offers. It shouldn't just protect against viruses, but other threats too.
Malicious software like Trojans, adware, spyware, phishing, and ransomware are becoming more common. And hackers are updating their code to make detecting these threats harder.
Your antivirus must be on lookout duty 24/7 scanning for threats. It should scan every portion of your computer looking for compromised data, and remove them! Some antivirus clients only scan.
And since most of these threats will come via the internet - web browsing protection is a must.
How Does it Run?
You want an antivirus to run correctly without accidentally deleting your clean files. Known-threat databases are compiled by antivirus companies to sort out malicious files. A good program will keep these up to date.
Detection rates grade an antivirus' performance depending on how good it is at separating good files from bad ones.
Good antivirus programs are also highly rated and tested by companies like AV-TEST or AV-Comparatives.
Since it will most likely run in your computer's background, your antivirus needs to be light on resources.
Keep in mind there are a lot of processes, apps, and files on your devices to scan, but these scans need to be effective and efficient.
And antivirus clients shouldn't be clunky either. They need to be easy to use. It's nice to have software with bells and whistles, but if it's too complex to use it's a nuisance.
How Much Does it Cost?
Explore multiple options when trying to decide what antivirus you want. Sometimes the cheapest option offers no help at all.
There are a lot of free clients out there, but they mask their "help" behind a paywall.
On the flip side, don't pay for more than you need. Antivirus companies like to sell you the works; they'll add password managers, VPNs, and more to their base software.
You may not need all of that when the basic paid version will do just fine.
If you're unsure, pick up a free trial and see what works for you.
Wrapping Up
One of the most important antivirus software tips is simply knowing what it does.
Once you understand how it functions, make sure you know how the antivirus runs. Is it good at detection? Is it light on resources? How easy is it to use?
And it's important to know not to break the bank when buying antivirus software, but also to know that affordability does not mean reliability.
