Antivirus software is designed to keep your PC free of these computer viruses & worms, it does so by scanning your PC's file system looking for known viruses, if a virus is found it will inform you and then take steps to remove the virus threat.
Good antivirus software will automatically check any files being transferred to and from your computer, any antivirus software should at least scan attachments of incoming emails automatically (even if the option can be turned off).
Virus definition files
Antivirus software usually works by checking a file for certain patterns of binary code, the patterns which it uses to identify viruses are stored in what is known as a virus definition file, when a new virus comes out the virus definition file needs to be updated to include the new virus' pattern.
The importance of keeping these definition files updated cannot be overstated, basically antivirus software without updated definition files is useless.
Most good antivirus software will update these files automatically (or at least have the option to do so), the update of the definition files is usually achieved by having the software connect via the internet to the vendors website (server), and then downloading and installing the latest virus patterns.
This is why it is important to purchase antivirus software from an established company, imagine you bought antivirus protection and then 6 months later the company went bankrupt, where would you get your virus definition updates from ?
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