Question About PCmatic.com

[ArlEammon]

Does it work? My desktop has a virus on it, and I want to make sure that the virus (Called Deltasearch) is dead as a proverbial door nail the next time I use it. Is PCmatic free and such? I don't want to have to go through the rigamarole of waiting hours at the computer with a tech team trying to get a virus off of it.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Never heard of it, which says much about the site. Best case scenario, it's a new AV, in which case it may work as well as avast! or AVG, but probably won't. Worst case scenario, it's a scam.

Download Avast! free antivirus and try that. If it doesn't work, try it in safe mode.

[Karoht]

Seconding Avast!
Also recommending AVG. Both are free. And update pretty regularly.
If it takes hours to do virus removal, something has gone horribly wrong. Or someone is padding the bill they are charging you.

[Jimorian]

The good thing about virus protection/removal software is that just about all of the BEST programs are free to use.

Avast (http://www.avast.com) or AVG (http://www.avg.com/) as already mentioned for General protection. Only install 1 background virus scanner, however, otherwise you tend to bog your system down.

Malwarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/) for occasional full-computer scans or when you know you have a virus that got through your other virus programs.

And for some tricky malware, Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/malware-removal.aspx). It's not a comprehensive virus scanner, but it can root out several deep infections that the others may not clean effectively. I had a Google redirect malware that I couldn't get rid of until I used this program.

There are others that are just as good, or may be needed for some particularly nasty bugs, but overall, this set of programs will help keep your browsing pretty safe.