Skip to main content

Top 5 Free Antivirus for Windows [This Week in Security]

By
When asked about Anti-virus, I often recommend everyone Kaspersky because of its performance and detection level. But for a less hostile and home environment, going for a free anti-virus alternative is a better choice. Thinking of which, I began my search for the best free antivirus to my already paid license of Kaspersky. I visited most of the AV-companies sites and saw what they had to offer and then compared all those those alternatives to the results of the test conducted by AV-Comparatives in the month of May. According to my observation and my past experience, here are top 5 free anti-viruses.
best-free-antivirus

Top 5 Free Antivirus Software

1. Avira Personal Edition


Avira scored the best among all the free available alternatives overall, also beating most of them in Proactive Defence, and other signature based detection. It also has a previous record of performing well in tests conducted by AV-Gmbh.The overall score of the result also points out that apart from Microsoft, Avira is the only alternative that can give the big-guns a challenge, though the disinfection rate history is not in its favour.


2. Microsoft Security Essentials

MSSEIn spite of terrible failure of One Care, Microsoft has really bounced back with Microsoft Security Essentials. The anti-virus is extremely light weight and has one of the heighest Proactive Defence levels and least false positives. Avira beats MSSE in only the detection rate. MSSE is gradually being acclaimed for it being a strong competitor to Kaspersky or Norton, but its still not an anti-virus to be used for enterprise of business purposes, but and excellent choice for home.
Only problem is that it requires a 40mb download of virus definitions before it can start functioning fully, also a genuine Windows is a must.

3. Avast Free 5


Formerly known as Avast Home Edition, is a perfect blend of all kinds of qualities required in an anti-virus. It neither tops anywhere, nor can be discarded of it being free.It performs better than Panda, McAfee, K7 etc in terms of False Positives, and has a decent detection rates, but lacks in heuristic scanning. AV-Comparitives gave it 2 star and it scored better overall as compared to Trend Micro, PC Tools, McAfee etc.

4. AVG Free Edition

AVG is a blend of anti-virus and anti-malware. It lack basic firewall but it is sufficient for a home/new users. It also has a link-scanner which keeps a check in any third party exploits to be used onto the system.Its interface is easy to use and virus definitions can easily be updated.
Though not a top-notch, but if you looking for something light, which can do almost all the jobs of protecting your system and which has clean interface with lots of feature, you should go for AVG Free Edition.

5. PC Tools

It’s an anti-virus with decent heuristics and good detection rate. Overall scores might not be mind-boggling and it scores a fifth spot primarily because of lack of alternatives. It still is new as a brand name in anti-viruses and has a lot of potential. If you are using a personal computer and not hooked up to Internet much, you can certainly go for this one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dash up Your WordPress Dashboard Interface

By
Do you have a multi-author blog ? Do you want to brand your WordPress dashboard with custom logo and unique interface? Then this post is for you only. In this article I am going to tell you how you can change the avatar of WordPress admin page with new style and add some cool features to it. Let’s start. Fluency WordPress Plugin Here is a WordPress plugin for you called Fluency with which you can customize your WordPress admin page according to your needs without any knowledge of PHP. Some top features of Fluency that I personally like are – Display your own custom logo at the top of the WP Menu once logged in : This is my favorite option, with this plugin you can also add your own logo on top of WordPress admin page. A good option if you’ve a multi author blog. Hot keys for menu/submenu access : Fluency provides you with features of hot keys with which you can easily open menu and submenu. Now, no need to take mouse to every menu, simply use the hot keys f...
1 comment
Read more

The Right Way to Clean Your Keyboard, Tablet and Smartphone

By
W e recently came across the list of the top most dirty objects in an average household, and surprisingly, it’s not the toilet seat. Some of the items that were ranked at the top of that list have definitely made us think twice before making a call or looking up updates on Facebook. The keyboard on which you typed to get to this page, or the touchscreen that you swipe on are some of the most bacteria-rich items in your household, so keeping these squeaky clean should be a top priority. While there are lots of methods and products for cleaning these items, most of us ignore this. How similar do you find this scenario: Your smartphone’s screen is really dirty, so you rub it on your shirt, or a piece of cloth that’s close by, or you remember that it’s been some time since you’ve cleaned your keyboard, so you turn it upside down and give it a few slaps. Most of us use this (or a very similar) technique and think “Now it’s clean!”, but the truth of the matter is that it’s j...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Tools to Customize Your Smartphone Beyond Cases and Covers

By
E xpressing one’s personality through the mobile device they’re using is becoming more of a trend these days. Getting the newest model, choosing the color that matches our way of being, buying a case to go with that and many other ways or customizing the exterior of a smartphone are pretty common among cellphone users. But simply changing the way it looks on the outside is often not enough, so why not customize it inside-out ? You probably know that you can change the ringtone, download or transfer a song you like to set it as a ringtone, change the wallpaper, make the phone ring in a different way for each person calling you and so on and so forth. Apart from doing this manually, there are also quite a few apps out there that can make it even easier for you to turn your smartphone into your baby. Background Pictures When it comes to the wallpaper that shows up the first time you unlock your phone, there are many ways to personalize it. You can simply browse throu...
6 comments
Read more