Antivirus Selection Guide : How To Choose Best Antivirus For Your PC

The Complete Antivirus Selection Guide

The use of computers and internet is increasing day by day. Now-a-days, almost every business is on the internet and somehow related to technology and computers. Computer became a must in life. We use computers in our every day's life. Whether it is used for entertainment or for some serious business work, it has its own importance in our lives. As the online business and users are increasing, so the need of security increases. If you are using a computer and are connected to a network or internet then there are chances that your computer's access has been compromised by someone. The computer victims create and upload viruses and Trojans daily on the internet. For safety and security of data and personal information, Antivirus programs are must be used.
Antivirus is basically a program which scans your computer's files for infections and delete or remove the infected file and thus keep your data and information safe and secure. Antivirus programs comes for every type of Operating System such as Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Apple Macintosh. Some time ago, the Apple Mac users didn't need to install any Antivirus program but now days every operating system gets flooded with virus and threats, so use of an Antivirus Software is recommended. There are also some good Mac Antivirus Software available.
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Now you understand that what are antivirus programs and why they are required. Now, you may go to some online or local store and search for antivirus software and find a lot of Brand Names. How can you choose one best antivirus for your Computer? Well, there is no need to worry about it, because in this guide we will explain you everything that you need to know about Antivirus Software. By the end of this article, you can select which Antivirus Program suits best to your needs and which one should you buy or download.
It is not possible to say that some specific Antivirus Software is the World's best Antivirus Software. Although, there are many pages online where you can find Top 10 Lists of Best Antiviruses. But this article is not going to rank Antiviruses. Instead, we have a different and more effective model. We cannot say that this specific Antivirus is the best, because Antiviruses not work same on all computers. As the configuration changes, so the performance changes. Any Anti Virus software that works fantastic on your friend's computer may cause problems on your computer. So, in this post we are not going to tell you any best antivirus program, instead you will choose the best which fits to your needs.
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The selection criteria or tips which should be kept in mind when choosing a best antivirus program are given below.

How To Choose Right Antivirus For Your PC

Antivirus Size: Antivirus software are available in various sizes. By size, we mean both, the size of the setup file of antivirus and size of fully installed program. The lesser the size, the better the antivirus would be. Although, if you require some special antivirus or higher protection which only given by large antiviruses then you should check your computer's configuration first before installing that software. If your PC has enough space and RAM then it will not be a bid deal. But if your computer comes in older PCs which have very low configuration then you should use a lighter antivirus instead.

Operating System: The type and version of your operating system also matters. If you are using Windows PC then you will have too many option to choose from. But for others like Linux and Mac, there are not many. Also note that same antivirus program may work totally differently on other operating systems. For example, Avast free antivirus is a good option and works well on most computers but we have seen avast deleting all system files of Windows XP during a scan and thus causing trouble. So choose your antivirus program considering your Operating System. Read Reviews of Antiviruses according to Operating Systems' performance or ask your friends for suggestions. But limit them on suggestions, remember that if some antivirus is working fine on your friend's PC, it doesn't guarantees that it will also work good on yours.

Silent/Gaming Mode: Most of Antiviruses are now providing the feature of silent or gaming mode for Gamer. With this feature, when any game of full screen application is running, the antivirus software will automatically limit its processes and don't show any warnings during that period. This is very helpful for playing games as this will help your PC to not get hanged. Check on your options if they have this feature.

Processes: This is will let you know the amount of load that any antivirus is causing on your system. The details such as number of processes, memory usage etc gives you details about the load of antivirus on your computer.

Background Scan:  This is also a good feature and most of the antivirus programs have it. Background scan lets you run a scan in background and also supports automatic scan in background on specified time. This option is also known as scheduled scan.
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Silent Updates: Silent updates are the updates that are performed silently. These are the updates that Computer performs automatically without any participation of user. Google first introduced this concept in their Chrome Browser and lately every software vendor started using it. The antivirus is all based on its virus definition files which are the files that let antivirus know about infections. The silent updates let antivirus download these virus definitions and thus help you stay safe.

Free Antivirus vs Paid (Pro)

The other most asked question by users is Free VS Paid. Well, we all know that paid versions have more features than free ones. But, it doesn't mean that there protection ability will change, no not at all. Most of the Antivirus Vendors provides a free and pro version and the differences are written on the comparison pages on their website. Being straight, Free Antivirus always work good. If you are a simple computer user with no concern of highly confidential data then Free Antivirus is best suited for you. Any Free Antivirus program will be more than enough to fulfill your requirements. In free antivirus, you don't have to spend extra money on purchasing antivirus and then renewing it.
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On the other hand if you are a Professional Business User and your computer or laptop contains very highly confidential data and information whose safety is your higher priority then you should go for a Paid or Pro Antivirus. Paid antivirus will give you more features and a freedom of mind.

Some Tips From Security Experts

Those were the points that we need to keep in mind when selecting an Antivirus Program. Here are some tips and advice from security experts which will help you to keep your computer safe from virus or Trojans.

Use Only One Antivirus Program: Do not get fooled by the simple idea of installing two antivirus programs at once. This will not help to keep you safe instead the virus definitions of both antivirus programs will confused with each other and it is also not safe for computer. As this will cause much more memory and CPU usage. So install only one antivirus software and uninstall it before installing other one. 

Turn Off Unnecessary Processes: A complete antivirus program is not for only one purpose. Now, the antivirus comes in complete security suites which means they do much more than that. So when installing an antivirus software, install only those features which you requires otherwise you will end up slowing down your computer to death.

Prefer Default or Pre-Installed Solutions: Always prefer default of pre installed solutions. Such as Windows 8 comes with pre-installed antivirus program known as windows defender. So instead of installing third party software you should start using inbuilt tools. This will also save you from losing free space and load on your CPU and memory.