Are Free Anti-Virus Programs Good Enough?
Depending on how you use your computer, many of the free antivirus programs are indeed decent choices. We recently reviewed about 20 of the latest and most popular 2009 antivirus programs on the market and I was impressed with quite a few of the free offerings.
In the past, free anti-virus programs were fairly limited in their abilities, requiring a great deal of user interaction. For example, automatic updates and real-time blocking were virtually unheard of with free protection. If you had a free antivirus program on your computer, viruses could come in at will and you would have to manually update the program and then scan the entire system in order to find and remove infections. The problem with this is that between scans, viruses could get in and do their damage.
Today’s Free Anti-Virus Programs have Grown Up
Many of the free antivirus programs on the market today have grown up and now offer real-time protection and automatic updates. This stops viruses from ever arriving in the first place. Many offer more sophisticated options such as root kit detection and spyware protections. Keep in mind that some of the freebies are still barebones programs, so read the features and make an informed decision.
Filetonic’s Antivirus Reviews
Read our recent reviews and look for a free anti-virus program that best meets your needs. One of the best free ones in the list is Avast which provides both virus and spyware protection as well as real time blocking. It is available for free to home users for personal use only. It should do an adequate job of securing your computer. It may lack the more advanced features that you’re accustomed to with Norton, so weigh your options.
Antivirus Resource Usage
Another trend that I noticed is that the newest antivirus programs are emphasizing smaller footprints and lower resource usage requirements. These programs must run at all times in order to be effective so this is a good move in the right direction.
A Word of Warning
When searching for free antivirus programs, beware of imposters. We’ve had many visitors to our site tell us of horror stories related to clicking a pop-up ad for a free antivirus program - then the free program turned out to be a spyware program or virus which then wreaked havoc on the user’s system. Look for products from reputable developers or recommended from sites that you trust. Download the program that you want before Norton expires as added protection. Norton should be able to detect the imposters.
Celeste Stewart | November 14th, 2008
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