Guide to Latest Anti-Virus

The following are the continuation of the list of the common symptoms of virus existence on your computer from the previous post:
There are unexpected changes to file properties. Viruses can alter these – increasing the file’s size, modify date of creation, and even change the filenames.
There are many reasons that can cause you a problem in starting up your computer, but frequently is it a boot virus attack.
Viruses can cause some programs to suddenly shut down.
Other symptoms are strange open-close activity of the CD-ROM tray, the automatic movement of the mouse and keyboard inputs, etc.

It is not easy to tell if some virus has already gone its way to your computer. That’s why we strongly recommend that you install anti-virus software, or much better if you install more than one of it. The following are the common symptoms of a viral infection on your PC, although there are times that the following are not caused by a virus:
Your PC is running slower than usual. This can be due to too many processes and programs running at the same time or a problem with your network, but can also be caused by a virus infection.
Certain files or programs can not be opened. It is possible that a virus has erased parts of the files or programs that are necessary for the file to open or for the program to run.

• It is vital that your anti-virus software is always updated to get maximum efficiency. Visit the supplier’s web site when installing anti-virus system and check out the auto update feature.
• Do not use two anti-virus products simultaneously. If you already have an anti-virus and want to install another, you must first completely uninstall your present anti-virus before installing a new one.
• You must at least use an Internet service provider. Check if it has a spam email filtering and server side anti-virus feature as back up protection.
• There are anti-virus software that work with spyware, Trojans and other malware. If yours have limited effectiveness, consider getting a separate product.

Phishing mails, the need for an ulterior screening service to help make sure that we don’t even get the change to see these waste of time emails has become a need.

There are software available to help combat spam mail. Mailwasher Pro is one of these said software and allows users to preview the message even before it touches base with the email account box. With this option alone, you are not only saving space but also time when it comes to reading your individual emails and best of all, you can be assured that you don’t even get to the point of opening attachments or clicking on links that have been sent to you unsolicited.

As far as being up to date in the world of viruses and issues on the web, most anti-virus software companies today are trying to aggressively find ways to make their respective software recognize these harmful files that plague the web.

Based on statistics from past years, the rampant growth of viruses and malware have been a cause for concern and most anti-virus software available today have their own line of preference in identifying and curing such problems. If you look at it, there is no single software that can safely protect your computer. They just have to work together and produce that one complete anti-virus software everyone can count on.

(Source) The Washington Post

Over the years, computer viruses have evolved a great deal. Back in the 60’s, some programmers developed a game that can replicate every time it as run. It can even drain another computer’s memory. This game was called the Core Wars. To remedy what this game can do, those who created this game developed an application that could destroy copies replicated by the Core Wars. The application was named Reeper and came to be known as the first virus in the history. Also in that decade, the MS-DOS is fast becoming the top operating system worldwide. But young as it is, the the system was not developed as it is known today, that is so it was an easy target for virus then. That started the births of different viruses.

The manufacturers of anti-virus industry are divided into three groups: the industry leaders, the second-tier companies, the others who have no significant effect on the anti-virus market.

One of the world’s leaders is Trend Micro, which dominates the stock market of Japan. The company was originally based in Taiwan until it penetrated the Japanese market. Now the Trend Micro headquarter can be found in the United States.

Trend Micro produces various lines of products and solutions that will protect computers, servers and mobiles. Although the company products and solutions are proprietary, Trend Micro also has a variety of free tools and services.

The best anti-virus software today come with essentially multiple virus scanning options. This allows users to create schedules for scanning. Users also benefit from advanced scanning options that provide them the access to various location-specific scans and real-time scanning which enable computers to automatically scan for viruses every few minutes to stop viruses from causing damage almost all the time. Complete and optimal system protection is obtained from anti-virus programs that are updated regularly. This is the answer to the fact that viruses are actively being created everyday, or worse, every minute. Over-all, the best thing that an anti-virus software can provide to its users is the peace of mind.

Most of us have computers and normally they are based on a Windows environment. Now before Windows came along, Macintosh was the talk of the town. Ever since the evolution of Windows Operating Systems however, the need for anti-virus programs to safeguard our systems has been an issue. But how come a MAC doesn’t need one?

Depending on the case, MAC users do not download like crazy and their systems are believed to be more stable than Windows. This may be a case to case basis however but a MAC normally can operate on its own since it does not usually gather much bugs like the average personal computer.

Apparently, the gauge for good anti-virus software these days is how they can jell with the service pack releases of Microsoft and ensure that there will be no conflicts of whatsoever in properly determining viruses. Apparently, three companies, Trend, Sophos and McAfee have failed to make the grade and will be posing more problems rather than results for Microsoft Vista Users.

So it’s back to the drawing board for these three as they have to integrate their software with Microsoft Vista standards to be able to co-exist with this operating system. It looks like they have to broaden their scope all the more to keep their rankings of reliability intact.

(Source) Channel Register