In the current climate of increasing cybersecurity, it’s no longer enough to safeguard your devices with a basic antivirus program. A top-quality antivirus program will provide additional protections that go beyond malware detection, like the use of a VPN and software for optimizing performance and password managers. Also, you should look for an antivirus that works across all operating systems and will not slow down or use up your system resources.

The best antivirus programs can reliably detect and block many threats, such as viruses, trojans and worms as well as ransomware and spyware, adware, keyloggers and rootkits. They also defend against phishing attacks by checking for the presence of malicious websites and identifying fake or unsafe links.

The majority of companies offer a no-cost trial of their software, or a money-back guarantee. Most also have 24/7 customer support and an extensive knowledge base online to help you fix any issues that arise.

Microsoft Defender is the most popular antivirus software available for Windows (which is included in the latest Windows computers). It scores well in tests from independent labs such as AV-Test or AV-Comparatives and is comparatively light and unobtrusive when techlifehacks.net used but it’s not equipped with the same quality as premium standalone antiviruses.