Anti-Viral Software general discussion

Anti-viral software often encompasses two very separate functions -- virus scanning and virus cleaning. Most of the current apps integrate these dual functions, but you'll typically find an app that excels at one yet lags at another. The best app in this category, McAfee's VirusScan, does an excellent job of finding known and possible new viral infections. However, it is probably not the best client for removing any newly exposed threats. For this purpose, a client like F-Prot (DOS-based program) is needed. F-Prot is also adept at finding those deadly terrors that lurk deep within the recesses of your computer, but it does an even better job of ensuring that those terrors are eradicated efficiently and without damage to the rest of the computer. Thankfully, there are anti-viral apps for most every OS available now. Carmel's AntiVirus is one such app -- it will work only in Windows NT. The danger of viral infections cannot be underscored. Two years ago I learned firsthand the lethal potential of these miscreants. Thanks to a strain of the virus Azusa, my first computer met a very untimely death. Since then, I've grown to depend on virus scanners to ensure that the same doesn't happen again. College students and those who often download files from friends, BBSes, and the like are prime targets, but the potential for a virus is shared by most all computer users. For this reason, I thoroughly recommend checking out one or all of the apps featured here.