How to Use Anti-Virus Software to Keep a Safe and Healthy Computer

Computer viruses are all over the Internet and positioned to infect your computer at any security weakness opportunity. People who have nothing better to do with their time and resources develop viruses sometimes for fun and other times because they want to steal your information or hack into your computer. It is especially important that if you use the Internet you also have a fully protected computer. This means always - always! - keeping your computer up-to-date with the latest anti-virus software.

If your PC has been infected with a virus, you will probably notice the impact fairly quickly. Your computer may slow down considerably, corrupt your files, and even wipe the computer clean of the data on it. Considering the fact that viruses are growing in number, you need to have a powerful and efficient anti-virus program on every computer in your home. This is about the only protection that can almost guarantee total computer security.

Anti-virus software can be found at any store that sells computer software, or you can download one from an online marketer. It is important to have a program that not only scans for viruses but can quarantine and delete them as well if you already have them on your system. Once you have the program installed, it is important to actually use it. You should scan your entire system, including files and folders, at least once a week if not more frequently. You can schedule it to auto scan on specific dates and times if you can't remember to run it manually on a routine basis.

It is essential that you keep the definition files of your anti-virus program current. You can do this automatically with most anti-virus programs, or you can schedule it to update daily at a certain time each day. This will enable your program to find the latest viruses that are sent around through the Internet. You also have the option to do this step manually if prefered.

If you are diligent to address all the above, then your computer is most likely safe and secure. However, it never hurts to make a backup of all your programs, files, and folders to be on the safe side. You just don't know if you will one day download a virus that gets through to your computer and wreaks havoc. No matter what you do, you can't plan for everything, so err on the side of caution and back up your computer at least once a month - preferably much more frequently.

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