How to choose antivirus software?
Before choosing the only antivirus software, each user thinks how not to be mistaken and make the right choice. Certainly, each computer owner wants to have the most reliable computer protection from various types of infections and other danger.
What things you should take into account when choosing antivirus? Of course, apart from the producer's name, since it's a well-known fact that the most qualitative products are produced by the world-class companies. Their names are known even to people, who have little to do with computers.
Virus database
This can be fairly considered to be one of the most important criteria while choosing antivirus software. The bigger database is, the more likely the antivirus can find the malware, which infected your system, and delete it. The user usually learns the existing database signatures while using antivirus software.
Today the virus database of all antiviruses is more or less the same; they become similar to each other by this characteristic. However, one should remember that paid antiviruses are more qualitative and productive than free antivirus software, and, what is more important, they are more reliable. Anyway, the choice is up to the user: not all free antiviruses should be underestimated.
Operation speed
Today this criterion is the most required among the users. This doesn't mean it should be considered the most important. If one antivirus operates slower than the other one, it's not necessary worse. Such antivirus can be even more reliable unlike that one, which operation speed surpasses other its qualities.
Ease of use
In this case only those companies would have the advantage, which produce separate packages for home, office and server, since the processing of digital streams is different for all this categories. Home antiviruses are, in fact, equally efficient, but there some differences in antiviruses for office and server: the system load differs greatly from one antivirus to other.
The complexity of antivirus installation, configuration and control could be also referred to the usability. Quantity and clearness of options are also very important to user when choosing antivirus software. The lesser actions one should take to install and configure antivirus, the more likely the user (especially the beginner) will choose it.
Frequency of database updates
As you know, all traditional antiviruses update their virus databases at least once a day. It's really enough to fix the problems at the office and home.
In this case users are interested in the criterion: how fast the antivirus reacts on virus epidemics.
All known antivirus companies have been evaluated by this criterion, that's why choosing antivirus software, the user can independently value all the characteristics and make his choice. If the antivirus software producer provides the database update only once a week, think about reliability of such protection. The user can learn the frequency of antivirus databases update while using the software.
The Package Structure
Any good antivirus software, regardless the producer company, should have:
- Antivirus monitor that will constantly check the memory, as well as folders, disks and files, opened by the user.
- Antivirus scanner that will be run on the user demand.
- Set of antivirus databases that are regularly updated.
- Module of database updates.
- Module of creating emergency startup disks enabling the system check in the "clean" environment.
- Firewall (also known as security firewall). It blocks outside intrusion to the system and data transfer to a stranger.
When choosing antivirus one should pay attention to its system requirements, because no user will like when the antivirus, even a very good one, slows down the computer operation.