Computer

Choosing the right free anti-virus

This post is part of the How To: Keep your computer clean and safe for free article, please read the full guide.

The most important tool in the fight against viruses if of course the anti virus, luckily for us nowadays we have quite a good variety of free anti viruses to choose from but I have tested them down to three.When it comes to an anti virus you have to be picky and know what to look for in them, like: How much memory does it use? What scanning options does it offer? Is the interface easy to use? How fast does it scan? Does it have daily updates? How good is it’s detection rate? not only that but How good is it’s removal rate?.

After trying 17 free anti viruses, I have ended up settling for these. All of them have passed the tests and answered the questions above correctly.

» avast! Home Edition: This is my personal favorite and top pick as primary anti virus,it has the best detection rate out of them all,very regular updates,customizable skins,6 different shields including email,p2p and instant messenger protection and it offers versions for 64 bit windows and Linux.

» Avira AntiVir PE: This anti virus has grown on me over the years, I have used it as my backup cause it seems to detect viruses and malware no other AV even notices.It has some limited features in regarding shields, thats why I recommend it as a secondary rather than primary AV.

» AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: AVG is a very over rated anti virus,having so much popularity it lacks shields,options,support. All that aside, it has an acceptable removal rate in what it detects,and updates frequently.

I suggest you choose Avast! or AVG as your primary anti virus,use AntiVir as your back up but don’t make the mistake of running both at the same time.You should deactivate the on guard protection of AntiVir and just keep it on your system for when you need a complete scan, open it every now and again to download the virus definitions to avoid accumulation of updates.

Continue on to Choosing the right free firewall > > >

Also Read:

• Best Of: Best Free Antivirus Software
• Avira AntiVir PE
• AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
• avast! Home Edition
• Featured: Dr.Web CureIt

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