I’ve been using computers since 8 years , initially i didn’t know the importance of antiviruses .. But as the days moved on .. and from experiencing some problems in the computer .. I realized how important it is to use a good software.. Let us see what is an antivirus :
Antiviruses are programs that disinfect your virus infected programs,files …etc .A capable Antivirus keep a watch on each and every file in your file system .. if the antivirus detect any abnormal activity by a particular file/program ..it will disinfect the file and make it safe to be used ..antivirus may perform n number of tasks to make your computer/laptop safe .. so it is important to install an antivirus of your computer .Now .. as we know what are antiviruses .. Lets look at some of the antivirus softwares I’ve used on my PC :

Best antivirus for windows 7 /8 / XP

1:- Norton Internet Security

2:- Mcaffee

3:- QuickHeal

4:- Bitdefender

5:- Avast

6 :-AVG .

7:- Kaspersky Internet Security .

If i’m given the opportunity to pick the top 4 softwares from the above list ..they would be

1:- Norton Internet Security

2:-Kaspersky Internet Security

3:-Mcaffee

4:- BitDefender

Following are the factors that i considered on generating the above list :-

1:- Memory Consumption :- This is a important consideration as this would directly affect the performance of your System and Other Applications . Some antiviruses tend to consume very high memory on start-up and when a virus is found and o performing a scan operation .. If an antivirus is installed on a computer having lesser RAM memory like 512 MB or 256 Mb .. The performance of the system would be degraded drastically if an antivirus consuming high memory is installed on such computers .So choose an antivirus that will consume lesser RAM .

2:- CPU Consumption :- This is also an important consideration, If more CPU cycles are wasted in serving the antivirus operations .. The lesser CPU Cycles would be available for the other programs .. Hence choose an antivirus that would consume lesser CPU (CPU Cycles)

3:- Features :- More the features that better the product is as more research and work was done in developing the antivirus software .So choose an Antivirus that has more features.

4:- File Deletion/Quarantining System :- Find out what an antivirus do after finding a virus in your computer .. Although malwares should be deleted straightaway .. Deleting the infected file might be dangerous as other files depending upon it would not be able to find it .. If the antivirus deletes the file/infected program then don’t waste your money on it ..Instead .. go for the above mentioned list of Best antivirus for windows 7 /8 / XP that will repair the infected file .