Antivirus software provide an essential layer of protection from a multitude of virus, trojan and in some programs, spyware and rootkit threats. With the huge increase in malware, anti-viruses cannot fully keep up with all the viruses and other malware. This is why it’s so important to use a layered security setup. Using more than one real-time antivirus can cause conflicts and uses a lot of system resources, so I recommend you only choose one antivirus for real-time protection.
Avira AntiVir Personal Edition is my top pick if you’re looking for the best protection against viruses. It is very light on resources and the detection rate of viruses and rootkits is outstanding, however, there are some reservations. First, it does not include anti-spyware and anti-adware protection or e-mail scanning, they are only available in the paid version. The lack of an e-mail scanner means that AntiVir won’t warn you of infected emails before you open them. However, should you open an infected email, AntiVir will still spring into action, so it doesn’t mean that you’re not protected from email-based infections. Second, AntiVir’s updates are very slow, and occasionally stops updating due to server problems. Although AntiVir has advertisements that appear with every update, these ads can be disabled. Finally, AntiVir has a time-limited license. It is renewable, but be aware that you’ll have to periodically go through the hoops. You can also disable AntiVir’s splash screen if you wish, as some people find it intrusive. Neither Avast or AVG is as effective in detection of viruses as AntiVir, but both are more complete products.
Avast! Home Edition is an excellent product for average users, in particular those who do not have a real-time antispyware product. Although its funky media player style interface is not to everyone’s taste, skins can be downloaded for free, such as the MacLover OS X skin. Avast is the least restricted product out of the three, with both anti-rootkit and anti-spyware capabilities. It also has full real-time capabilities, including web, e-mail, IM, P2P and network shields. Avast is very stable, fairly light on resources, and is also the only product out of these three to continue support for older Windows platforms. However, Avast has a relatively high rate of false postives. It also requires periodic re-registration, whereas AVG Free does not. The shareware version adds various features but nothing of significant importance.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition has been continuously refined since it was initially released in 1991. The latest version makes further improvements to an already solid product. It now includes spyware, phishing, and email scam protection. Its detection rate is still very good. Regular automatic updates come quickly as before and, despite rumors, the new email scanning feature is not trial limited to 30 days. However, it has grown considerably in size, is heavy on resources and has very slow scan speeds. AVG also has advertisements, but they can be disabled. Free and paid versions are available; the differences are that the free version has anti-rootkit disabled, provides Linkscanner Lite instead of Linkscanner Pro and has no technical support other than a free user forum.
These are excellent free antivirus that provide a real alternative to the major antivirus software.
You can increase your protection if you run on demand scans with another antivirus. On demand scans can be run regularly to check for viruses and other malware that may have been missed by your main scanner. If you have a good preventive security strategy in place, however, the extra protection this offers is minimal.
Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is an excellent on demand scanner, with good detection rates and strong removal capabilities. However, it requires you to download the whole file again if you want to update it. Also, bear in mind that the detection won’t be as good as the current Kaspersky products, which has a newer engine.
Another option is a-squared Free, which started off as an anti-trojan but has recently included the Ikarus antivirus engine. The detection rate is outstanding, however, it is riddled with false positives. A-squared also provides context-menu scanning.
Dr.Web CureIt! is also a good choice as an on demand scanner. It is a portable application and has strong removal capabilities. However, it suffers from the same flaw as the Kaspersky AVP Tools – it cannot be updated without downloading the whole file again. Also, Dr.Web has not been scoring that well in recent tests. Nevertheless, it is still a good choice as a portable on-demand scanner.
Source: TechSupportAlert
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