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).