Reader Dee Smith wrote to ask about antivirus recommendations:

I have been using Norton antivirus programs for 10 years. In May I purchased Norton 360 which has been giving me fits. When I shut down Windows, everything goes off but the tower. I have done all their troubleshooting to see which program I have that might be conflicting with 360 to no avail. I have just uninstalled it and everything is working fine. But I have no virus protection.

Someone told me that you really don’t need an addtional virus program as Windows has it’s own built in anti virus. I have been searching this and have not found that information anywhere.
I’ve been reading your site’s information but haven’t been able to filter through all of the information.

what do you recommend?

First, Dee has received some bad information — Windows does not have its own built-in anti-virus. Neither Windows XP nor Windows Vista include an anti-virus program as part of Windows.

Windows XP and Vista include a Microsoft firewall. The XP version has gone through some changes, but still doesn’t control outbound communications. With Windows Vista, though, Microsoft finally realized that outbound communications are an issue, too.

Continue reading Microsoft Anti-virus?

Can’t wait? My choice is NOD32