Over 90% of free antivirus software is not frequently updated. Some is updated on a monthly basis and other software is only updated every few months. If you think this is a small problem for getting free software, think again. These updates are primarily for the virus definition database. This means that if a new virus appears or an older one is modified slightly to make it look different it will be picked up and stopped quickly. If you use free software that is not updated your computer might be infected with malware an viruses and you will not know about it, until your computer crashes or worse, your private and financial data is compromised.
Some so called free antivirus and anti-malware software is in fact malware in disguise. With an increasing amount of malware appearing every day you might discover too late that the free software you are using is in fact compromising your computer in a daily basis. If you pay for a full version your credit card details can be compromised too and your computer will have no protection and be left open to multiple attacks without you even being aware of it.
Some free software will actually report genuine files as infected with viruses. If you run windows update or if it updates automatically and an outdated antivirus software is run it will not recognise the updated files. In some cases the results can be catastrophic for your PC if it determines important system files are infected and deletes them. You could end up with an inoperable computer.
If you want to discover if free antivirus software does work follow these steps
The easiest way to determine if your computer is at risk if you are using free software is simple and a two step process.
Download a trial version of a well known antivirus software such as AVG or similar. Once you have done this update it to the latest version and then run a full scan on your PC. Do not run a quick scan as thus will skip files that may be infected. This can take an hour or so the first time you run it and will show you very quickly if there are any nasty surprises waiting for you.
Download and run a system and registry scanner such as PC health advisor which will scan your computer for hidden malware and malicious software that can corrupt your computer. This will find anything that should not be there and help you get rid of it automatically and quickly.
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