| Antivirus software is used to prevent, detect and remove computer viruses, worms and torjan horses. It may also prevent and remove spyware, adware and other forms of malware. Antivirus software is class of program that searches hard drive and floppy disks for any known viruses. It is protective software designed to defend computer against communication software.
Antivirus software run in the background all times, and should be kept updated so that it recognizes new versions of malicious software. The methods which antivirus software used to identify malware are signature-based detection, heuristic-based detection and file emulation Signature based detection is most common to identify viruses and other malware. Antivirus software compares the contents of a file to a dictionary of virus signature because virus can be embedded themselves in existing files, the entire file is searched in pieces.
Heuristic-based detection can be used to identify unknown viruses. File emulation is also a heuristic approach. File emulation involves executing a program in a virtual environment and logging what actions are performed by program. Depending on actions logged, the antivirus determine if the program is malicious or not and if program is malicious then perform the disinfection actions.
An antivirus program scans a computer periodically based on pre-defined schedules. It is a program installed on computer and designed either to prevent infection or remove it. Some common programs are Nortan, McAfee, AVG, Avast, Kapersky, Microsoft Security Essentials and many others. Many effective antivirus program are available some are free and other are paid. Some antivirus require driver instalation to work properly. To choose the right antivirus user should consider budget, system hardware and OS than seek out impartial reviews. Cnet.com and av-comparitives are places for new users to find the antivirus.
Good antivirus remove the malware effectively and quickly. Benefits and features vary on the type of antivirus package used by user. Basic function are prevention, scan, performance, safety and reliability. It prevents viruses from installing on system, or downloading from a website with online community software and extracting from downloaded archive. Virus decreases CPU speed, resulting in slow performance, frequent errors and sometimes total operating system failure. Antivirus allow regular programmed scans. It will prevent unauthorized users from accessing personal documents, pictures and records . It assures that the computer is safe. |
