Are all anti-virus programs created equal?
A. No. As with any software, there are well-designed products and poorly-designed. To some extent, the antivirus portion has become commoditized. Thus, it’s the user interface–that is, the software’s ease of use that really counts. You can either spend time reading a review of the different programs in a journal like PC Magazine. Or–even easier, you can buy a program I now use called Windows Live OneCare. Check it out by clicking here. It includes all the protection your PC will need: antivirus, internet security/firewall and anti-spam–and it also maintains your computer by doing regular performance tune-ups…and it also performs data backups (which I mentioned previously). It does all this for $49.95 a year, and you can use it on up to three PCs. (Note: some stores regularly run discounts such that the net cost is as little as $9.95.) Once you install it, it does everything automatically in the background and it doesn’t noticeably affect the PC’s performance. It’s a fine product.
