Computer Virus Protection

There are many different styles of computer virus protection, and it is a more complicated topic than most people make it out to be. In reality, the best way to protect your computer from viruses is to use a system that is invulnerable. Macintoshes are very resistant to computer viruses, and Linux is even more so. By switching to one of these operating systems, you can improve your security and computer virus protection quite easily.

Unfortunately, this is not always an option for everyone. There are plenty of advantages to Microsoft Window in certain industries. The biggest advantage, of course, is that everyone is using it. You will not have to deal with the same compatibility issues you would have to using Linux, BSD, Apple, or some other operating system. If you do use Windows, you'll just have to find some other way to guarantee computer virus protection.

Of course, protection from computer viruses starts with smart use. Don't open forward from people you don't know, don't visit suspicious websites, and don't download from the Internet unless you are absolutely sure that what you're getting is safe. These measures, however, are not enough to guarantee computer virus protection. You really have to do a lot more. One of the best things that you can do is to install a virus scanner program along with a firewall. Set your computer up to scan for viruses every day at a certain time so that you can make sure that you do not infect your system. Use the firewall to stop hackers from influencing your computer and to block suspicious website traffic.

Perhaps the most important kind of computer virus protection, however, is to set up Windows automatic updates. Microsoft is always discovering new holes in Windows software, so without automatic updates you can be a victim of a hacker attack. A lot of people don't like the idea of configuring the computer to update automatically because they feel it is intrusive, but so is getting hacked. Trust me when I tell you that getting updates is worth the intrusion. You can't really have effective computer virus protection without it.

Of course, you can't forget one of the most important kinds of computer virus protection: making backups of everything. No matter how many precautions you take, you can run into a serious computer crash. Maybe it will be a virus, maybe your hard drive will fail, or maybe you will run into a power surge that fries your computer. Whatever causes it, you need to have a backup before it happens. Otherwise, you can lose all of your precious information in one fell swoop. No matter what you are running, make sure you have records of everything.