Happy new year!!

Hey friends and family... I'm going to try to start posting the answers to your questions on this blog again. This is one if my new years resolutions :)

So today I'm going to answer this question:

What anti-virus program should I use?

I've had several friends and family ask me this one... And it's one of the easiest to answer.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

That's it :) MOST of my friends and family are running Windows. (sorry Mac people, I don't know what you should use) Well, simply put, Microsoft's Security Essentials is what you should be using.

It's FREE
It's GOOD
It's written by people who know how the internal mechanisms of windows works..
It's essentially a part of windows that Microsoft didn't put in the package.

I really can't come up with a reason to use any if the paid anti-virus programs right now. They have nothing that's better than MSE. The ONE single thing I can think of that the other companies might have that's better are the researchers that work for those companies - you know the smart people who actually DISCOVER viruses... Well, the anti virus community is a very open group of scientists, and they do share everything, so once one of the anti-virus companies discover a new virus, they all know about it within hours.. Maybe minutes. So that isn't Really a factor anymore.

I often get asked if MSE is actually doing anything.. It RARELY pops up with any messages about it doing anything or needing updates... That's because it is 1) automatically updating itself, and 2) keeping quiet unless you REALLY need to know something. You see, the other paid-for anti-virus programs actually want to make sure you don't forget about them... They need you to be thinking about them when it comes time to send them another wad of cash... If you have the sensation that the anti-virus program hasn't done anything for you in a while, you might be apt to decide to just skip renewing your subscription to their service. The truth is your rarely need to actually interact with your antivirus program if all is going well. So, MSE, being free, doesn't ever nag you unless it's really something that needs your attention. That includes updating itself, which it really doesn't need your help to do ;)

As most of my friends and family know, I reall pay attention to the tech industry. As such, I'm really in-tune with what "the experts" say. And across the board, ALL of he experts I listen to say that MSE is currently the best anti-virus program you can use.

Another thing that I should mention is that if you have some other anti-virus program, like Symantec or Trend or whatever, and you take my advice and get MSE, PLEASE remember to uninstall those other guys' program... Remember, even if you're not paying them for updates, their program is still running and STILL slowin down your machine. At one point, Symantec/Norton Anti-virus was tested and proven to be the single biggest thing that slows your compute down I your running it.

So, friends and family, please go download and install MSE. It's free and it's the best.