A good antivirus is meant to protect your machine against all types of attacks. No matter you use a Mac or Windows-based machine, an Antivirus is a must for PC. There are some antivirus solutions available in the market which aims to protect from all kinds of malicious infections and attacks. We know Trojans, botnets, ransomware, rootkits are a common infection causing items, most of the antivirus tools promise they can fight against all kinds of malware, not just viruses.
It is very hard to pick a right Antivirus solution in dozens of programs. We have a simple trick that works to test the capability of an Antivirus solution. Coming to Antivirus suites we have AVG, Avira, BitDefender, Kaspersky, MacAfee, Norton, Zone Alarm and much more. Before picking up an Antivirus suite shortlist your company. Almost all popular Antivirus solutions offer a free trial before you purchase.
Download your desired antivirus and install on your system. After installing update the Antivirus program with latest virus definitions.
Now create your virus in simple steps.
- Open Notepad or Text Document on your PC.
- Now copy and paste the following code and save it as EICAR dot com on your Desktop.
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
Now scan the document with your Antivirus program. In my testing, all above-listed Antivirus solutions automatically detected the virus. If you are using any other Antivirus which is not in the above list perform the test to confirm. If it is detected as a virus, you can confirm it as a good Antivirus program. If it doesn’t, you should look for a new program.
Note: It is a common antivirus test, and it won’t harm your computer.
That’s all for now. Please do share your views and feedback in the comment box below. Also, please don’t forget to share the article on your social media platforms.