Securing Your Windows Computer with Free Anti Virus

There are a few ways to get free antivirus if you really think about it. You could try to cheat Norton or McAfee into a longer trial by installing and uninstalling and re-installing but most of the time now that involves playing with your computer clock and is really more trouble than it's worth because Norton and McAfee aren't that great anyway they are just convenient. Most of the time the most convenient isn't the best and almost always the most convenient anti virus isn't the best so without further ado here are the best free anti virus programs online today.

1. Kaspersky's Online Scanner - This virus scanner is by far the most thorough and good at finding the toughest most deep down hidden virus files there are BUT it takes forever to scan since it's online.

Pros

1. Very Thorough with deep file scanning
2. Completely free
3. Tells you where the files are

Cons

1. Doesn't actually remove the viruses for you just tells you where the files are.
2. Have to pay for the upgraded version of their program unless you can find how to remove the files on your own.
3. Takes a really long time for the scan.
4. Have to use Internet Explorer
5. May make your computer laggy because it's rather intense.

2. AVG Free Anti Virus - This one really was a tie for first but I dropped it to second because you have to download it and there was a file found by Kaspersky that AVG didn't find but AVG excels in everything else and is still better than Norton or McAfee. This is actually the one I personally use. Comes complete with Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, E-mail Scanner, License, Link Scanner, Resident Shield, and of course the Update Manager. This is about as complete of a anti virus program as norton and mcafee minus the backups they make you create.

Pros

1. Complete Package
2. FREE
3. Doesn't make your computer laggy.
4. Can Schedule Scans
5. Will close an internet window if it gets to a page that has been reported.
6. All around great

Cons

1. The link scanner sometimes has false positives and I experienced closing of a few sites I was going to. I just turned off Link Scanner though.
2. Nothing else unless readers have anything to add?

3. ClamWin - Clamwin is just a Windows version of the Linux antivirus clam. I really don't recommend clam unless you just want a backup scanner if you don't trust AVG or something. ClamWin isn't real time protection it just runs a scan once a day so it's not overly spectacular.

Pros

1. Very Thorough.
2. Found things norton and McAfee didn't.
3. Scheduled Scans
4. Automatic Updates
5. Open Source

Cons

1. Uses up a lot of resources making your computer slow
2. Not real time.
3. Had a conflict with Spybot.
4. SLOW SCAN!

Avast is also a very good Free Anti-Virus program to use but I only used it once and it was a little while back so I don't remember too much about it. Has anyone else used it and can provide a review for readers?

There are a TON of free anti-virus programs. Some are for specific trojans and worms while some are generic for lots of them. You can find a HUGE list different places online. Just be careful what you download because many are actually viruses disguised as Anti Virus programs.