Top 5 Free Anti-Virus Software Programs Free

I recently received a request asking me to look for the best, free anti-virus programs available on the internet.  In my searching, I found lots of promising anti-virus solutions but these top five definitely took the cake.

The List

1.       Avira AntiVir Personal

Avira AntiVir is considered to be one of the best anti-virus programs available (free or not).  Avira protects against viruses, worms, spyware, adware and other types of malicious malware.    Avira has a very simple set-up and interface making it ideal for novices.  You will need to complete a configuration upon installation but it’s not that big of a deal. One thing that I disliked was the ads that were displayed after a scan I completed. Even though the ads did not compromise anything, it still takes away from the program’s convenience.  

2.       AVG Anti-Virus Free

AVG Anti-Virus  is one of the most popular anti-virus solutions around.  AVG makes this list because of the simplicity of it.  This program is incredibly easy to use, making it a great choice for first time PC owners.  I have been using AVG for about a year now and in my opinion, AVG lacks the detection rates of Avira AntiVir.  AVG beats Avira in simplicity but Avira takes the cake for all around protection.

3.       Avast! Free AntiVirus

Avast has been added to my top 5 list of the best free anti-virus software for good reason.  Avast provides great protection in that it is capable of detecting viruses and other malware that other programs might not have been able to detect.  I have personally seen Avast detect several problems in which AVG or Avira did not.  Avast has been around since 1988 and has been deemed “the most installed anti-virus software”.  It’s obviously doing something right.

4.       Panda Cloud Anti-Virus

Panda Cloud Anti-Virus is a “cloud based” anti-virus software. that protect your computer from many different forms of malware such as viruses, spyware, keyloggers, and more.  One of my favorite features of Panda’s is it’s ability to run alongside of other anti-virus programs such as Avira or AVG, increasing your overall protection.  Here’s how cloud protection works.  Panda runs on it’s own anti-virus network called “the cloud”.  The cloud monitors it’s users and builds it’s malware database from all of them instead of just your own.  When the cloud detects any type of malware on any one of it’s user’s computers, it destroys it and protects everyone on it’s network from it.  This means that the only way to really get infected by a virus, would be to come across something that “the cloud” has not encountered yet, which becomes more and more unlikely due to the increasing user database.  Panda is also 35 times lighter than traditional anti-virus software meaning your PC will run much faster.

5.       Comodo AntiVirus

Comodo Anti-Virus has been deemed almost 100% effective because of it’s unique defense which automatically assumes that unknown files are potential threats.  Do not confuse this with false positives.  Comodo anti-virus actually has a very low false positive rate.  In short, Comodo provides some of the best protection available on the internet today.  And it’s completely free.

       Freeware that came close to making the list

·         Immunet Protect Free

·         Microsoft Security Essentials

This concludes my top 5 anti-virus freeware.  I hope this helped at least one person.  “Dueses”