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In a recent post, I discussed the Top 5 Free Programs to Clean up Your Computer. In that post, I mentioned the free antivirus AVG Free, as one of the top free programs. After some thought and a little user feedback, I decided to do an extended post about the best free antivirus programs available.
AVG Free was mentioned in my list before, and it must be in this list as well. It is probably the most used free antivirus software out there. It provides great antivirus and antispyware protection, and it also uses Safe Search which helps protect you from those bad webpages that can sometimes come up in your search results.
Avast is often seen as the biggest competitor to AVG Free due to its simplicity and ease of use. In addition to the normal protection, I find the P2P and IM shield to be a great feature of this client. However, there is one negative with this client. You will have to take the time to register it in order to keep using it. This registration is free, but it does take time. Are you lazy like me?
Anti Vir has been gaining a lot of support from the techies around the Internet. I believe the basis from this comes from great protection with the ability to scan up to 20% faster than other clients.
Bitdefender provides the same basic virus and spyware scanning, and it adds immediate scanning, a skinable interface and statistical reports. The reports are always a nice touch, because some people want to know everything that is going on with their computer.
Comodo
Comodo provides a very basic antivirus software that is easy to use. It also has an extremely small memory footprint, so you can actually do other things while it is running on your computer.
Clamwin is obviously the most basic antivrius on the list, but that isn’t always a bad thing. Clamwin may not be as robust as some of the others on the list, but if you don’t need lots of bells and whistles this would be a great choice.
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I agree with you on AVG, Avast and BitDefender.
Many users are happy with AVG and Avast.
I myself am using BitDefender on my new lappie with Vista right now.
Thanks for the great work.
I just noticed I don’t have an anti virus running.
I should fix this ASAP.
I personally use AVG since I like how small and compact it is. Best of all free. Also, when you know how to navigate the internet, there is a better chance you won’t get infected (key word: better; not invulnerable).
I also use AdAware.
I have been using Avast for a long time. I like it lot as it uses very less system resources
I’ve been using Avast Free for the longest time and I’ve never had a problem with it. Where I used to work, the computer was using AVG. I never found anything wrong with it, but I rather Avast. Other than those two, I’ve tried Avira AntiVir. It was good, but again I rather Avast.
I have been using Avast since I have owned my computer, I have tried a couple others, but always return to Avast. I like the simple usability & it does it’s job well.
residential use
I love Comodo! It is possibly the best antivirus program I’ve used. I was a huge Avast fan until I met Comodo and tried it out. It uses less memory - even on my Vista machine than Avast; and Comodo has a nice, clean interface that makes me think Web 2.0!
Unfortunately Comodo ranks 40th on the Virus.gr independent tests in detecting malware. Avast ranks 13th, BitDefender ranks 12th, AVG ranks 11th and Antivir ranks 10th.
Also, Clamwin is not a realtime antivirus scanner meaning it won’t monitor your system. It will only scan your system when you ask it to.
I feel Avast is well worth the bother of taking a few minutes to re register once every 14 months.
I’ve tried pretty much all of these, and Avast still comes out tops.
ever heard of threafire? http://www.threatfire.com
My Anti-Virus is Linux. tee hee.
AntiVir is the best of the best!!!