Which Is the Best Antivirus For Your PC - what to look for?

It is not an easy task to find out which is the best antivirus program to protect your computer from viruses, worms, and other forms of attack, among many software out there in the market. Nevertheless, if you are looking to find the best virus removal program for your specific needs then you will probably get the best guidance in this post to find the same.

Malware is evolving faster than ever, but fortunately the latest generation of antivirus is better equipped than ever to handle new threats. It is quite common these days to search for reviews online for just about anything before making any purchase. In the same way, one of the most useful options for the intending buyers to choose the right antivirus program is to search and read antivirus program reviews available on the internet. The obvious question that may come to mind is whether such reviews can at all be relied upon to find which is the best antivirus for your PC or Laptop.

Apprehension among many people about the genuineness of online reviews for identifying the best antivirus for PC can not be altogether ignored as many software companies often hire people to write positive reviews of the programs in order to promote their products. Nevertheless, there are also many review-sites which are believed to be quite trustworthy and can provide reassuring answer to one’s query- ‘which is the best antivirus software to use’. These websites offer antivirus reviews by experts after thorough field testing of the programs by them. In these reviews the experts explain in detail the mode of operation of the antivirus program in question and mention about the technical drawbacks, if any, faced by them while testing the program. The websites also allow users’ comments to establish credibility of the reviews. The chances of your getting mislead in choosing the best antivirus program for your computer, therefore, is much less so long you rely on these websites. Reading comparative reviews online, therefore, can definitely help you in taking a better decision in choosing the best antivirus for PC provided you are sure about the trustworthiness of the sites.

There are few important features that you must look into in your quest for 'which is the best antivirus software for your PC. Following are some of the features that you should expect from the best antivirus program:

i. To monitor continuously the origins of potential virus infections from important services like internet browsing, e-mails, instant messaging or from removable media;

ii. To detect and remove maximum number of threats that any computer may encounter which includes Trojans, adware/ malware, worms and other unknown viruses and malicious programs;

iii. To protect users from phishing attacks, password stealing, spam and other serious threats;

iv. To provide total security to the computer which includes the areas such as boot sector, system memory, the mail database and all files and folders;

There are few vital things like whether the company offers money back guarantee in case of malfunctioning of the product or how the company provides after sales assistance may help you to decide which is the best antivirus and whether to go for the company for its software. While choosing the best antivirus for your PC the following most important things need your special attention:

1. Ease of use and how intrusive it is;
2. The Scanning speed;
3. How much (if at all) it slows down your PC or
   laptop;
4. Frequency of virus database update;
5. Range and nature of real-time protection offered;
6. After sales customer service;
7. The price;

Because of increasing demand for product reviews, finding websites offering reliable anti virus software reviews is also not a difficult task to day. However, before you read these reviews to find which is the best antivirus software for your computer, you need to be clear about your priorities and requirements as the price will vary according to the features to be included in the anti virus package you need. It is quite natural that you do not want to over-spend for unnecessary over-protection as you need a level of protection for your computer just matching your nature of daily computer activity. You may be all the time busy in uploading and downloading files needing a high level of protection or may be your daily computer activity is limited to just browsing only without much downloading in which case you may not require all the features of a higher priced anti virus package. Of course, you may want that the total anti-virus package has the best rating. You can easily find many websites that provide comparative reviews of various kinds of packages showing the features each package offers with their prices. These comparative reviews also include free options with their beneficial sides. Such qualified reviews make your task of choosing the best antivirus program for your computer very easy as you can exclude several options.

Forums are also extremely useful place to look for opinions and a reassuring answer to your question ‘what antivirus software should I use?’ Here in these forums you will be able to know the pros and cons and other valuable information about particular software from people who have actually used them and also find several options for making your choices for your specific requirements. Once you have narrowed down your choices you can go for searching for comparative reviews on the essential features and services of the short listed programs which will help you to take a final call.

Here are my picks (in order of preference) for best security suites for Windows for your PC or Laptop:

1. Bitdefender;

2. Kaspersky;

3. Norton;

4. Intel (McAfee);

Before I conclude let me mention here that while deciding upon which is the best antivirus program for your computer, you need to remember that none of the software in the market provides 100% protection and choosing the right program is easier said than done. The discussions in forums and blogs and trustworthy websites providing anti virus software reviews, therefore, can play crucial roles in your decision making process for the best virus removal software. If you can identify a company that offers a trial version of the software that would be great. Such trial version will give you a good idea about the features of the software and you can actually test the program on your computer before taking buying decision. Such real time tests will ensure a virus removal program for your PC or Laptop, which is the best for you from the point of view of protection, performance, and value.