Using a Good Antivirus Software | Invasion of Privacy! Big Brother and the Company Hackers

If your system doesn't have antivirus protection like Norton or McAfee, install it immediately! Sooner or later a virus or worm will compromise your computer. An antivirus program can circumvent that and prevent a real calamity.

You'll find links to download numerous utilities including antivirus, antispyware, and personal firewalls on the Invasion of Privacy homepage at http://www.mjweber.com/iop/privacy.htm/.

Figure 12.27: Norton AntiVirus LiveUpdate

Updating Your Virus Definitions

Don't be penny-wise and pound -foolish. It's important to keep your antivirus library up to date. An antivirus subscription runs about $15 a year. Open your wallet ”but check eBay first. You might be able to upgrade the product version of your favorite antivirus program, including a one-year subscription, for the same investment. Last July I bought the latest version of Norton Systemworks Pro, a great suite of utilities that includes Norton AntiVirus, for $11 on eBay. Once an Internet Auction Junkie, always an internet auction junkie!

Once you have a valid subscription, use it weekly to update your virus definitions. Most antivirus programs have an auto-update feature, but I prefer to update mine manually. I favor minimizing the number of Windows services running in the background of my system.

Antivirus programs have two modes:

Set it and forget it. (The program starts automatically upon boot.)
Scan for viruses. (The program allows on-demand scanning of files, folders, or the complete computer system.)

Scanning for Viruses

In addition to the "set it and forget it" mode, it's prudent to do a full virus scan of your computer system weekly.

Reserve an hour per week to

Defrag your hard drive. (Remember to perform a Disk Cleanup first.)
Update your virus definitions.
Scan your computer system for viruses.
Scan your computer system for spyware.

Performing On-Demand Virus Scans

It's also wise to scan shareware and third-party downloads for viruses prior to and after installation. I use Norton, but all antivirus programs have similar feature sets.

To scan files or folders for viruses on demand with Norton

Open Windows Explorer.
Click the Folders button on the navigation bar if you don't see a directory tree in the left pane.
Right-click any file or folder.
Choose Scan with (Norton) AntiVirus.

Figure 12.28: Windows Explorer Scan with Norton AntiVirus option