Antivirus software, is a type of software used to eliminate computer threats such as computer viruses, Trojan horses, and malware. It usually integrates functions such as monitoring and identification, virus scanning and removal, automatic upgrade, and active defense. Some antivirus software also has functions such as data recovery, hacker prevention, and network traffic control.
Anti-virus software is to monitor and scan the disk in real time. Some anti-virus software enters the system by adding drivers to the system and starts with the operating system. Most software also has firewall capabilities. Real-time monitoring of anti-virus software varies by software. Some anti-virus software will divide a part of the space in the memory, and compare the data flowing through the computer memory with the signature of the virus database (including the virus definition) carried by the anti-virus software to determine whether it is a virus. Other anti-virus software virtually executes programs submitted by the system or users in the allocated memory space, and makes judgments based on their behaviors or results.
For home users, free anti-virus software often offers as effective protection as paid products from the same company the main difference being the extra features you may or may not need. You can see a breakdown of why in our Microsoft Defender vs. third-party antivirus guide. The most common Windows tool, Kaspersky has an excellent antivirus scanner and some pretty good web protections. Bitdefender uses minimal resources, while our optimization tools can enhance your computer`s boot up time and overall performance. Malwarebytes, Norton, Avira.
The most common Linux antivirus tool, ClamAV, is an on-demand scanner. macOS’ integrated antivirus does everything in the background without any human intervention. In that spirit, there’s no on-demand scan, but you can download on-demand scanners for your Mac, including free tools from Malwarebytes, ClamAV, and MacPaw.
