America’s SBDC Blog

A “Forbes 100 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs”

My Favorite Free Anti-Virus Program

It seems not a day goes by that I don’t get a question from a reader about what antivirus program to use. This can be a tricky question because every tech-guy you run into will have a different opinion.

Here’s mine:

The necessity to “buy” an antivirus program is slowly going away. Large companies are now adding them in to their software offerings at little or no charge. Sometimes, when you buy a new computer, you will get a “free for a limited time” installation of some program, but eventually they will start hounding you for money.

As of this week, my favorite antivirus program is Microsoft Security Essentials. For my Mac friends, check out iAntivirus.They run unobtrusively in the background and have been very good at finding these nasty digital creatures.

However, I typically don’t rely on just ONE solution. Sometimes you get a varmint that is truly slippery, so every once and a while I will check my entire system with Malware Bytes and SuperAntiSpyware. These two programs don’t need to run all the time. I just fire them up once a month or so, update them, and let them run (one at a time), while I go to lunch.

Remember, install these programs BEFORE you get a virus. Many viruses will attempt to infect any programs you install AFTER they have taken root!

If you truly get a bad virus, though, give your friendly tech-guy a call.

I welcome your comments below!

___________________________________

Eric Spellmann continues to be one of the highest rated speakers at our national America’s SBDC conferences. His unique view that small business websites should “do” something pushes against the standard “online pamphlet” view of most web design companies. He believes your customer’s websites should be driving qualified leads and sales on a weekly basis. Eric speaks at a number of other national and state conferences nationwide, but enjoys running one of the most successful web design companies in the country. He truly believes in the SBDC mission as it helped him start his own company many years ago. To contact him, visit his website at EricSpellmann.com.

Subscribe to our Blog

Monthly Archives