According to NetMarketShare.com Windows PCs hold a market share of just over 90% of all operating systems. Because the market share of Windows is so large, these systems end up with more problems than any other type of computer on the market.

It’s not necessarily that Windows (XP, Vista, 7) is a bad product (okay, so Windows Vista was pretty bad). But with a market share so large, Windows is what people work with the most, so there are bound to be issues. Since Windows is also the biggest target, more malicious software is developed to bring down Windows machines as opposed to, say, Macintosh or Linux machines.

It’s important to note that both Macintosh and Linux are susceptible to viruses and spyware, but fewer cases of spyware exist for these operating systems because of their smaller market share (4.5% and 1% respectively).

Additionally, any Windows computer, regardless of brand (HP, Toshiba, Acer, etc.), is just as prone to viruses and spyware as the next Windows computer. If a computer acquires a virus or other malicious software from browsing websites of ill-repute, you should know it is not HP’s fault (or Toshiba’s, or Acer’s for that matter). Consider a real-life example:

Let’s say you have a Hewlett-Packard laptop running Windows 7. You get an e-mail forward from a friend promising wealth and fortunes by clicking on a link (you didn’t know this until later, but snopes.com determines it’s a fake). After clicking on this link, your computer won’t open Internet Explorer anymore and Antivirus Soft is asking you to pay $49.95 to get rid of 119 detected viruses.

First, you should know Antivirus Soft is malicious, illegitimate software – under no circumstances should you pay them a single penny. Second, this scenario would have played out the same way if you had a computer by any other name. The brand of computer simply doesn’t matter when it comes to software issues.

Now, armed with this understanding, the posts that follow in this series will help you to protect your computer from a number of issues related to software, saving you both time and money in the future.

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