Free Antivirus And Anti-Spyware, Part 2

As I reported in Part 1, once upon a time savvy computer users didn't require antivirus and anti-spyware software, but with today's hacker-infested Internet and slimy virus-dripping and worm-crawling E-mails just waiting to catch us off guard, everyone needs antivirus and anti-spyware software.

AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic

Avira's free AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic has a small impact on system resources, including a small 34 MB file size and only three running processes. It provides typical antivirus services, such as scanning drives and right-click capability to scan individual directories and files.

When tested, AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic detected 100% of in the wild viruses and 85% of zoo viruses. It also claimed two false positives. According to Mary Landesman, About.com's guide to antivirus software, Avira's AntiVir was one of the first five antivirus vendors to release antivirus updates five times during a prolific virus outbreak period, which included 26 outbreaks. AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic does not detect or remove spyware or adware. However, the paid versions do.

Free Antivirus And Anti-Spyware, Part 1

It used to be that savvy computer users didn't require antivirus and anti-spyware software because they could avoid viruses and spyware by never opening E-mail attachments from unknown senders and avoiding disreputable Web sites. But no more. Everyone needs antivirus and anti-spyware software to protect their computers. This doesn't have to be expensive. Some antivirus and anti-spyware vendors offer free versions of their products, and I'll cover some of the most notable or popular ones.

AVG Free Edition

According to Mary Landesman, About.com's guide to antivirus software, "AVG has been certified to remove 100% of in-the-wild viruses -- but results with zoo viruses are a low 81% and those same tests resulted in 11 false positives (detection of viruses in non-infected, legitimate files)." Even so, the AVG Free Edition is still fairly popular, since earlier tests may not reflect today's environment, and AVG Free Edition takes up few computer resources to do the job.

AVG Antivirus And Anti-Spyware for Windows XP, 2000, NT, ME, and 98 are available as free downloads from GRISOFT.

Does That File Contain Malware?

Wondering if the free file you just downloaded has a virus or includes some other malware? VirusTotal offers a free scan of any suspicious files using several antivirus engines. Just upload your files using the SSL connection (or the regular connection if you're not worried about security), and VirusTotal will scan your files with multiple popular antivirus engines and display a report of the results. One may also E-mail multiple files to them and a report will be returned with the results.