Stop the Madness

If you keep getting a pop-up telling you to register your anti-virus software, it probably means that your trial has expired. You can either pay for a full version of the software, or uninstall it and install a different program.

If you’ve recently bought a new PC, it probably came with a trial version of anti-virus software such as Norton or McAfee. When the trial runs out, your computer will no longer be protected. When you try to run the program, you’ll get a pop-up telling you the trial has expired and giving you the option of registering the software. To do this, simply click on the “Buy Now” button, and you’ll be taken to the manufacturer’s website. You will have to buy the license to use the software.

If you don’t want to pay for anti-virus protection, there are several free packages available for you to download. The most popular free virus checkers include Avast (www.avast.com), PC Tools (www.pctools.com) and AVG (www.avg.com). There’s not a huge difference between these and the basic versions of Norton or McAfee. Later, if you decide to upgrade your computer defenses, you can upgrade to premium (paid-for) versions that include features like spyware blockers and identity protection.

Before you install the new anti-virus software, you will need to uninstall the existing package. To do this, assuming you are on a Windows operating system, go into the Control Panel and click on Programs. At the top, you’ll see an option to uninstall a program. Click on that. You’ll see a list of the computer software that is installed on your computer. Click on the name of the old anti-virus software and follow the instructions on the screen to uninstall it. Afterwards, you can install the new package.