Many of us use the virus scanner that was provided with our pc when we purchased it.
Initially it was free for the first 60 days or so, before long we started to get pop ups nagging us to pay for it.
Typically the costs are in the region of £30/£40 per year for Norton or Mcafee.
I for one find that many of the paid-for virus scanners are too bloaty- consuming too many resources.
One of my favourite virus scanners is Avast from
http://www.avast.com/eng/home_edition.html - the home edition is 100% free for personal use. To use it for longer than 60 days you will need to register it- this just requires you providing your email address, country and name- a small price to pay in my opinion.
Another popular free virus scanner is AVG.
Please be aware that no virus scanner is perfect. Many of the makers are scared of being sued by scumbag malware writers such as the people behind Antivirus 2009. This is a program that scares you into thinking that you have dozens of viruses and then demands money to remove them. More often that not they will then take unauthorised monies from your credit card.
Fears of litigation prevent many scanners from reporting these programs as viruses, the get out is that you downloaded them and with out realising you agree to their terms and conditions bt doing so.
Of the paid for virus scanners the one that seems least concerned about being sued is Prevx. They were the first company to stand up to the Micro Billing Systems- a program that eventually hijacked your machine unless you paid them to go away. MBS was installed when users clicked to download certain types of movies- unaware that they were agreeing to pay MBS further down the line for doing so.
If you are concerned there is noting to stop you from using more than one virus scanner- you might find that your machine is slower though as both programs are constantly scanning away. You will need to tell each of them not to look in the other's virus vault. If you do not then one might see a virus in the others vault and move it to its own, then the other will see it in the first's vault and move it back, and so on.
In time I will update this list and include other free programs.
If you have any problems just ask for help.
