There are many factors involved in protecting your PC. For antivirus, you always want to keep the virus definitions up to date, and make sure the program is no more than 2 years old. For example, even if I was using the latest virus definitions, Norton Antivirus 2004 is too old to provide adequate protection.

Just about every antivirus vendor provides an option for online download purchase as well as a retail disc.

As far as recommendations go, let me start by saying that any antivirus is better than none at all. So if your computer comes with 3 free months of a certain product, I would make use of it. Once the trial period is over, however, I would generally advise the use of a different product.

My recommendations are based on the product's ability to detect and remove malware, ease of use, and how the product affects the performance of your computer. Your antivirus program is always trying to catch problems as they enter your computer, so you want to make sure that the program does not make everything else on your machine slow. Generally, I do not like all in one security products. “Internet Security Suites” have way too many useless programs and features that are confusing to implement and slow down performance. Try to stick with products that do one thing and do it well.

Below are some of the products that I like. If you decide to install a new antivirus program on your machine, please make sure that the old program is completely uninstalled. Two antivirus on the same machine can cause some wide ranging issues.

Both of these antivirus products do a great job in protecting your PC, but they do cost money. While the paid programs are usually better for a home user, there are a few viable antivirus products available for free.

Below are the free antivirus products I like.