If you have a Windows computer and use it on the internet, even if it’s only to read email, you MUST have an anti-virus. If you don’t, the best case scenario is that your computer will shortly come grinding to a halt… Worst case, you will have provided an open door to criminals looking for your personal and financial information. So, you gotta get an anti-virus and check it everyday you go online. Fortunately, there are a few FREE products that work really well.

Free Edition is one of those products. I have been using both the free and paid versions for years, on dozens of my own and clients’ computers. And, when it’s being updated properly, I have never seen it let a virus slip through.

As of this writing, CNET’s download.com has served 262,018,838 copies of AVG Free. And if you (or one of your kids) like to download music or surf risky websites, you can upgrade to the Professional version for added protection. Frankly, I prefer it to the Norton and McAfee solutions, because AVG isn’t as pushy as these big guys. It doesn’t impede performance as much nor cause so many conflicts with other software.

There are other free antivirus, good products too. Avast Home Edition, AntiVir Personal Edition, and BitDefender Free Edition have all cut the mustard at ICSA Labs, meaning they stop all known viruses from messing with your stuff, real-time (not just during scans).

Pick one. These anti-virus vendors are all doing a pretty good job, including frantically updating their virus definitions. The rest is up to you. Scanning regularly takes time, planning and follow-up. Enabling real-time protection costs in terms of performance, and you may have to throw some money at a PC (more RAM or a faster processor) to get it to run at the same speed it was running before you enabled real-time protection. However, if a PC connects to the internet (even if it only connects occasionally), you NEED to have up-to-date, real-time virus protection running on it.

An Important Note about Upgrading to

    Unless Vista is giving you fits, DON’T DO IT! As with all past versions of Windows, don’t upgrade until they release Service Pack 2, that is, wait until it’s been out a couple years. I don’t care what most of the reviewers say. They just want to get invited to the big Microsoft bashes.

    If you have a choice (and if you want a new computer you don’t), at least wait until you have the money to replace your scanner and printer, cuz if you’re upgrading to 64-bit Windows 7 from 32-bit Windows XP, you may well have to. As Ed Quillen, a veteran tech journalist put it...

            “Windows 7 represents a major boost for the struggling American economy. To accommodate the new version, billions will be spent on new computers, components, software, training and consultants. If nothing else, Microsoft is doing its best to get America spending again.”