You want security software that’s as close to perfect as possible. After all, if just a single piece of malware slips through your defenses, it can wreak havoc on your PC. The question is, how close to perfect is free antivirus software?
According to our testing, some free antivirus programs do an admirable job of detecting, blocking, and removing malware, but others don’t have what it takes to protect you.
For this roundup, we once again teamed up with AV-Test, a well-respected antivirus-software testing lab, to put nine free antivirus programs through their paces. Applying a rigorous battery of tests, AV-Test evaluated all of the packages to see how well each one can withstand both brand-new malware and older baddies, and how well each can clean up a malware mess. In addition, AV-Test performed a number of system-speed tests to determine how much each program will drag down a PC’s performance. Finally, after installing the programs, we evaluated how easy each one is to use.
What Do You Get for Free?
The biggest drawback to going free: Your support options are generally limited. Most free programs offer a message board where users can discuss problems, but these boards don’t provide professional support. You can find exceptions, however. Comodo, for example, includes a version of its GeekBuddy software, which lets you work with a Comodo technician to fix issues you encounter.
Which Package Is for You?
If you’re looking for something that can serve as a supplement to your current antivirus software, we review three possibilities; of those three, PC Tools Threatfire is a good option: It was the best all-around at stopping brand-new malware attacks in our testing. Threatfire relies solely on what’s called behavioral analysis—how programs behave on your PC—to identify malware, whereas most traditional antivirus apps use either malware definition files or a combination of technologies to stop threats. Since Threatfire is primarily intended to stop malware before the invader causes a problem, you should be sure to install it on a clean PC.
The reviews here appear in order of scoring.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
In our real-world malware detection tests, which evaluate how well an antivirus package will block brand-new threats, AVG’s freebie blocked 85.7 percent of the samples, tying for the best result among the programs we tested. It detected 98.7 percent of the more than 129,000 samples of malware from the past four months in our malware “zoo” test. That’s a good score, although a bit short of the best results we’ve seen.
AVG was at the top of its class in disabling active malware infections: On our test PC, it detected and disabled all malicious software, and removed all traces of malware two-thirds of the time.
AVG also scans a PC relatively quickly. When we directed it to check 4.5GB of data, it sped through the job in 1 minute, 35 seconds, the third-fastest time in this test and only 4 seconds slower than the fastest. Its on-access scanner—which runs when you open or save a file—took 4 minutes, 55 seconds to go through the same amount of data, about average for the programs we looked at.
I like AVG’s main interface, though its advanced settings could intimidate some users. Apart from that caveat, if you’re looking for solid, fast PC protection, look no further than AVG.
Avast Free Antivirus
Avast’s defenses were weakest at blocking new real-world threats: It caught just 78.6 percent of them—not outstanding, but slightly above average. Avast did far better at stopping well-known malware, detecting 99.1 percent of samples in our zoo test—a very good showing. This package cleans up malware infections effectively, as well. It detected all the malware residing on our test PC, and disarmed the invaders 93 percent of the time, tying for second-best in this test. The utility also removed all traces of infections two-thirds of the time.
The Avast offering won’t slow your PC down much. It completed the on-demand scan test in 1 minute, 34 seconds, for second-best in the group; and it finished the on-access test in 4 minutes, 16 seconds, good enough for third-best.
Avast’s interface has a lot going on—advanced users will find many settings to toggle. Despite this complexity, it is nevertheless friendly enough that it shouldn’t scare away less-geeky users.
Panda Cloud Antivirus
Panda blocked 85.7 percent of new malware, the same score as AVG. And the Panda freebie outperformed AVG in the malware zoo test by detecting 99.94 percent of the samples.
Panda did only a so-so job at cleaning up infections. It detected all active infections on our test system, and disabled 87 percent of them, about average on this test. It completely removed infections 60 percent of the time, also about average.
Panda’s program was far from speedy in some tests. It slowed the copying of files over the network considerably, and its scan speeds were among the slowest we saw: It completed the on-demand test in 6 minutes, 10 seconds, and in the on-access scan test it took 7 minutes, 25 seconds.
If you value simplicity over speed, however, Panda Cloud Antivirus, given its success in detecting malware, makes a good choice.
Avira Free Antivirus
Avira blocked 70.4 percent of the samples of new viruses in our real-world test, slightly worse than average for the tools we tested. It also lags in disinfection: Though it found all active malware infections on our test system, it disabled only 80 percent of them, another worse-than-average showing.
I’m not a big fan of Avira’s interface. Its overview panel is better than in previous versions, but the interface remains too technical in places. Also, I noticed that Avira occasionally displays ads.
Avira’s results weren’t all bad, however. It detected 99.7 percent of known malware samples in our zoo test, and it was one of only two free antivirus programs we tested that didn’t mistakenly label legitimate files as possible malware. Its on-demand scan time of 1 minute, 31 seconds was the best in our testing, and its on-access scan time of 4 minutes, 54 seconds was respectable.
Using Avira will by no means leave your PC completely open to malware, but you should consider the higher-scoring AVG, Avast, or Panda first.
(source: pcworld.com)
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