I recently learned the hard way that like it or not, good computer antivirus software is important. I (like many folks) after trying, avoided the big ones like MacAfee and Norton. They acted like viruses themselves; sucking up system resources and slowing down my computer…  I thought I would just be careful and not download anything that looked suspicious. That approach worked fine for years until recently when I inadvertently restored the wrong file from my recycling bin… turned out it was an executable file containing several nasty virus's from an email marked as spam... bad idea. I downloaded nine viruses… game over. I was eventually able to completely remove the viruses and restore my computer with the help of Chris at Marathon Computers without loosing any data although it was time consuming. I am now using AVG free virus protection and Spy Bot Search and Destroy which is free as well. They use minimal system resources and work great… highly recommended.  8)

I also want to point out that I first took my computer to Keys Computing in Key Largo. After paying a substantial labor charge for the time to have the viruses removed by so called experts they told me it couldn’t be done and I would have to reinstall Windows which would have been a big problem regarding my time and effort to reinstall all my programs... fortunately they were wrong.   :x

If you have lots of your valuable time invested and rely on your computer for business (or personal; photo's, music, video's, email, contacts, schedule, etc.) and this ever happens to you, my advice is don’t give up until you get a second opinion... Additionally: use anti virus software and keep it up to date, back up you important files on an external hard drive, save all your installation key numbers in the event you ever have to reinstall and write down all your passwords and logins!  :educated: