Like so many people who are self employed, I run my business on a limited budget. I don’t have a huge repository of funds to fall back on and I don’t have independent funding from an angel investor propping me up. Therefore, when I find some useful product that costs me little or nothing to use, I will try it and then make mention of it here.

For some time now I have discussed the advantages of using PHPBB forums; the merits of Firefox the web browser; and the usefulness of a variety of Google freebies including GMail, Google Checkout, Google Analytics, and more. If it is a freeware or shareware program, I want to know about it.

Last week I downloaded a copy of AntiVir PE Classic, a freeware antivirus software program. My subscription to Norton was coming due and I simply did not want to dish out the funds to pay for yet another annual subscription. Therefore, I did some research and discovered that “AV” — as it is nicknamed — protects computers effectively from more than 50,000 viruses.

So far, so good as the virus protection device updates itself at least once per day. It isn’t completely intrusive, meaning a small window will open at the top right section of the screen, but it will allow you to continue with your work as the update finishes its work.

The program comes with an easy to understand panel where you can view quarantined files, set a scheduler if you prefer the product to scan your computer at different time, and more. You can also purchase a paid premium edition that helps reduce email spam and includes an adware blocker. Naturally, I use GMail for the former and Spybot Search and Destroy for the latter so the premium edition is not necessary for me.

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