Although a lot of people use commercial anti virus software, such as Norton, McAfee and Kaspersky, there are quite a few free programs that perform remarkably well if you avoid the really bad areas of the Internet. For the casual surfer these free programs can do a great job of protecting a computer from the threat of infection.
One of our favourite free anti virus programs is currently Avira AntiVir Personal. In tests, this program excels in virus and malware detection tests and has the top scan speed amongst this batch of freebies. The only downside is the large window that pops during the daily signature updates that steels focus from whatever you might be doing at the time. So it can be a bit intrusive.
However, despite the pop up window, Avira is still definitely our top choice.
Some of the other free programs are still good enough to install on your PC. In fact their performance is only slightly below the top performer.
For example, if you come to dislike Avira's daily pop-up ad, you could opt for the Avast Anti virus Home Edition.
Anotherr choice may be AVG Free. It is easy to use, but its protection lags just a bit behind the other two programs, Avira and Avast.
And then there's Microsoft Security Essentials, which uses the same anti virus engine as the company's cancelled OneCare paid suite. This program is now free to download and performs reasonably well. It is not quite as good at detecting viruses and malware as Avira and Avast, our top choices. But it is easily on par, or just a touch better than AVG Free.
We also like PC Tools Threatfire with its excellent, proactive malware detection. It can spot a nasty intruder based solely on what the file tries to do to your computer, without the need for anti virus signatures. It can also work in tandem with any of the free anti virus applications mentioned above.
So these are some of the best free anti virus programs and the only downside about all these is they either don't or don't do to well (like AVG), at checking your downloaded email. This is where paying for commercial anti virus software usually pays off.
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