You always ensure extra protection and security when it comes to your home as this issue also concerns safety of your family and belongings. Your computer which is a storehouse for your vital personal information also demands similar concern and care from you. Protecting your PC is entirely your responsibility to ensure a faster and better performance and preventing misuses and manipulation of information.

An Anti-virus program profiles the unknown areas, files, folder for any new information. Your antivirus program will scan your file/folder contents for a virus signature that matches a specific profile that your kit knows about. If a virus is detected then this program will either repair it and archive the virus for future reference or destroy the infected file depending on the level of corruption.

You should schedule the program to run once or twice every day at a particular time when you are not using your computer. This ensures elimination of new virus if any at the earliest stage i.e. within 12-24 hours. Running an antivirus program requires your computer to synchronize with many programs simultaneously and thus it becomes a little slow for the time its being run.

Anti-virus programs are updated with virus signatures that include a new virus. When you run the program it checks for this new virus signature along with the older viruses that it knows about. It is very unlikely for the viruses to fade away completely even after they are eliminated. They leave behind traces and fragments that could continue to corrupt some of the files for infinite time and often messes up the computer’s registry.

To compare the utility and adequacy of antivirus kits all you need to know is whether is passes the following tests like the Demand Test that confirms checking file on demand, when sending an attachment as a part of KRSEV test; The Update Test which corroborates the automatic update of virus signatures preferably everyday; The Respond Test confirms how an infected file is treated by your chosen antivirus program or whether the infected file is completely cleaned and safe to open; and finally the Heuristic Test which is a little advanced than identifying the virus with virus signatures, explains how are these defined by your antivirus program. It’s important to go with a well-known and respected anti-virus program. AVG from Grisoft is free for personal use, and detects viruses as well as the more expensive products.

Malware attack your PC in a different way. These also steal your personal information and generally creep into your machine to use it as an advertising platform and eats up your disk space by downloading and installing new programs specific to their requirements. These also change your browser and personal homepages.

Ad-aware SE 1.06, Personal Edition, scans your hard drives, RAM, registry and external storage devices for malware. It ensures complete privacy while you are surfing the web. It scans for Code Sequence Identification to identify and include definitions of new unknown variants. Multiple user accounts are easily scanned at high speed through an Extended Scanning Mode. This protects the machine against Browser Hijackers effectively.

Spybot Search & Destroy is a multi installation scanner that effectively scans your PC registry. CWShredder is another device that effectively protects your PC from Browser Hijackers. It finds and destroys traces of different browser hijackers popularly included the wide range of CoolWebSearch. The Cassandra variant of this device now includes a desktop hijack. ToolBarCop is another device that removes unwanted Tooldbands, icons in the toolbars. Webroot Spy Sweeper protects your identity and revives your system performance by blocking spyware and cleaning it comprehensively.

We’ve included a few links here, but more information on all these devices and comparisons can be obtained from reputed PC magazine online. Choose the best product that customizes your requirement specifically.