Best free antivirus - Avast Free Antivirus
Let's go alphabetical and start our look at third-party programs with Avast's Free Antivirus. Here the story is much more positive. Avast matches Windows Defender's decent performance result, and also fails to give any false positives. So far so solid.
But Avast offers much better protection than Windows Defender. Indeed, it offers great protection.
In tests Avast's Free Antivirus found 99 percent of all know threats, which is the industry average (including paid-for security products). More important is the way Avast deals with zero-day threats. In January it picked up 98 percent of unknown security threats, and in February 2013 100 percent, as opposed to an industry average of 95 percent. Kudos to Avast, to which AV-Test awards 5.5/6 for protection. That's good enough for us. We found Avast to be perfectly straightforward to use, so we'd gladly recommend this free software with 4.5 stars.
Best free antivirus - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
AVG is almost up there with Avast in terms of the all-important protection. In both January and February 2013 it detected 99 percent of the known threats thrown at it by AV-Test.org. That is the industry average. Critically, it picked up 98 percent and then 100 percent of unknown threats. Avast is just on top there, but AVG Anti-virus Free Edition's protection performance is excellent. AV-Test awards 5.5/6 for protection.
System performance better than that of Avast, however. AV-Test offers a decent score of 4.5/6, so if you have an underpowered PC this may be a good choice for you, given the protection score.
Finally, in terms of false positives AVG kicked up a handful over the two tests in January and February 2013, but nothing that would cause any concern. It's a great free product and we award 4 stars.
Best free antivirus - Check Point ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall
Check Point's ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall antivirus program is another of the big beasts of the free security world. System performance is good once again, and AV-Test offers a performance score of 4.5/6. Even more impressive is the usability score - only Windows Defender has fewer false positives on test than does ZoneAlarm Free. So ZoneAlarm won't slow down your PC or spam you with false positives.
But will it help to keep your PC safe? It will - perhaps not as well as AVG and definitely not as well as Avast, but ZoneAlarm offers good protection.
In AV-Test.org's January- and February 2013 tests ZoneAlarm found 99- and 100 percent of all known threats. Alas when dealing with zero-day threats it dug out only 91- and 93 percent of attacks. This is not terrible, but the industry average is 95 percent and AVG and Avast are both much better.
Good then, but not great. ZoneAlarm Free AntiVirus + Firewall is worth a look if you have a low-powered PC, but the protection offered elsewhere is better. We give it 3.5 stars.
Best free antivirus - Panda Security Cloud Antivirus FREE
One other free security program worth your consideration is Panda's Cloud Antivirus FREE. It's a good all rounder offering solid protection. In the January- and February 2013 tests it dealt with 100 percent of the known threats AV-Test pushed in its direction. It wasn't quite so good at dealing with zero-day threats, although it outperforms Windows Defender and ZoneAlarm, picking up 95 and 94 percent of threats over the two months. That's just about industry average.
Add to this an excellent usability score in which Panda failed to produce any false positives, and a decent performance score of 4/6 and you can see that Panda is a good free antivirus. We award 3 stars.
Let's go alphabetical and start our look at third-party programs with Avast's Free Antivirus. Here the story is much more positive. Avast matches Windows Defender's decent performance result, and also fails to give any false positives. So far so solid.
But Avast offers much better protection than Windows Defender. Indeed, it offers great protection.
In tests Avast's Free Antivirus found 99 percent of all know threats, which is the industry average (including paid-for security products). More important is the way Avast deals with zero-day threats. In January it picked up 98 percent of unknown security threats, and in February 2013 100 percent, as opposed to an industry average of 95 percent. Kudos to Avast, to which AV-Test awards 5.5/6 for protection. That's good enough for us. We found Avast to be perfectly straightforward to use, so we'd gladly recommend this free software with 4.5 stars.
Best free antivirus - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
AVG is almost up there with Avast in terms of the all-important protection. In both January and February 2013 it detected 99 percent of the known threats thrown at it by AV-Test.org. That is the industry average. Critically, it picked up 98 percent and then 100 percent of unknown threats. Avast is just on top there, but AVG Anti-virus Free Edition's protection performance is excellent. AV-Test awards 5.5/6 for protection.
System performance better than that of Avast, however. AV-Test offers a decent score of 4.5/6, so if you have an underpowered PC this may be a good choice for you, given the protection score.
Finally, in terms of false positives AVG kicked up a handful over the two tests in January and February 2013, but nothing that would cause any concern. It's a great free product and we award 4 stars.
Best free antivirus - Check Point ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall
Check Point's ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall antivirus program is another of the big beasts of the free security world. System performance is good once again, and AV-Test offers a performance score of 4.5/6. Even more impressive is the usability score - only Windows Defender has fewer false positives on test than does ZoneAlarm Free. So ZoneAlarm won't slow down your PC or spam you with false positives.
But will it help to keep your PC safe? It will - perhaps not as well as AVG and definitely not as well as Avast, but ZoneAlarm offers good protection.
In AV-Test.org's January- and February 2013 tests ZoneAlarm found 99- and 100 percent of all known threats. Alas when dealing with zero-day threats it dug out only 91- and 93 percent of attacks. This is not terrible, but the industry average is 95 percent and AVG and Avast are both much better.
Good then, but not great. ZoneAlarm Free AntiVirus + Firewall is worth a look if you have a low-powered PC, but the protection offered elsewhere is better. We give it 3.5 stars.
Best free antivirus - Panda Security Cloud Antivirus FREE
One other free security program worth your consideration is Panda's Cloud Antivirus FREE. It's a good all rounder offering solid protection. In the January- and February 2013 tests it dealt with 100 percent of the known threats AV-Test pushed in its direction. It wasn't quite so good at dealing with zero-day threats, although it outperforms Windows Defender and ZoneAlarm, picking up 95 and 94 percent of threats over the two months. That's just about industry average.
Add to this an excellent usability score in which Panda failed to produce any false positives, and a decent performance score of 4/6 and you can see that Panda is a good free antivirus. We award 3 stars.