Explanation of Features

• Malware Protection: People often mistakenly believe viruses and malware are different things. Not anymore. Today malware is the umbrella term that covers all malicious software that could infect your PC.
• Low Resource Usage: The goal is a secure PC. The challenge is getting their without slowing your PC down.
• Social Network Protection: Viruses come from all over the place--including social media sites. Even though your friends and family are on places like Facebook and even though they'd never intentionally infect your PC doesn't mean it can't happen accidentally.
• USB Scanning: Threats from USB devices are more common than most people believe. There's this feeling that a USB stick is harmless, but that isn't necessarily the case.
• Email Scanning: From spammers and scammers to threats unintentionally mailed from contacts you know, email-borne threats are still common.
• Easy to Use: Ease of use is almost as important as protection. After all, if the software is hard to use, what's the point?
• Tech Support: One of the most under-appreciated aspects of antivirus software is tech support. Rather than ignore it, we put a value on good support, test it, and rate it.

The Difference that Makes a Difference

Whether you're buying antivirus software for the first time or consider yourself an expert (or even a quasi-expert) on the subject, the thing to think about is this: what am I really getting?

The marketing machines at every antivirus company out there are hard at work to make themselves different... to make themselves stand out from the crowd.

In just about every case, a company will tell you its software is #1 or "best protection" in such-and-such tests.

Then they resort to trying to bolt on features or use different names to make themselves stand out. One company will say theirs has "realtime protection" another will say theirs has "always-on protection". Really, they're the same thing.

But, not all antivirus software is the same.

The sticker price on most antivirus software comes in between $40 and $60, and between about $25 and $40 with discounts they provide our readers, so they're all roughly the same price.

Aside from the quality of protection you get, the three BIG, important differences you'll find in basic antivirus protection like those shown on the page are:

1. Will their software work on older versions of Windows like XP and Vista?
2. Where is their support based?
3. How much will their support cost?

So, when you're thinking about what to get for your PC, make sure the brand you like works on your PC and to factor in the value of tech support to you.