IMBPC COMPUTER SERVICES

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Free Anti Virus Software

Pay for anti-virus software from the biggies Symantec/Norton or Mcafee and it'll cost roughly £50 per year. Yet you can also take advantage of a variety of decent free programmes...

* Avast! 4.8 home edition.

Alwil's Avast! home edition offers great detection of known malware, but it's usually beaten by Antivir in tests. The latest version's a good all-rounder, providing all the features you'd get with a paid-for program, but its interface still isn't the best on offer.

* AVG Free.

AVG has a long history, and has been through loads of modifications to provide a better service on its way to the current version, AVG 9. It's protection is reasonably thorough, though it doesn't offer any real tech support.

AVG's quite unintrusive, doesn't use too many resources, and will regularly auto-update. It includes LinkScannner - real-time threat detection which checks links out when you're surfing the web (Firefox and IE only), and marks unsafe ones with red flags so you know not to click them. LinkScanner is also available separately as a sub-1MB sized plugin for those who already use another anti-virus suite.

Whichever of these you choose, there's one important warning...

Hackers develop new bugs constantly. All these free anti-virus services offer regular updates, if you don't download them, you're not protected.

Yet it's not just about how up to date your software is. If you're not using it, what's the point? Try to fit in a full 'on-demand' scan (that is, one where the virus scanner flicks through all the files on your hard drive) once a week. This should make sure nothing slips through the net.


A note for those with new PCs

Often companies throw in free anti-virus programs hoping you'll subscribe to them out of convenience once the free trial ends. By all means take advantage of the free offer, but then ditch and switch to a free version when it expires. Make sure you uninstall the trial too; it may interfere with the new virus scanner, and even if not it'll certainly slow down your PC.

Note for Norton users only: It can be a bit of a pain to get rid of all Norton AntiVirus's components from your machine.

Simplifies everyday tasksWindows 7 makes the basics easier than ever. With HomeGroup, it’s simple to share music, documents, printers, and everything else with the other PCs running Windows 7 in your house. Windows Search frees you from the chore of hunting through folders and subfolders to locate your stuff. Better taskbar previews give you a great view of what's open, and Jump Lists show you recent files with a single right-click.Works the way you wantIt doesn’t matter how much your PC can do if it’s not running as smoothly as you expect. So we designed Windows 7 to help your PC sleep and resume faster. Windows 7 supports the latest advances in PC hardware, like 64-bit computing and multi-core processors, and improved memory utilization helps your hardware reach its full performance potential.Makes new things possibleOnce you’ve got that simpler, faster PC, some cool new features would be great. Here you go: You’ll be able to connect to networks—home, work, coffee shop—with a couple of clicks, and with Windows Touch (and the right hardware), you’ll soon be using your fingers to flip through files, work with pictures, and even “paint.”

How often do you backup the data on your computer? If you're like most people, not very often, if at all. Yet the information stored on your hard drive can be incredibly valuable. Think of your financial records, business contacts, e-mail addresses, and letters and so on. Then there's your music and video collection.
What would happen if it all disappeared? How long would it take and how much would it cost to place the missing data? Can't happen? It does every day for a variety of reasons:

The disk drive you use for backups fails for mechanical reasons.

Your computer is stolen--laptops are particularly vulnerable.

Your computer is destroyed by fire, floods or other disasters.

A power surge fries your machine (Make sure you have a surge protector on your computer equipment.)

An employee accidentally or intentionally erases data.

A virus infects your system, wiping out key files

Your hard drive crashes. Sooner or later it will fail; the only question is when.
Computer files can be restored in the event of a crash, but it will cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. In the meantime, you will be without essential data.
If you diligently backup your system and store the backups off-site, you're in good shape. But most of us never do--until it's too late. Over the resent few months I have seen many people how have lost hundreds and hundreds of photos.