It doesn't take a lot of brainpower to know and understand that when pointing your personal computer out into Internet Land, it is best to have your computer as secure and safe from viruses as possible.

Although there are some people out there whose mainstay is to develop computer viruses, most viruses do get caught and locked-down in reasonable anti-virus software.

New viruses are being developed all the time and some will slip by even the very latest and most expensive anti-virus software from time to time. This is when developers of anti-virus programs kick into high gear to combat an event like this and figure out the functions of a particular virus so they can make a program to CRUNCH IT like a bug!

Here are some good Anti-Virus software programs that have been highly rated and are quite popular for free:

Avast: this software has been around for a while. Although you can get this program for free, this doesn't mean that the freebie is bad. In fact, Avast! stays on top of what's happening in viruses, and the version available for download - for even home users - is a fourth+ version!

Here's a download page for Avast! Home Edition - Version 4

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Yeah - I know the link is ugly - but this way, you know I didn't mess with it. It's not a ref-link or anything - just straight to the Avast download area!

Another highly rated freebie antivirus program is

AVG from the Grisoft website. Most of my friends and I use this software. It updates all the time and Grisoft is competitive in the antivirus market, so they are also keeping right on top of viruses on the Internet

Here's where you can go to check out AVG - * Note, this isn't the direct to download link because you might want to see the 'trial' offers and combination packages that AVG offers:

AVG Anti-Virus from Grisoft http://free.grisoft.com/

The AVG free version is just the antivirus program - without firewall, anti spyware, etc., although AVG has packages with any combination of these products and also has special ROOTKIT anti-ware.

Bit Defender is a third highly rated anti-virus program. It is also separate from anti-spyware security and you'll be best to make sure to use anti-spyware software if you try using Bit Defender as your antiviral protection.

Bit Defender download page:

http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-Free-Edition.html

These are the commonly rated top 3 free products for antivirus protection.

These have been listed consistently with sites such as Tech Rebublic, PC World and PC Magazine. For the average user, these 3 programs are also fairly fool-proof and simple to manage.

The set up for these programs is basically point-and-click, and just follow directions. You shouldn't have to mess with computer settings and such, so with one of these programs, there is no longer an excuse to run your computer and point it Internet-way without protection.

No more excuses like "I couldn't figure out the antivirus program" or "I'm a newbie, it was too confusing to set up."