Download Best Free Antivirus Softwares
My geek friend scared by the recent outbreaks of Kamasutra virus and Leap-A virus gave me a call that his Norton Antivirus subscription has expired and he can no longer update virus definitions via Live Update. And he did not want to pay for expensive antivirus subscriptions yearly.
There are several excellent paid professional antivirus software like Norton Antivirus, McAfee, but they are expensive software and require yearly subscription fees for regular antivirus updates. So I went looking for free antivirus softwares and was surprised to see the range available.
Free antivirus software
After reading several reviews by leading security web sites and forums, there seems to be a consensus that the 2 best free antivirus softwares in the market are AVG Anti-virus Free for Windows (a free anti-virus protection tool developed by Grisoft for home use) and the Avast Home Edition (a full-featured antivirus package designed exclusively for home users and non-commercial use). The limitation with Avast is that it will work for 60 days after installation in demo mode, then you need to re-register every year to obtain a free license key by email that is valid for 1 year.
Other popular security solutions are AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic (for Protection and security against viruses, worms, Trojan horses and dialers) and BitDefender Free Edition (an on-demand virus scanner, useful in a system recovery or forensics role)
Long back, PCWorld has compared these free antivirus protection software. WebHostingTalk shows that AVG Free Edition is the best (though the voter base is small).
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PC World does seem to think differently about free anti-virus programs, but I’ve still used AVG most of my computer life. However, I’m now using the Windows OneCare.
i was one of early users of AVG n just now installed AVG in my new hd n came across this post
AVG is my fav n never found any alerts thru stringer but worth dln
For those who are looking for freeware antivirus, I would Avast Home Edition. It has amazingly small (and almost daily) online updates, has a very good detection engine, and its resident shield is extremely effective against spurious sites and malware.
AVG is another excellent alternative. It has a easier interface than Avast, but I think its detection rate needs a bit of improvement. I would say that it can be useful as a secondary antivirus package on a home system.
McAfee Stinger & Avast Cleaner are useful in case of new virus/worm outbreaks.
I have been using Avast for about 2 years now and I think I have been protected most of the time. But that’s also because I am a very alert user. But I think Avast also uses less of the system resources as compared to a Norton.
I’ve been using Avast for 2 years now, I work in the computer industry and I think its a great product. it uses a far smaller footprint than the bloatware that is Symantec and Mcafee. You hardly even notice its there running all the time, uses very little CPU, some of the big boys should look at how efficient this product has been written. We’re currently considering throwing out Symantec in favour of the Avast Enterprise Edition for servers.