The best free antivirus software available

Over the years I have used many different antivirus programs. I feel this has given me the education, experience and authority to recommend the following programs. Many of the programs below also have paid versions but I have found that there is no need to purchase them as the added extras are often not needed.

AVG
AVG is a fantastic little piece of software totally free of charge. The current version AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 is probably the best version to date. It provides full protection against viruses and spyware and also boasts free 24/7 support. It is thought that over 100 million people use AVG at the moment and it is probably the most popular of all free antivirus programs.

AVAST
Avast free anti virus is similar to AVG. The free version comes with an engine that blocks viruses and spyware and also offers remote  connections so that you can get help from a friend or techie if needs be. Avast claims that they have over 150 million active users which cement its popularity throughout the world.

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Spybot Search and Destroy
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Adaware made by lafasoft
Avast Avast Free Antivirus

Adaware
Adaware made by the software company lavasoft primarily started off as an anti spyware program but has now also branched into anti virus. Amongst others it features a download protection that identifies malicious files that are being downloaded onto your computer. It also features a sandboxing feature that allows you to run malicious files in a virtual environment. It is one of the most powerful free antivirus programs about. To date there has been about 400 million downloads of their free software.

Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes is probably my favorite all time anti spyware program. Over the years it has built up an excellent track record removing spyware for me and it has built up a fantastic following amongst techies.  It proves to be extremely efficient removing Trojans and root kits.  It uses a sophisticated method of removing malware not seen in other free programs. To date there has been about 100 million downloads and it has successfully removed over 5 billion pieces of malware.

Spybot Search and destroy
Spybot search and destroy free edition is an extremely efficient and effective piece of software.  It was developed by a world wide team of software specialists with a strong background and education in malware and spyware technologies. It is 100% free for private use.  It can also clean usage tracks which is useful if you share your computer with other people.

Filed Under: Technology

Banks pay out over £730 Million in ppi claims for May

This past may, UK banks have paid out an astonishing record of just over £730 million to their customers who fell victim to payment protection insurance or claims, which is better known as PPI. This is an unprecedented level of refunds made claimed the financial services authority earlier this month. This is by far the biggest overall monthly claim payout in recent times and it has raised the total amount paid out from January 2011 to over £4.8 billion, a figure that is only set to rise with records being broken on a monthly basis and with a total estimated compensation fund total coming in an over £9 Billion this monthly payout record is only going to go up.

Due to re assessing the total number of liable claimants that they are predicted to receive, this past May the LLoyds banking group, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC have set aside an extra £800 million between the three of them adding to their original total claim pots that these refunds are made from. Barclays bank has also reassessed there figures and have added an extra £300 million this past April.

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Lloyds Banking Group LLoyds Bank

The amount of compensation claims have jumped up so high recently since the land mark ruling in may 2011 were the British bankers association trade body gave up the legal fight were they attempted to block the FSA’s ruling on compensation but after going through the rigors gave up the fight.

The FSA ruling forced all banks to stringently review their past sales of payment protection insurance, and insurance that was supposed to be used to cover loan and credit card payments when people could not work due to illness or unemployment – and they were also forced to make contact to customers who were mis sold this insurance and offer them the money back even if they never complained or made contact with them.
The figures quoted above are the most recent that come from about 24 firms that are solely responsible for over 96% of all complaints about the sale of personal protection insurance suggesting that the figures are accurate of the situation the present.

Filed Under: Finance