Internet antivirus software reviews 2010

Short on time? Download Avira Free Security for Windows here. Quick summary of the best free Windows antiviruses for 1. Kaspersky — Free extras like a VPN, dark web monitoring, and a password manager. Malwarebytes — Minimalistic antivirus with on-demand scanning.

Sophos — Good real-time scanning with remote access for 3 PCs. Comparison of the Best Free Antiviruses for Windows in Here are a few of them: Avast. While Avast — and their subsidiary antivirus company AVG — continue to offer two pieces of widely used free antivirus software Avast Free Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Free their repeated privacy violations have caused too many concerns.

You can read more here. McAfee is one of my favorite antiviruses of It comes with an advanced anti-malware engine, excellent web protections, and a VPN with unlimited data. Why should I use a free antivirus instead of Windows Defender?

Is it safe to use a free antivirus? Is Avast free? What are the most common types of viruses that affect Windows computers?

Will Windows allow me to install a free antivirus? Read Review Visit Website. Share It: 0. Updated on: January 13, About the Author Katarina is a tech enthusiast specializing in cybersecurity products, data protection, and maintaining strong practices for general online safety. When she's not a "Safety Detective", she likes to play with her two cats, binge watch crime dramas, sample fine wines, and read about the origins of the universe.

Was this article helpful? Please tell us what we can improve This field is required. You can get a base-model car that will get you from place to place just fine. For a few grand more, you can buy a car with satellite radio, but no heated side-view mirrors, alloy wheels or in-car Wi-Fi hotspot. Or you can spend a lot more to get a loaded car with all the fixin's. Antivirus makers also hope you'll spring for extra options, whether you need them or not. The one thing you can't trade up to is a bigger engine: All the Windows antivirus products in a given brand's lineup will use the same malware-detection engine and provide the same level of essential protection.

The software will have essential malware protection and maybe a password manager or a two-way firewall. They generally add parental controls, some of which are very good, plus a few other features such as webcam protection.

They often include multi-device licenses and antivirus software for Mac and Android devices. At the top are the premium "security suites," which toss in all the extra security tools an antivirus brand can offer, such as password managers, VPN client software, backup software, online storage and even identity-protection services.

The password managers are often quite good, but the online storage can be paltry and the VPN services often don't give you unlimited data. We've collected the best premium antivirus packages on this list of the best internet security suites.

Our evaluations are based on each antivirus program's interface, performance, protection and extra features. Was the interface intuitive and user-friendly? How badly did malware scans slow performance?

How well did the program detect and remove malware? Does the program offer useful additional tools? Some of our newer performance tests were done on a Lenovo ThinkPad T with a 2.

To assess a program's impact on system speed on both Windows and macOS, we used our own custom tests, which measure how long a CPU takes to match 20, names and addresses on an OpenOffice or Excel spreadsheet. The longer it took the laptop to finish either test, the heavier the performance impact. Each lab subjects the major antivirus brands' products to stress tests involving thousands of pieces of malware, including hundreds of previously unseen samples.

Kaspersky antivirus products have been banned from U. Because the company is Russian and antivirus software can peer deep into a PC, using Kaspersky software would create an unacceptable risk for persons and organizations involved in national security and critical infrastructure. However, we still think Kaspersky software is perfectly safe for home users. We've seen no evidence to convince us otherwise. Kaspersky researchers are well respected throughout the antivirus industry, and the company has publicly exposed Russian cyberespionage campaigns as well as those from the United States and other countries around the world.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He's been rooting around in the information-security space for more than 15 years at FoxNews. If you use a Windows PC, you'll need to have one of the best antivirus programs installed, whether free or paid.

View Deal. Bitdefender offers the best value in antivirus software. Norton packs in everything but the kitchen sink. Kaspersky Total Security. Specifications Anti-theft: Yes. Backup software: Yes.

Firewall: Yes. Game mode: Yes. Hardened browser: Yes. Parental controls: Yes. Password manager: Yes. Ransomware rollback: Yes. Webcam protection: Yes. Virtual keyboard: Yes.

VPN: Limited upsell. Wi-Fi scanner: Yes. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. Specifications Anti-theft: No. Backup software: No. Firewall: No. Parental controls: No. Webcam protection: No. Reasons to avoid - Heavy background system impact. Norton Deluxe. Hardened browser: No. Ransomware rollback: No. VPN: Unlimited. Reasons to avoid - Heavy slowdown during full scans - Pricey. McAfee Internet Security. Virtual keyboard: No. Reasons to avoid - Very heavy performance hit - No parental controls on mid-priced tier.

Trend Micro Maximum Security. Specifications Backup software: No. Reasons to avoid - Heavy performance hit during scans - Many false positives on some tests. Game mode: No. Password manager: No. Wi-Fi scanner: No. Reasons to avoid - So-so malware protection - Moderate performance penalty during scans - Lacks VPN, password manager, file shredder. Kaspersky Security Cloud Free. Specifications Email scans: Yes.

Password manager: Limited. Ransomware reversal: Yes. Scan scheduler: Yes. Support options: FAQs, forums. Upsell nag factor: Moderate. Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition. Specifications Email scans: No. Ransomware reversal: No. Scan scheduler: No. Upsell nag factor: Minimal.

Reasons to avoid - No extra features whatsoever - No quick scans or scan scheduling. Windows Defender Antivirus. Password manager: Yes, with other Microsoft apps. Upsell nag factor: Nonexistent. Reasons to avoid - Some features work only on Microsoft products - Hard to schedule scans. Avast Free Antivirus.

Specifications Email scans: Separate tool. Hardened browser: Separate tool. Password manager: Not any more. Ransomware reversal: Shield only.

Support options: : FAQs, forums. Upsell nag factor: Omnipresent. In addition to malware and virus protection for your computer and mobile device, this antivirus suite provides GB of backup to the cloud, safe-browsing tools, a secure VPN, password manager, parental controls and LifeLock identity theft protection and fraud alert. While not all of those services are necessarily best in their respective class, getting them all in one package is a compelling option. If you'd like to take a step up in securing your PC without taxing your wallet, it's hard to beat Bitdefender's free antivirus software for Windows The Windows security software offers real-time monitoring for viruses, malware, spyware and ransomware protection.

Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition is easy to set up and stays out of your way until you need it. And the protection this antivirus product offers is solid.

Bitdefender antivirus software consistently earns top marks for its antivirus protection and usability from the respected AV-Test independent testing lab.

The free antivirus version covers one Windows PC. Malwarebytes does protect your PC from a virus or malware attack, scoring reasonably well in recent independent testing for guarding against malware threats. But that's not really what Malwarebytes is known for. If you find yourself in trouble, the go-to disinfectant for many is Malwarebytes. To get the antivirus company's free antivirus version, download this trial version , which "downgrades" to a no-fee on-demand cleaner with fewer features that detects and removes viruses and malware when you run an on-demand antivirus scan after 14 days.

In addition to the four antivirus apps we recommend above, a handful of other anti-malware tools are worth considering among the best antivirus protection if you find them at a better price or just prefer to use one over our picks above.

It feels like McAfee Antivirus has been around forever, first on its own in the '80s, then as part of Intel starting in , and then again on its own when Intel spun it off in And McAfee Total Protection has been around forever because quarter after quarter it creates solid, modern antivirus software that protects your PC. In recent evaluations by AV-Test, it had high scores on both protection and performance.

Maybe this antivirus provider is not as well known to consumers because of its focus on enterprise security, Trend Micro antivirus quietly brings its business expertise to the home with its Trend Micro Maximum Security tools.

Trend Micro's software earns high marks from AV-Test -- consistently scoring well for detecting zero-day attacks and widespread viruses and malware. And Trend Micro does a good job of not taxing system resources. Free version? It earns high scores for usability and offers solid virus protection. The free antivirus version of Sophos Home gives you virus protection for three Windows PCs -- using the company's high-scoring anti-malware tool -- plus a day trial of the company's malware-removal tool.

Test after test, Avast Antivirus for Windows performs well for malware detection with options ranging from Avast free antivirus software to Avast Premium Security. And we've included its antivirus in our list of recommended security app options before.

But Avast was in the news for several months for its non-antivirus business, so we looked at the company, specifically reports at the end of that Avast allegedly collected user data with its browser plug-ins and antivirus software and then sold data it collected through its Jumpshot subsidiary in early In response to the reports that his company gathered and sold the details of its customers' online activities, Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek said in a statement that he understood that his company's actions raised questions of trust in his company.

To address that, Avast terminated Jumpshot data collection in January and closed its operations because the data collection business wasn't in line with Avast's privacy priorities. These newer reports follow another in from Avast that its internal network was breached , possibly to insert malware into its CCleaner software, similar to an earlier CCleaner hack that occurred prior to Avast's acquiring the Windows utility.

Avast is now saying the right things about taking its customers' privacy seriously , but it only came to that point after reacting to investigative reporting that revealed the Jumpshot practices. The CCleaner revelations, while concerning, were self-disclosed, which is important to building user trust. We hope Avast's more privacy-friendly policies mean that there will be no further Jumpshot-style activities and it returns to glory as one of the best antivirus software.

In the meantime, we'd recommend using one of the many other solid choices in this realm listed above. Because the company has been in the news the past few years, let's talk about Kaspersky Lab -- specifically about the federal ban that blocks US government agencies from using Kaspersky Antivirus products. Based in Moscow, Kaspersky Lab has for years produced some of the best antivirus software for business antivirus needs and home customers. But in the US government prohibited Kaspersky security cloud software on federal government computers because of alleged ties between Kaspersky and the Russian government.

But as with China-based Huawei , the question remains: If the federal government doesn't think the products are safe enough for its own devices, should consumers avoid them as well? In a statement sent to CNET, the company said, "Kaspersky Lab has no ties to any government, and the company has never, nor will ever, engage in cyber offensive activities. Kaspersky Lab maintains that no public evidence of any wrongdoing has been presented by the US government, and that the US government's actions against Kaspersky Lab were unconstitutional.

In Kaspersky's favor, it continues to earn top scores and awards for virus and malware detection and endpoint protection from independent testing labs. And it's reasonably priced. In the end, even though no one has ever publicly produced a "smoking gun" linking the company to Russian intrigue, we think any of the options listed above are a safer bet. And if you are a US government employee or work with the federal government, you'll want to steer clear of Kaspersky internet security products -- and perhaps use one of the antivirus software products mentioned here instead.

Picking the best antivirus software for Windows means finding one that keeps your PC safe, doesn't take up a lot of system resources, is easy to use and stays out of the way till you need it.