What is the Best FREE Anti-Virus in My Opinion

No less than twice a week, i get a phone call from a fellow friend/family/colleague or simply a random person asking my advice on which anti virus to use for their laptop or desktop. Most of these people are on the look out for an antivirus because they have been severely infected and have had some data loss. That is the time when they realize the need to protect their computers with the right anti virus.

The Anti-Virus market has significantly increased over the last 10 years, especially after the arrival of Windows XP. Although Microsoft has taken many strides into bringing built in protection to Windows, they still fail to stop the Viruses completely. That is when Anti-Virus companies like Norton, Kaspersky and Eset started making money for their protection by selling yearly licenses to their softwares. But do you really need to pay for an Anti-Virus?? 2-3 years ago, i would have said yes, today, the answer isn't as straight forward as YES or NO anymore.

I am today going to focus on the answer NO (I don't need to pay for an Anti-Virus)

So what are the free alternatives to paid Anti-Virus software like Norton?

1. Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) My Recommendation

I have been testing Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) for almost 8 months now since it was in Beta testing phase. Now it is finally a complete product and best of all it is FREE. It is unusual for a giant like Microsoft to release a free application like that, but they have nevertheless done the impossible. I will not go into the details as to what is the core technology behind MSE, because i am trying to keep this article simple enough for even the most amateur computer user like my dad to be able to understand.

Interface

MSE has a very simplistic design, that even the most illiterate of computer user can navigate through. its just has 4 Tabs ; Home, Update, History and Settings.


Home : You can start a computer scan from this tab and ensure that your antivirus is running in optimal condition.

Update : Its where you update your Virus Definitions

History : Your scan and clean logs

Settings : Where you change default actions when a virus is detected.

If your Home tab is Green, then you are protected. If its Red, then you have to take the actions advised by MSE to get yourself protected.

Performance and Speed

Microsoft Security Essentials performed very well in the tests that i ran, almost 97% of the virus loaded on my flash disks i scanned were detected and deleted. Microsoft did a wonderful job in keeping the running size of MSE down to minimal. So having this Anti Virus installed on your computer will not slow it down.

Finally

You will require a genuine windows computer to be able to install MSE, you can download MSE from this Location (Download).

Remember to Update the virus definitions after installing MSE, because an antivirus is only useful when it has its definitions up to date.

2. AVG 9.0 (Free Edition)

AVG was my favorite free Anti Virus before MSE. And it still performs admirably when installed. AVG are available in 2 flavors, the free version and the paid version. So obviously the Free version are lacking some features that are only available to paying customers. Not to worry, even the free features available will suffice your need for basic protection on your computer.

Interface

The interface on AVG is a bit clunky with lots of icons on the page, although they are very useful ones, they really dont serve the purpose of being easy to use by an amateur.

You are good to go if all the icons are Green and have green check mark next to it.

Performance and Speed

AVG performs well considering its price , which is FREE, and AVG stopped 88% of virus i threw at it. As far as speed is concerned, AVG lacks in this field , with its usually being the anchor slowing down my booting process. But its better to be protected than not right.

Pros n Cons

An amazing feature that AVG has is its Link Scanner, which will alert you whenever you are about to visit and malicious site which will try to infect your computer. Bravo!

The Major con on this is that AVG keeps irritating me about upgrading to its Paid version every week with a small popup every now and then, this is what i dont like. Atleast MSE doesnt do that.

Finally

You can download AVG from this Location (Download)

It is free and can be installed on any computer.