There is no other reason to stress how your PC must be kept safe from malicious software, such as viruses and spyware.  And that is because there is a way how.  Antivirus software is the sure-fire way to protect your PC from malicious programs which are downloaded into your computer.  Like Norton and MacAfee antivirus programs, there is huge number of free and paid antivirus programs in the market which can keep your PC protected from these malicious programs.  However, one program stands out from the rest, the popular free antivirus tool which is the AOL Active Virus Shield (AVS).

Features of AOL’s Active Virus Shield

AOL Active Virus Shield is compatible with most Windows operating systems such as Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.  It is also compatible with security and protection programs found in your system, such as firewall and anti-spyware programs.  You may download the AOL Active Virus Shield from websites on the Internet, and run the installation.  If there are any compatibility issues with your system, the program will prompt you to discontinue installing or disabling any other antivirus program or configurations which may be interrupting the AOL antivirus.

AVS has the deep scanning ability which makes use of traditional virus detection.  When you use this tool, you are not only scanning for certain malicious programs but also stopping these malicious programs from getting into your computer.  This makes sure that your computer is doubly protected and completely virus-free because this tool can decrease the chances of your PC incurring any viruses.

Using Active Virus Shield is really simple especially in scanning as many files, e-mails, and disks needed.  It can detect the latest viruses as well as repair the virus-infected files.  AVS can also detect malware, and enable to scan for Trojan programs and viruses.  AVS is the best in malware protection because it offers real-time protection, which means even your email software can make use of this tool to scan incoming and outgoing email messages which may have infected attachments.

Whatever configuration you put Active Virus Shield to, it will always monitor your computer.  However, most antivirus programs slow down your system whenever it performs virus scans.   Therefore, try to avoid running virus scans on a regular basis or while you are running other programs.  You can configure the Active Virus Shield to just scanning more important portions of the operating system.  For faster scanning features, configure AVS to scan only the new files which were added or created since the last scan.

In comparison to other antivirus software, Active Virus Shield does not take up much system memory when it is run and has a better virus detection tool than most free antivirus software such as AVG Free and Avast Home.  It takes from the Kaspersky Personal Anti-Virus 6, which updates virus definitions every hour so that your computer stays up to date, and the antivirus is always ready to fight off any virus efficiently.

Because there is a new virus created every hour, a huge number of virus and spyware programs increase the chance of infecting your system.  Therefore, there is a higher need to install antivirus software in order to protect your computer system.  With AOL Active Virus Shield, a free and light antivirus program, it is easy to configure your antivirus and detect malicious programs faster and more effectively.  Because of this, AVS has also become user-friendly and quite a popular tool among PC users.