Free Antivirus Software

There are quality antivirus programs that are free. It's just a matter of knowing where to find it, downloading it and installing it. We have here a review of 7 of the leading and popular free antivirus software that can be downloaded online.

The free version of AVG Anti-Virus is awarded the number one downloaded program on CNET's Download.com. That alone should be recommendation enough for you to stop reading this right now and going there to download and install it. Thanks for coming!

a-squared removes infections of Trojans, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Keyloggers, Rootkits, Dialers and other malicious programs.

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Your virus protection should be kept active all the time to prevent threats from the internet or email sneaking on to your system.

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Avira AntiVir boasts more than 30 million users worldwide and have also picked up several awards. Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic reliably protects your private computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans, costly dialers and detects and deletes rootkits.

The product combines first-class detection rates and ease of use with a top performance that protects your computer safely and hardly burdens older PCs.

Avira AntiVir can be used in Safe Mode, which is handy for cleaning a system that is unable to boot into Windows.

Download Avira AntiVir.

ClamWin is a free antivirus program for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP. It's not only free it's Open Source. Which means programming geeks are allowed to look and even play with the code.

The program features: High detection rates for viruses and spyware; Scanning Scheduler; Automatic downloads from the regularly updated Virus Database.

It's not an on-access real-time scanner, which means you will need to manually scan a file in order to detect a virus or spyware.

Download ClamWin.

BitDefender Free Edition uses the same ICSA Labs certified scanning engines found in other BitDefender products, allowing you to enjoy basic virus protection for no cost at all.

The Home Edition of Avast is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use.

Comodo AntiVirus will eliminate Viruses, Worms and Trojans from Windows XP and Windows 2000 PC's.

When you first contract a computer virus (and pretty much every one after that) you will have an overwhelming urge to strangle the virus writer if you ever in the position of having the pleasure of meeting him (or her, but I'm guessing it's some young kid of the male side of the human species).

Unfortunately cyber threats such as hacker attacks, worms, trojans and viruses are now a part of daily life.

Unprotected computers on the Internet are vulnerable and can virus infection can result in a costly waste of time and money.

Antivirus software is a program that attempts to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software from your computer.

Most modern antivirus software are now designed to combat a wide range of threats such as worms, phishing attacks, rootkits, trojan horses and other malware.

It's important that you install and enable an antivirus that can connect to its developers server to automatically download and install the latest patches, fixes and updates in order to prevent the latest threats.

As well as the computer system some anti-virus programs are able to scan files after you've double clicked to open and emails that are both outgoing and incoming can be scanned as well.

Once a computer has been compromised by a virus, it is usually unsafe to continue using the same computer without completely reinstalling the operating system. However, there are a number of recovery options that exist after a computer has a virus. These actions depend on severity of the type of Virus.

An alternative to Virus prevention and virus removal is to reformat the drive and reinstall the operating system if you are infected.

The downside being that you have to reinstall all your other installed software and you need to keep constant and current back ups of all your data.

Considering the time and effort involved an antivirus seems like an easier option!

• Virus News: Kaspersky, the makers of Kaspersky Anti-Virus, have a news section on their website that is kept up to date with current cyber threats. From basic definitions to thorough analysis. And once a month they publish the top 20 viruses in terms of impact on computer users.
• A-Z Listing of Threats & Risks: Listed alphabetically and like a spread sheet also comes with information such as Severity, Type (eg: Virus, Worm, Macro, Misleading Application, Adware, Trojan Horse) and the date that it was first discovered. You can click through on the name of the threat and find out more information such as a Summary and also the Technical Details.
• Malicious Programs Descriptions: All Malicious programs are designed to infect and damage your machine and they can be divided into the following groups: worms, viruses, Trojans, hacker utilities and other malware. This page gives a succinct but informative run down of what they are, what they do and how they're caught.
• McAfee's Blog: Avert Labs are the creators of McAfee Anti-Virus as well as other excellent products which come under the same brand. They have a blog. So if you want to get your geek on, then this is one such place to do it.
• Symantec Virus Removal Tools: Leading antivirus vendor Symantec offers a wide range of free cleaning tools for individual malware removal.
• McAfee AVERT Stinger: The McAfee AVERT Stinger is designed to find and eradicate thirty different infections, including SoBig, Blaster, Klez and BugBear. The download is a simple self-extracting, self-installing file used to scan and remove these known, high-profile threats. It is not a cure-all for every virus, nor does it prevent infection (is NOT a substitute for full anti-virus protection), but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. At less than a meg in size it is handy to have on hand for a quick fix if you or a friend is in trouble.

If you know someone in need of decent virus protection, copy and paste the following and email it to them...

This link http://hubpages.com/_flagship/hub/free-antivirus-software will take you to a page that has reviews and download links for 7 of the best free Anti-Virus programs.