Virus Protection
With the number of viruses currently circulating, there is no question that every Windows computer should have high quality virus protection. However, a number of users have decided to operate their system without this protection. This leaves their computer and data at high risk.
One of the reasons cited for not using virus protection is that it slows the computer down. This is true. In order to be fully effective, virus protection needs to remain running in the background. This will reduce the system resources available for other programs, thus slowing down the machine. This loss is so small, however, that users of new machines would probably not even be able to detect the difference. Users of older machines, which are already running slow, will notice a minor drop in performance, but this should be minimal. The question is whether this minor loss in performance is worth the added protection, and anyone who needed to reformat their computer because of a virus probably wishes they had sacrificed the small amount of memory it would have taken to avoid the problem.
Cost is another reason some people avoid anti-virus software. Pricing for anti-virus software is somewhat difficult to understand since there is the cost of not only the virus scan software but also regular updates. This understandably turns some people off to anti-virus protection. Fortunately, there are high quality programs such as Avast! available free of charge for home users. If you decide to pay for a commercial product, it is important to get the updates as well, so figure that into the total price of the software.
The final reason cited by some users for not using anti-virus is too many false virus warnings or annoying windows from the virus software program. This is a legitimate compliant since many users are using virus software, at least in part, to eliminate pop-ups. Fortunately, most programs allow the user to adjust settings so as to prevent most of these annoyances.
It is up to each user to decide what level of risk he or she is willing to take with his or her computer, but every unprotected computer is another chance for someone with malicious intents to spread a virus.