Make sure that you get the best out of your antivirus and antispyware software, you have paid for it so make sure that it’s working at it’s best for you.
Firstly, make sure that the antivirus signatures are updating on a regular basis, this should be at least once a day if not more often. you can usually check this within the software where it will tell you which revision you are using and what the date of the last update was.
Secondly, from time to time check to see if there is an updated engine available to install, the AV vendors are constantly updating their software to protect against emerging threats and as well as the updated definitions produce updates to their packages, these sometimes need manual installation rather than happening in the background. The updates are generally included within your subscription price so its well worth checking from time to time to make sure that you are as up to date as possible.
Thirdly, as well as using the real time scanning engine (that’s the bit that checks files as you access them) make sure that you schedule regular deep scans on your system. A scheduled scan is different from the real time scanner in that it will look in all the files and folders on your system and check them against the latest virus definitions that it has, this means that should anything have slipped through the systems real time scanner prior to an update being available it will be picked up and dealt with during the scheduled scan.
Depending on what type of antivirus software you use you may notice that scanning the computer whilst you are using it slows it down a little (or in the case of some packages a lot) so you might want to scan the computer when you are not using it. The next time you are looking to renew your antivirus software why not look around to see which packages offer high levels of protection without hogging system resources, we use Eset here and that sits very lightly on the system whilst offering excellent protection.
Our home page has a link to a free online scan which you may want to try out to see if your current antivirus package is doing its job, follow this link to run a free scan. If you are a business user, feel free to contact us on 0161 941 4555 to discuss how we can help you with your antivirus protection, we are able to offer 2 years subscriptions for the price of one for a limited period see here.
Tags: anti-virus, antivirus, virus scans