10+1 Free Antivirus Tools for Windows
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Viruses and other malware have an unusually high affinity for your new Windows computer. If you want to keep your darling PC safe those bad guys, go ahead and pick one of these free antimalware tools.
Avira’s AntiVir has been constantly making the top of the charts in many antivirus comparison tests carried out by neutral organisations. This sleek software has a small memory footprint, sports a simple interface, catches nearly every virus or rootkit thrown at it, updates multiple times a day, and, starting with version 9, includes the much awaited antispyware component. Probably the only thing to moan about are the nag screens which appear after every update, but they can be disabled with an easy hack.
Pros : Strong active protection; fast scans; simple interface; high detection rates and excellent heuristics; low memory use; good config. options
Cons : Nag screen after every update; default settings require babysitting during manual scans; additional components like email scanning and link scanning absent
Rating : 4/5
When it comes to popularity, AVG Free edition has no rivals. A simple installation and out-of-the-box protection make it the best choice for the lesser tech-savvy masses. In addition to the regular virus and spyware protection, AVG includes an email scanner and LinkScanner, which prevents you from entering infected web pages. Even though comparison charts don’t rate it very high, AVG is still a solid choice if you want your PC protected with little or no effort.
Pros : Intuitive and simple interface; adequate default settings; email scanning; active protection from malicious websites; one centralized window; excellent configuration options
Cons : Comparatively poor detection rates; USB drive protection is off by default; no rootkit protection; huge installation file (> 60MB);
Rating : 4/5
Avast! Home edition rounds out the “Big Three” of the free antivirus market, the other two being AVG and AntiVir. Avast! provides an almost impenetrable 6-shield layer of active protection and can also effectively catch malware during manual scans. However, it does have a weak self defence, and some malware even prevent it from being installed on infected machines. The default interface of Avast! is confusing as well, and you may have to look at our guide to get started. All in all, Avast! is a good choice for brand new PCs and not very ideal for already infected ones.
Pros : Extremely strong real-time protection with web shield, email scanning, and IM shield among others; small size updates; skinnable
Cons : Confusing default skin; poor self-defense; slow scans
Rating : 4/5
PC Tools Antivirus provides effective protection against viruses, trojans, and worms. Features include a well-refined user interface, IntelliGuard for active protection, automatic smart updates, and a lot of configuration and scanning options. However, it’s also remarkably heavier on system resources, taking ages to start up or shut down. You’ll also have to pay to get spyware protection through PC Tools Spyware Doctor, although you could do with the free starter edition being provided with Google Pack.
Pros : Strong active protection; quick updates; nice UI
Cons : Unresponsive and slow during startup; almost impossible to disable temporarily; no spyware protection
Rating : 3/5
We’ve a new entrant here! Rising antivirus builds upon the goodies of other popular rivals to put together a rock solid security app for your PC. It provides strong on-demand and real-time malware protection, real-time shield against malicious websites (like AVG and Avast!), email scanning, automatic USB scans, advanced heurisitics, daily updates, and zero-day protection, among other features. Moreover, Rising sports an intuitive interface that should be easy enough for most users.
Pros : Includes everything needed for strong protection; recommended by Microsoft; intuitive UI
This is one product I haven’t tested out yet, so I’ve no idea about it’s minus points. From all the reviews I’ve come across, Rising seemingly deserves a 4.
Comodo have owned the world’s best software firewall for some time, and now they’ve integrated an equally good antivirus right into it. Of course, you can choose to have only the antivirus, or the firewall, or both, during installation. I never had a good experience with Comodo’s antivirus, but that was years back when it was still boiling in the beta cauldron. Today the product is getting positive reviews from the entire tech community and users alike.
Pros : Nice UI; regular updates; pro-active Defense+ protection
Cons : Defense+ can be irritating (but curable); low scores in comparison charts; installation file is big (> 45MB) due to integrated firewall
Rating : 3/5 (Detection definitely needs to be improved.)
In this world of update-and-detect security tools, ThreatFire takes a different approach of tackling the ever increasing malware. It relies on behavioural characteristics, or “heuristics”, to detect malware, and is quite effective at it’s job. There’s more reason to use it though – it uses very little system resource, it doesn’t need to be frequently updated, and it CAN work smoothly with any other antivirus to double up your PC protection! Oh, and it’s another PC Tools product, so there’s little need to question it’s efficiency.
Pros : New approach to security – especially effective against the latest malware; very small memory footprint; compatible with other antivirus tools; no definition updates required
Cons : Solely depends on behavioural analysis – can be outsmarted by changing malware behaviour
Rating : 3/5 (It’s still difficult to accept ThreatFire as a primary antivirus.)
Panda has always taken an innovative approach towards desktop security, and their Cloud antivirus is the next step in this direction. As the name suggests, Cloud antivirus keeps as much of it’s core files and malware definitions as possible on Panda’s dedicated servers. You just have to install the on-demand scanner and real-time scanning components, which keep you protected by pulling in malware definitions from those servers. This means Panda’s Cloud antivirus requires significantly less disk space and memory compared to other security apps (although it’s not looking quite apparent in it’s current stage). Cloud Antivirus constantly accesses the Internet to keep up with the latest updates, to submit malware, etc., but it also maintains a local cache to keep you protected in offline mode. Oh yeah, it’s still in beta so the less tech-savvy PC users probably should stay away for now.
Pros : Introduces concept of cloud security; constantly synchronises with dedicated servers to keep tag on latest threats; small memory footprint; completely free (no paid upgrades available); nice intuitive interface with no confusing menus
Cons : In public beta – not ready for mainstream use; questionable protection in offline mode
Rating : 3/5 (deserves more, but has to come out of beta first)
Clamwin is the only open source antivirus in our list. While it detects a pretty decent number of viruses, a lack of real time protection makes it a big no-no in today’s unsafe times. However, Clamwin does come with a very useful portable version which can be carried in a USB stick to quickly disinfect any PC.
Pros : Portable version is ideal to be carried in a thumb drive; fully open source; simple interface
Cons : No real-time protection; poor score in comparison charts; no spyware detection
Rating : 2/5 (great for carrying around in thumb drives, but not suitable for desktop use)
You may also check out Spyware Terminator, a free antispyware which can embed the ClamAV engine to provide virus protection during scans and even in real-time. ClamAV is also the core engine that powers Clamwin (and many of the Linux antiviruses).
Microsoft has been churning out some really useful products of late (Windows Live, Windows 7, Bing). Security Essentials continues that trend by being a first-class antimalware that protects your PC with minimum fuss, if any at all. Unlike it’s ill-fated predecessors – Live OneCare and Windows Defender – Security Essentials is scoring big time in malware-detection tests. The facts that it is relatively lightweight and blends into your Windows system make it even more recommendable than ever.
Pros : Excellent detection; lightweight – no unnecessary features; free – no upgradable versions
Cons : Only for genuine Windows users (go genuine, guys!)
Rating : 4/5
We wind up our list of free antiviruses with BitDefender’s free antivirus, which like Clamwin, only provides on-demand and scheduled scanning of your PC. However, it’s remarkably heavier, doesn’t have a portable version, and keeps running in the background (even if it doesn’t provide active protection!), thereby making it practically useless.
Pros : Good detection
Cons : Bloatware; no real time protection
Rating : 1.5/5 (Excellent detection simply can’t make up for the bloat and lack of active protection of this product.)
We’ve blasted you with 11 choices; now it’s your turn to pick one. Hurry, viruses are coming!
