If you type the word “antivirus” into a web browser, you’ll see a nearly limitless list of products asking for your money in exchange for antivirus protection. Now, we all know that having an antivirus program is one of the most important steps for any PC owner, but it isn’t as cut and dry as that; what you should really have is a comprehensive program that protects you against all the dangerous elements that can harm your computer. The best antivirus programs also block or remove things like spyware and adware, and you’ll want a program that covers all of these bases. Though it seems difficult to make sense of all of these features, it really isn’t so hard if you know what to look for in a good AV software.
Looking at Antivirus Reviews
Your first step will be to look at the reviews for the best antivirus programs available for your PC. Once you’ve found the highest-ranked pieces of software, you will want to bookmark this page and then go through each of the top ranked programs. They should offer the standard antivirus protection but should also have the following features:
Firewalls
A firewall is a device within your network that protects you from other people trying to access your network and information. Firewalls are very important because of how wide open the internet is and how easy it is to steal someone’s information. For this reason, you should make sure that the antivirus program you’re considering also offers firewall protection. Luckily, most companies know how important a firewall is to a PC user and so you’ll be hard pressed to find a decent AV that doesn’t have firewall.
Spam Blockers
Most people assume that spam is just harmless internet junk mail and, in some ways, it is. But some spam is far more dangerous than it may appear. Attachments from spam can infect your system with Trojans, worms, and other dangerous malware. Even if you don’t open these attachments, spam can slow your PC down to a crawl with fragments and junk files. To combat this, make sure that the antivirus program you choose has a spam blocker in addition to firewall and AV protection.
Ad Blockers
An ad blocker is absolutely essential in today’s world, where even the most harmless sites can sometimes slam you with endless pop-ups. Most browsers come with their own ad blockers but there are plenty of dangerous spyware and adware programs out there that easily get around pop-up blockers. This is why a dedicated ad blocker from a quality antivirus software is absolutely necessary. If you followed our advice and scanned the top rated antivirus programs based on reviews, you’ll likely see that most of the high rated programs have some kind of ad blocker contained within.
Encryption
The best antivirus software out there will allow you to encrypt your data just in case a crash or other unforeseen problem occurs. Encrypting your data is something each and every one of us should do regularly but it can be the sort of thing you always put off, like flossing. This is why a quality AV will come with an automatic encryption program that will regularly and automatically encrypt your important files and data.