1. Kaspersky - 99.62%

2. Active Virus Shield by AOL - 99.62%

3. F-Secure - 96.86%

4. BitDefender Professional - 96.63%

5. CyberScrub - 95.98%

6. eScan - 95.82%

7. BitDefender freeware - 95.57%

8. BullGuard - 95.57%

9. AntiVir Premium - 95.45%

10. Nod32 - 95.14%

11. AntiVir Classic - 94.26%

12. ViruScape - 93.87%

13. McAfee - 93.03%

14. McAfee Enterprise - 91.76%

15. F-Prot - 87.88%

16. Avast Professional - 87.46%

17. Avast freeware - 87.46%

18. Dr. Web - 86.03%

19. Norman - 85.65%

20. F-Prot - 85.14%

21. ArcaVir - 83.44%

22. Norton Professional - 83.18%

23. AVG Professional - 82.82%

24. AVG freeware - 82.82%

25. Panda - 82.23%

Above are the results of independent testing that was carried out across a variety of antivirus software packages. The test consisted of setting up computers and attacking them with a set of viruses, malware and other items.

Some viruses were created for the specific purpose of testing these pacakges to see if the anti virus software employed smart technology that could identify viruses even when they are unknown to the software. This smart technology looks at behaviours that antiviruses, bots, malware and spyware exhibit and based on these traits are able to identify potential threats.

The percentages next to the programs are the number of threats identified as a percentage of all threats tested.

You can get a free antivirus download or if you require complete service and support you can opt for a paid version. With paid versions you will recieve access to support services, regular system updates and additional features.

Many companies offer a free antivirus download that will give you the access to certain basic features. In some cases the freeware antuivirus package can offer similar basic protection.