My TechTips

Welcome to Pikson Airi's Tech Tips page. This is where I post tips and tricks from my own experience as a freelance PC tech, suggestions, and advice on gadgets to ram and stuff.

What is the best antivirus software?

 

Disclaimer: This article presents views from the author alone and does not reflect any company or individuals recommendations.

Alot of people have approached me regarding antivirus softwares for their computers and one question has always popped up in the conversation every time; "What is the best or latest antivirus for my laptop?"

Answering that question has never been easy simply because you can provide a quick fix by just recommending a cheap or rather free antivirus that will do a miracle (well for the moment) but the long term consequence is far worse than your quick-fix solution. I am not going to give you a list of best antiviruses, there are many websites which can give you that information but here's what I can best advice.

There is a price to pay if you want to have a good effective antivirus that can do the job and be update atleast on a monthly basis. Also a fully functional registered software. Those programs will cost a alot (probably same price as the cost of your laptop).

I have noticed many IT companies and shops here in Papua New Guinea who sell laptops providing a quick fix solution by putting the 30-day trial Norton or Kaspersky antivirus software. The unaware customer is made to think that everything is ok until after a month or two they realise these issues;

1. the program is a 30-day trial version
2. virus found (136 or more virues) but you need to register for the viruses to be removed
3. and many other scams to purchase the software

These are common issues regarding free, unregistered, 30-day trial antivirus programs.

As far as I'm concerned, the best advice is to make sure that when you are buying a laptop or desktop ensure they install a fully registered copy of the program and configured to be updated monthly. This will of course cost you but that saves your kina in the long run. This scenario is a PC tech business gimmick to keep the client coming back for service which keeps him in business. I have worked on quite a number of brand new desktop PC's and laptops for the past 4 years with this kind of unregistered 30 day trial anti-virus programs and its an unpleasant experience especially for the client.

Will post later on the likely issues that you can face with using free unregistered or (cracked) anti-virus programs.