Anti-virus programs are pretty much an essential component of every Windows PC these days.
Unless you logged out of Prodigy and went to sleep for the last 20 years, you are more than likely aware of just how prevalent, and how dangerous computer viruses can be. On the low end they can be annoying either flashing a silly message or slowing your computer down. On the high side, they could completely destroy your system and its data, or open holes for identity thieves and hackers.
Surfing online without an updated anti-virus program is like crossing the Grand Canyon on a tight rope. It’s not a matter of if you’re going to run into to trouble, it’s a matter of when.
Non-windows computers are certainly not immune from viruses, but Windows PCs are by far the most targeted attack surface out there.
Anti-virus programs have been around for as long as there have been viruses, and the old joke is that the anti-virus companies make half the viruses to keep themselves in business. That usually stems from the fact that shortly after a virus is discovered, the anti-virus companies have an update to their detection algorithms (thankfully) to keep viruses from spreading like wildfire.
Having said that, it goes with out saying that an anti-virus product is only as good as it’s last update. Regardless of the Anti-Virus program you use, keep it updated!
Here are our Top 7 favorite anti-virus programs (in no particular order).
- AVG Anti-Virus – This long time favorite has undergone a facelift in it’s most recent version, and it looks much more polished and ready for prime-time. It’s virus-detection ability is as good as any we’ve seen (in our unofficial, un-scientific testing) and best of all, it’s free for personal use.
- McAfee – McAfee has a robust suite of protection tools that help keep your PC virus and malware free. In our tests there products seem to have a slightly noticeable impact on performance, but overall they have solid products that range from personal use to enterprise-level protection.
- Norton Anti-Virus – Symantec’s Norton Antivirus have been another long time favorite that has gotten increasingly heavy over the years. From our (again unofficial) testing, it always seems to slow our systems down. Not to the point of being unusable, but slower nonetheless.
- Trend Micro - A long time contender in the AV space, Trend’s latest version is a solid product with good scanning capability and frequent updates. We did notice some system slowdown at times, but due to the nature of virus scanning, it’s understood that some performance degradation is unavoidable.
- BitDefender Internet Security – BitDefender has a solid anti-virus product that is easy to use, looks good, and plays well with others (the gamer mode keeps popups and warnings from interrupting you while your running wild through the streets of GTA)
- Kapersky – Another solid play in the AntiVirus space, Kapersky has gone through some facelifts and design upgrades over the years as well. Their newest version has an improved interface and works well.
- Panda Anti-Virus (Panda Security) – A decent AV product that has fewer features than some of the others, but can also be less confusing to the less technically inclined. It’s easy to setup, has automatic updates and provides good AV protection for your home PC.
New Editions to Our List
Due to the massive response from our readers, we’re adding two additional antivirus products to our list. Thank You for your responses, and letting us (and everyone else) know what works for you.
NOD32 (ESET) – We received a large number of e-mails and comments regarding NOD32, and what a great job it does for the people who responded. So we’re adding this to our list, and we’ll be certain to include it in future posts on this topic.
AVAST! - One that actually was on our larger list initially before we pared it down to 7, AVAST! antivirus is another perennial favorite for both home and business users. AVAST also has a free version available for non-commercial use.
ICSA Compliant Protection
All the antivirus packages mentioned above are fully ICSA compliant and will provide you with solid protection against viruses and malware.
It really comes down to features, personal preference, and performance tolerance.
We’ve mentioned our favorites, what antivirus products do you like best?
May 29th, 2008 at 8:20 am
yes those are good but, let’s also keep it on stability in wich they suck, norton will eat your ram, panda will play with scripts on your pc and make it malfunction, mcafee is a pain on the rear end when surfing the web [you have to setr it up or it wont open up some sites or email]
unless you’ve tried them and know what you talking about the best are
AVG, kapersky and NOD32
May 29th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Interesting… The software I use, and that which has long been recommended by most people I know, NOD32 is not on the list.
-Adam
May 29th, 2008 at 9:59 am
The article doesn’t mention F-Secure.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I haven’t used NOD32 before, and I haven’t had the opportunity to use F-Secure in years, but that’s the reason for the list. We want to hear back from everyone what their favorites are, which ones they hate. We’ll take a good look at the ones people recommend and be sure to include them when we issue an updated list.
May 29th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I have deemed AVG the killer of laptop harddrives, and have since moved to Avast and my on-24hours-a-week-7-day-a-week laptop has not had a harddrive failure in 4 years, which was the last time i replaced it.
Avast is a wondeful program and should def be on there
May 29th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I vote for Avira, the best Free antivirus better than AVG.
May 29th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Avast is better than AVG and also free.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Avast is the best antivirus program I have ever used. It is free too.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Ubuntu is my antivirus ^_^
May 30th, 2008 at 1:57 am
Avira AntiVir should be on this list. If you havent try it give it a go. It is really great.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Hmm, I am also on the list of people who love NOD32 but was surprised to not see it listed here.
NOD32 > NAV. No doubt about it.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:31 am
isn’t avg a trial now? cause i keep getting this lame notice every once in awhile for an upgrade and the site also confirms this message.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:50 am
what a terrible review.
as has been stated, why is nod32 and avast and fsecure not on there?
yet the bloatware that is mcaffe/norton is, yet another review not based on the technical ability of products.
May 30th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Avast! Anti-virus, even though there’s a free home edition is far superior than any other anti-virus out there…
I’ve tested all these others and none of them live up to Avast!
What’s great about avast? It uses a fraction of the resources, and offers boot-time scanning. NONE of the above offer boot-time scanning.
May 30th, 2008 at 7:11 am
@nauralzen Ubuntu still uses a security application, it’s called AppArmor.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:35 am
We’ve updated our list to include NOD32 and AVAST due to the feedback we’ve received. Thanks for the comments!
May 30th, 2008 at 10:37 am
You’re right.. we’ve added NOD32 and AVAST, thanks for the comments!
May 31st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
NOD32 truly is the best anti-virus program out there and I don’t know how some of the others made your list.
Ross
- http://www.hostdisciple.com
June 4th, 2008 at 10:10 am
[...] post last week provided a list of the top 7 anti-virus software programs. From that list, AVG is our long time favorite. AVG Free is easy to use and is not a space hog so [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
avast is my favourite.
i tried AVG and iam not satisfied by its performance
June 13th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Avira Antivir should be on the list. It’s the best Antivirus that iv’e used (Iv’e used all the AntiVirus listed above) Avira doesn’t slow your computer down at all like some of the others mentioned above. The scan system is very thorough and the scan is extremly fast aswell as updates 2 /3 times a day.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:42 am
what about Zone Alarm?? is it good……
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Hy
July 1st, 2008 at 10:16 am
All of those listed must be great anti-virus programs but Mcafee haven’t failed me yet.It may slow down some of my applications but when it comes to the net.Well slowly but securely i have to say.Thanks for the chance to say this.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
kaspersky the best!
July 10th, 2008 at 3:13 am
all of you anti virus are useless.. please try kaspersky.. its good
July 12th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
excellent list. even though my favorite is McAfee, the others are very competitive. Among the free ones I consider AVG is the best, however, it will really depend on the user needs. Myself: I stop using it last week because is kind of ineffective against worms and trojan horses; NOD32 worked better for me in regards to an issue I had related with this matter.
Thanks for letting me share this opinion!
July 15th, 2008 at 7:08 am
To my mind, avast has a most user-friendly interface out of all free antivirus programs, and its updates are absolutely silent. Some PC users insist that it has a poor detection rate, but AV comparatives lists avast! over Norton, so there must be a sound reason behind that. Since version 4.8 avast! claims to have anti-spyware protection included as well. I personally know a home user who switched from ESET (paid) to avast! (free), and not because NOD’s subscription expired.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Hi Charlemont, thanks for the comment! I would agree with you that Avast is a great product, especially considering it’s free. I’ve been using it for awhile now, and have had zero problems.
I also checked out your PC Security site, and you’ve got a great run-down on PC security and the various components that make up a good approach to PC security. Keep up the great work!
July 19th, 2008 at 12:11 am
I Have a mac and have never had a problem with viruses. My work computer, Windows XP is attached by a virus regularly. Go with the Mac it is virtually Virus Proof
July 30th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
WARNIG! Symantec’s “Norton Oline Antivirus “2008″ (OEM)does “NOT” play with others well… Others like Windows Xp- with “sp3″…
Hey, just my opinion-check it out your self, just google it =)
August 26th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
try the bit defender internet security suite 2008 its a complete packages free trial with in 30 days
September 5th, 2008 at 3:43 am
norton anti virus and mcaffe are the only best i have both
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
its a cool picture and also a load of ballsrn
October 10th, 2008 at 9:44 am
its a cool picture and also a load of balls
November 4th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
yeah, norton 360 rocks, i’m using it on all of my computers @home.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Speaking from personal experience, I’m surprised that McAfee made the list, but Avast! didn’t. I’ve seen systems that McAfee said were clean have a significant number of viruses on them that Avast! picked up on without any hesitation. I’ve recommended it to some of my friends with identical results, so I guess the message here is that you don’t always get what you pay for, and that free is sometimes better.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:00 am
I am the first to say that MCAFEE is the best to use. I have used MCAFEE for a long time. I haven’t had a problem with it yet. This isn’t to discredit the other programs. I have experienced AVG and Avast U3. They are excellent anti-virus programs. I just prefer MCAFEE because this anti-virus program has kept my computer clean of unwanted and malicious software.
December 24th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I don’t know how someone can recommend Norton. I tried it several times ver the years and I always had problems (and everyone I know). It slows down the PC, it blocks other programs from functioning, it blocks Internet connections… McAfee seems to be better, but I still wouldn’t buy it.
I personally use AVG, and I like Avast too. If I had to pay for a program, I would use Kaspersky.
January 12th, 2009 at 3:50 am
nod32 and kaspersky is the best
March 17th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
i use shield deluxe 2008 and its great ive used mcafee,avg,and kaspersky and i would have to say that shield deluxe is far better then any of those programs.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
have you ever heard of the Norton 360 3.0 guys? tunes your computer up, backs your files on line, much lighter, and yeah, user-friendly interface… try it yourself. http://www.norton.com/n360s_3 try it for 30 days and see for yourself!