Free Anti-Virus Software
In this section you'll find reviews of the Internet's best free antivirus software. We recommend that all computers have some form of virus protection, whether that's a freeware or commercial solution. Viruses can wreak havoc on your system and those who neglect to secure their computers with suitable software find themselves wishing they had, but only when it's too late. With this in mind, you'll be pleased to hear that you don't necessarily have to pay for antivirus software. The antivirus programs we review below are all completely free and provide effective protection against viruses, trojans and in some cases, even spyware. You may also be interested in our Free Security Software section, which features anti-spyware, free firewalls, file shredders and more. If you happen to stumble across an outdated link, we'd very much appreciate it if you could report it.
AVG Free Anti-Virus - An excellent program that's perfect for guarding your computer against viruses and other harmful files that can be acquired from removable disks or via the Internet. AVG is very complete for a freeware program and additionally to the "Resident Shield", which offers real-time virus protection, AVG also provides an e-mail mailbox scanner and a task/update scheduler. Free and regular virus definition updates are provided.
> A commercial version with additional features is also available.
Sophos Klingon Anti-Virus - Do you speak Klingon? If you do, you're in luck. Sophos (a world leader in anti-virus research and technology) has created a free Klingon language virus scanner, which is highly capable at locating and cleaning general viruses, trojans, worms, and other malware. The program can function in tandem with your existing anti-virus software to add an extra layer of protection.
ThreatFire - This program claims to provide "up to 243% more protection" when running in tandem with traditional anti-virus software. ThreatFire is free, lightweight, fast and can improve the security of your PC by a considerable margin. The patent-pending "ActiveDefense" technology used by ThreatFire keeps a watchful eye for threats that have not even been officially classified by the major anti-virus research organisations.
My Free Antivirus - This freeware antivirus program is ideal as an alternative to more popular software, such as AVG. It offers protection against generic viruses, trojans, worms, and other Internet nasties. The program is easy to use, regularly updated to cope with the latest threats, and compatible with Windows Vista.
PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition - The free edition of PC Tools AntiVirus is a user-friendly, feature-rich and highly capable antivirus program. Once activated, it guards your PC and begins looking for threats, such as trojans, worms, etc. You can also run a full system scan whenever you feel the need. Any viruses on your system will then be quarantined, disinfected or removed at the click of a button. Regular and free virus pattern updates are included so your system will be able to deal with the latest threats.
> The program includes "Email Guard", which checks incoming e-mail messages for viruses and then takes the necessary steps to prevent the files from compromising your system.
AVDisk - The Anti-Virus Disk Program is a handy application that will create a disk for cleaning your boot sector, scanning files and disinfecting your computer. Features of AVDisk also include automatic RAM drive mounting and software decompression, adjustable keyboard layouts for several countries, basic usage help files and the ability to span the software across many other disks.
Avira AntiVir Personal Edition - This version of Avira AntiVir is one of the best freeware anti-virus programs we've seen and offers effective protection against almost all computer viruses on the stand alone PC. This version detects over 50,000 different types of virus (macro, etc.), and can scan or repair viruses quickly. AntiVir is made in Germany and is freely available utility to people using it non-commercially. They also provide free and regular updates.
Avast 4 Home Edition - A reliable free anti-virus program for non-commercial (home) use. Avast is excellent at detecting and dealing with harmful viruses. The program provides a simple interface, e-mail mailbox scanner and resident protection shield. It also provides P2P (peer to peer) program and instant messenger shields. Free, automatic updates are provided as and when new virus threats are discovered.
BitDefender Free Edition - This program is an intelligent anti-virus freeware utility, providing lots of useful features, such as entire system scanning, "on demand" file scanning (e.g. scanning one particular file), the ability to isolate dubious files in "quarantine", live updates to keep your system secure, a task scheduler and an interface that can be "skinned". BitDefender can also be easily configured to output reports on your system scanning activities.