Choosing an Antivirus Software:

Antivirus software is one of the most important things you should have on your system. Many PC’s come with this software pre-installed, but you should still take a few moments to familiarize yourself with it. There are many available antivirus programs currently on the market. Here, I’ve compiled some of the best retail and free antivirus solutions for you.

Mcafee antivirus

(Retail) – McAfee provides a great antivirus solution. This US based company is maybe the oldest antivirus development company in the world, and in this area experience is king, especially when you’re dealing with high-tech menaces.

Norton antivirus

(Retail) – Norton Antivirus, commonly known as Symantec Antivirus, is one of the best antivirus solutions available, even though it’s also one of the “heaviest”, meaning your system may run slower after installing it, specially if you haven’t upgraded lately.
Avast antivirus

(Free!) – Avast Antivirus is a lightweight and free (for home use) solution. They are a newer company but have gained much ground because their software is free and easy to use.
AVG

(Free!) – Much like Avast, AVG is a light, easy to manage antivirus package, automatically updated, and provides maybe the best shield protection you may need, without even noticing its presence.
What to Do if You Think You Have a Virus
If your computer is running unusually slow, complaining with lots of errors, random reboots, blue error screens, or tons of pop-up windows – chances are good that you have picked up some spyware or a virus.
In this case it’s better to stop and think before acting.
What should you do?
Stop all your work, close all your files and opened windows.
Run your antivirus software to make sure it is operable; do this even before updating it with the latest virus definitions.
Update your antivirus with the newest virus definitions and run it again.
If your system is still complaining, check it for spyware .
Don’t, in any case, start deleting files and programs as you’re likely to cause even more harm. This is a good time to backup all your data if you don’t have any backups already. Even if you back up data infected with a virus, there is a good chance that it can be recovered and this will spare you from loosing important files if your first effort to identify and remove the virus fails.