Microsoft Windows - The best "free" antivirus - reviewed are Avast! antivirus, Avira antivirus and AVG antivirus
By hnyaji
The Best "Free" Antivirus
attributionName - Hemanth Yaji - Copyrighted under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & amp; Wales License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk
[last modified on 19 May 2009]
I would identify in this article, the best free antivirus for Microsoft Windows. The antivirus makers might include an antispyware engine built into an antivirus product. The best free antivirus should have all the features of a virus removal engine with antispyware. I have been using computers since 1998 and since then I have tried out almost all of the full versions of the antivirus software. I have a Masters degree in Electronics Engineering and now I am doing a PhD on Computer Science. With my knowledge, I would say that there are only a few very good antivirus products with a built in antispyware available on the Internet. They are Avast! Home Edition, Avira Antivirus Personal Free Edition and AVG Antivirus Free. All of these are completely free and never expire with time. These have the ability to scan in real time, always take very low memory to run and very fast. All the latest versions of these antivirus are certified by ICSA, W.C.L. and VB 100. The ICSA and W.C.L. certify the effective functionality and performance of the anti-virus. If the antivirus is able to identify all the virus in the wild, it is awarded a VB 100 certificate.
Avira Antivirus Personal Free Edition and AVG Antivirus Free do not scan the websites prior to downloading its contents on to the computer cache. This makes the computer exposed to risks in the websites such as the java scripts. Unfortunately an antivirus engine without a web scanner is unable to scan the java scripts, if they are run without being downloaded on to the computer cache and keeps the system exposed to an infection. These java scripts could change the system settings and the registry settings. Thus causing unexpected system behaviour such as a slowed system boot up and system hang-ups.
However Avast! Home Edition does have a web scanner. This free edition of Avast! has almost all features of the fully paid version. The important feature that is absent in this free edition is the scheduled scanner. But if any need arrives, a computer could be scanned manually and a scheduled scanner is absolutely not needed. In order to keep this article simple, and to the point of indentifying an excellent free antivirus, further explanation on Avast! Home Edition is not provided here. If you are interested to know further on this highly efficient antivirus, please feel free to have a look at the following link.
http://download645.avast.com/files/manuals/user-manual-home-eng.pdf
[download size - 1.4 MB]
The images attached are of the latest version of the above mentioned antivirus, at the time of writing.
The version details follow.
1. Avast! Home Edition - version 4.8
2. Avira Antivirus
Personal Free Edition -version 9
3. AVG Antivirus Free - version 8.5
Enjoy safe browsing!
Yaji
Screenshots
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Comments
Another good anti-virus software I have is a browser5 called Mozilla Firefox. Before when I was just using my internet explorer, I got so many virus in my computer! But after I downloaded the mozilla firefox, I stopped getting them and had a much safer experience. In case you do not know. Its good to keep up with whats good for our computers!
Hi Sciantel
I agree that Firefox is definitely better than Internet Explorer in terms of security. However, Internet is not the only way to spread the virus. The malware in the past used to spread through floppy disks. The age of floppy disks is gone long ago! Now the flash pen drives spread the malware. If you use them anywhere, other than your personal computer, you could infect your system, if you don't use an up-to-date antivirus with "all" the essentials it needs! Network sharing could also cause infection.
I have recently switched to Avast and have had no problems so far. Thanks for the great article.
Avast! provides antivirus for U3 drives as well, and I have a copy of it as well. Since I used to plug my SanDisk Cruzer into many boxes, avast! U3 shield is definitely a nice thing to have. Probably some day will write a hub about it.
Hi Charlemont, what you have said could confuse others. Let me please explain this further.
U3 are the next generation of USB drives. There is no need to worry about them because "any" real-time (resident) antivirus would scan the files on them, on access.
Avast! U3 shield is a "mobile" antivirus that is to be installed "on" the U3 drives.
I was using AVG but now using Avast I have problem with its updates...will try ...others
I like technical hubs nice thanks..
Hi Apeksha
Only these 3 are very good free antivirus.
You could ask here for help.
I use AVG. It cuts out most of the crap. :)
wrote a long comment and some small glitch while posting shredded it..
Well ...advise all to use latest Avast and keep updating it...its the best of all these 3 (though there is not much difference)
I am a PC expert too, software and hardware and using No live AV on my still young Intel 1Ghz box from last 6 yrs which i bought in 1994 (lol ...still young :P )....
and i tell u ..i use and do hell lot of scary stuff with high chances of infection from malware and trojans and stuff... i m not kidding.. I will be writing an hub if time permit.. to tell u actually what perspective is there about AV in hackers and crackers and that world... then u all will be quite laughing at yourself.
Till then..kindly think about my advise..Regards :)
Hi freelanceworld
yes, easy to explain too! cracks such as key finder and registry patch are identified as virus by an AV!
Very valuable information just wanted to let you know that in the capsule on the top there are 2 links one is for linking and one is for un-linking use those to create your links to other sites and my recommendation is to edit this hub add the link so that others can move through your site to the one you are discussing. Just a little advice.:)
Hi AEvans
thanks for your suggestion. I gave the link because, the readers could see the download location. Here in this case, they would know that the download location is avast.
gr8 info
Hi apeksha, you could try out avast skins that are really very good.
kaspersky is world no 1 antivirus software
i think Avira Home Edition is way better thatn AVAST Home Edition. Avast didnt pick up the win32 virus while avira did..
I was an user of AVG but now i'm using Kaspersky.... AVG updates are too big...
Thank for presenting this nice hub...... http://hubpages.com/hub/Download-2009s-top-20-best
Very useful hub. This has lot of experience behind it. Thanks. By the bye, why are not writing more. Olease write some useful articles .Good Luck
I like Avast more but used AVG and both are almos equal. I also like a lot the upgrade Alwil made to Avast. Nice User Interface.
Very Nice Hub, Kee it up.
Thank you for writing a useful hub. I have restored my computer back to factory condition a few times, which is really helpful. I will look forward to reading some more helpful hints.
stevemark122000 3 years ago
Nice hub! Avast! Home Edition and AVG Antivirus Free are both excellent programs. I've used them both with great success.