Selecting Anti-Virus Software for Home

"I purchased X Anti-Virus for my Home PC last year and unimpressed, let it expire. Which anti-virus product should I purchase now?"

I get asked this question a lot. I provide below how I typically answer it, hoping that someone out there will find it useful as a template for your responses to similar questions to which you must respond.



BEGIN EMAIL REPLY:

Hi So and So,

First of all, great question.

While I typically recommend home users to select security software products from well known commercial vendors, most of these are large companies that structure their pricing model to force you to repurchase their new version every year instead of simply renewing your subscription. As a consolation prize, you get any new features added each year.

Your customer service experience (or lack thereof) is sadly typical for large software companies; the best way to avoid outsourced call-center style support is to choose a boutique software company that hasn’t a large enough customer base to decide outsourcing customer support as viable. If customer support isn't something you plan to use and commercial security software feels too expensive, there are a number of companies that release free home-use only versions of their software.

Finally, as far as how to select a new anti-virus solution, I unfortunately put a lot of trust into tech review websites such as CNET. When selecting products, typically user reviews for software as complicated as anti-virus provide little insight to how good it really is as experiences vary from person to person. With a tech journal, you at least know they sampled many products. The downside is they only get to it every year or two, so the ratings may be based on last years version.

That said, here’s a link to CNET's Anti-Virus review page as a starting point.

Here is a link to CNET's top rated Anti-Virus software which includes free home-use products.

Hope that helps! Happy hunting.

Regards,
Tom