Protect your system from viruses for free

Thu, 01/03/2008 - 17:54 — Ciprian

In order to write this article I have searched and tested all the free antivirus solutions I could find on the internet. The available offerings can be split in two categories: antivirus solutions which offer real-time protection and on-demand virus scanners. To keep your system safe you need to install a solution that offers real-time protection. On-demand virus scanners are good only as a "second" opinion not as a solution for primary protection. You can use them to scan your PC from time to time, to make sure your antivirus solution did not miss a virus or something.

Real-time antivirus protection

Avast! 4 Home Edition - is a good antivirus solution which offers a complete set of protection features: resident system protection, a network shield that scans your network traffic for viruses, a shield for instant messaging and peer-to-peer programs, a web shield, automatic updates, etc. Avast! 4 Home Edition is a pretty solid product which is sure worth a try.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5 - is a very popular antivirus solution. Recently, it has been declared to be the number one downloaded program on all of CNET Download.com. One of the reasons for its popularity is the fact that it offers all the standard real-time protection features for free. Even though it is not as good as other commercial solutions such as Kaspersky, NOD32 or BitDefender, it certainly gets the job done. I have been using it for a long time and I like the fact that it uses very little system resources, doesn't annoy the users with pop-ups and commercials as other free alternatives do and it delivers the basics required for an effective antivirus protection.

Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic 7 - Avira is one of the best antivirus solutions on the market. The free version offers very good protection against viruses, worms, trojans and also rootkits. Compared to the paid version, it does not include spyware, adware and e-mail protection. If you use a good e-mail service such as Gmail, Yahoo or Live Mail, the missing e-mail protection might not be such a problem as all e-mails are already scanned for you by the service provider. Another downside is the fact that, when the application updates itself, it shows a big pop-up trying to convince you to purchase the paid version. Even though the protection it offers is very good, this pop-up can become quite annoying after a while.

PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition 3.6 - is a rather unknown free antivirus solution. It offers standard real-time protection against viruses, worms and trojans, automatic updates and e-mail protection. The interface looks a bit dated but it is easy to use. Beginners will have no problems while working with it. Even though the application is light on system resources, the scanning speed seemed a bit slow when compared with other solutions. Hopefully this is justified by better performance when detecting viruses.

On-Demand virus scanners

BitDefender 10 Free Edition - is one of the best on-demand virus scanners available on the internet. Unlike other solutions, BitDefender 10 Free Edition is also able to detect and remove rootkits.

ClamWin 0.91 - is the only open-source antivirus solution available for Windows Vista. It offers all the standard protection features except the on-access real-time scanner. Unfortunately this will only be implemented in future versions. So, until then, ClamWin is best used as an on-demand virus scanner and not as your main antivirus solution.

Norton Security Scan - is part of the Google Pack, which contains other free applications such as: Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, Google Earth, Skype, etc. You can download and install only Norton Security Scan or any other application delivered in this package. Norton Security Scan delivers the standard features of any on-demand scanner: it helps detect and eliminate viruses and internet worms, free detection updates and scheduled scanning.

Comments

Thu, 01/03/2008 - 22:02 — Anonymous (not verified)

Whew!

You had me worried. I expected you to list the best free anti-virus and that it would get shut down due to being too popular. Thanks.

Sat, 01/05/2008 - 03:57 — Corrine

On-Line Antivirus Scanners

Hi, Ciprian. I would like to add a couple of comments.

First and foremost, it is critical that prior to any scan (whether it is with an anti-virus or anti-malware software) that the software first be updated to the latest definitions.

Second, there is another alternative to on-demand scanners and that is free on-line scanners. There are several excellent choices available. A code needs to be downloaded in order to scan and terms agreed to but worth considering. Options include:

ESET Online Scanner: http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/
OneCare Safety Scanner: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm
Panda Active Scan: http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm

My personal favorite is ESET. Kaspersky also offers a free virus scan, available from http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner .

It is also important to note that running two resident anti-virus software programs can result in serious conflicts. A resident plus on-demand is not a problem but I would, of course, recommend exiting the resident software when scanning with the on-demand program. I further recommend a shutdown/restart between scans. This should help avoid conflicts between the programs.

Regards,

Corrine
Microsoft MVP - Windows Security

Take a walk through my Security Garden -- http://securitygarden.blogspot.com/
Have Windows Vista? Get Bookmarks at http://vistabookmarks.blogspot.com/

Sun, 03/30/2008 - 00:13 — MT

Anti-Virus Protection

I personally found that Bit-Defender is the best. Ive been used also Kaspersky that works great as well.

Sincere & True
Mrs.MT :D

Thu, 06/26/2008 - 16:59 — Creer (not verified)

Where is ThreatFire

Hi,
i think you should add ThreatFire to your list.

Thu, 08/12/2010 - 20:36 — Trainmann (not verified)

Free Malware Recommendations for Vista

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Microsoft's free Malware solutions. I had used the free versions of ZoneAlarm, AVG, Spybot S&D, and AdAware since I started using Windows 98 over ten years ago. They did their job, but I was constantly tweaking and updating and responding to alerts and resolving conflicts. Not what I would call trouble-free. About four months ago I removed all of them and changed to Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Firewall with automatic updating and scanning turned on. I have MSE set to run an automatic "Quick" scan every Sunday morning, and I run a "Complete" scan about once a month. Firewall has required no attention at all. I also have Malwarebytes and Iobit Security 360, with real time scanning turned off, that I run monthly. So far I am very satisfied with this combination.

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