The bad guys are still out there circulating viruses and spyware. So you still have to be on alert. And this is something that you have to think about whether you stick with your old operating system or migrate to Windows 7.

Do you have a good antivirus software running on your computer? If not, you need to get one immediately. Even if you bought a new computer, you may need an antivirus program. You will find that most new computers come with a trial version of an antivirus program. Most manufacturers will give you a 3-month trial subscription to an antivirus program by a major manufacturer like McAfee or Symantec (Norton). At the end of the trial period, you are expected to anti-up for the full price of the next year's subscription.

That is certainly an okay thing to do - and it may be the easiest, since you probably won't have to install anything. However, you can accomplish the same type of protection more inexpensively.

There are several free antivirus programs, such as AVG and AVAST. There is also a new free antivirus program that has come to the forefront lately. It is the newly-released Microsoft Security Essential program. This is a free download at the Microsoft website.

Security Essentials has gotten a good review from security experts. The program is small and unobtrusive. It uses only 11 Mb of disk space. It is easy to use and to understand. The interface is clean and uncluttered. It protects against both viruses and malware. During every day use, it is fast and uses minimal resources. In my trials, I found that scanning was a bit slow, but that is also the case with other free antivirus programs like AVG. And unless you are in a hurry, you won't mind that the occasional full scan takes a little longer.

The name Microsoft, along with the backing of many security experts, makes this program one that a lot of people will use. As you might expect, it will run well on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

If you buy a new computer, sometimes the trial antivirus software is already installed and sometimes it is not. If it hasn't yet been installed, you will be asked to install it during the computer setup. If you don't want to install it, you can just skip over that part of the setup. If it comes pre-installed, you can try it and see how you like it for the trial period.

When that ends, you can install this new Microsoft antivirus program or any other antivirus program of your liking. However, you must remember that you should only use one anti-virus program at any given time. So if you decide to change to a different antivirus program, you will want to uninstall your old anti-virus program first. Here are instructions on how to do that.