We’re going to take a look at what some of the best antivirus software programs are, and give you an idea of what to choose from.  There are several companies that make respectable applications to protect your computer from harm, but it’s difficult to decide which the best are and which aren’t so great.  We’ll go through them one by one looking at things like easy of use, their complete antivirus feature sets, virus isolation and eradication, and more.

Norton Antivirus
Far and above the most popular choice among many computer users, we want to take a look at its overall effectiveness in comparison to others.  The interface for the program itself is simple and easy to use, and upon the programs installation, you’ll find that it pre-scans your computer to help protect you from any viruses that are already on there.  The program is a bit larger than other antivirus programs, but it’s worth the additional installation time.  Norton focuses on blocking not only malicious viruses, but also the dreaded and often hated adware and spyware type programs that end up ruining and slowing down your computer.  Adware and spyware are huge problems on many computers so you want your antivirus solution to include help against it.  There is an available scheduler in the application that allows you to pre-schedule all your future computer scans so that they are performed consistently but also conveniently.   Norton successfully passed all antivirus standards by West Coast Labs in both level 1 & 2, so the outside confirmation of it’s success is a great bonus when looking at antivirus options.  Additional features include protection against instant messaging viruses, malicious scripts, and will also protect your POP3 email.  There is no protection against peer to peer however.