Connections - January 2009 - (Page 13) OFFICE SOFTWARE PRODUCTS THAT PAY FOR THEMSELVES Anti-Virus Software According to Don Spidell, information technology specialist, “Anti-virus programs are essential for workplaces running Windows, because a virus-ladened computer can affect a whole corporate network and it can kill productivity.” Spidell advises a good anti-virus program should run in the background and not interfere with the user’s computing experience. There are a multitude of programs to research including but not limited to Shield Deluxe, CA, AVG, Bitdefender, Norton, Panda and McAfee and the average cost per program will set a company back $30 to $40 dollars up front. “McAfee and Norton, are two of the most popular anti-virus programs, but they are more trouble than they are worth,” said Spidell. “Over the years the McAfee and Norton software have gotten so bloated that they hog way too many system resources and they slow computers down.” Spidell’s vote for the most cost effective anti-virus program is AVG Anti-Virus even though it costs nearly $15 more than other similar products. “I prefer it because it’s a smaller, lighter program that does an excellent job without taking too much processing power or memory,” said Spidell. AVG promises businesses will be protected against viruses, Trojans, worms, exploits and other malicious software. Microsoft recommends this product and others within the security software family because it is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows XP. AVG has been rated on Virus Bulletin as a program that detects all “in the wild” viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files. Online Collaboration Sites Google Docs is a free Web site that allows users to edit documents anytime, from any location. Will this free program bottleneck workflow or increase efficiency? Marketing Director Marcus Grimm bets the latter. “You can’t beat the cost of Google Docs. It’s free. It’s the simplest way I’ve found for people to collaborate on a single document,” said Grimm. ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/EMRAH TURUDU http://www.avg.com/ http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/about/index.xml http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F<mpl=homepage&rm=false
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.