Software : In Depth: Best free antivirus: 9 reviewed and rated

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In Depth: Best free antivirus: 9 reviewed and rated Posted: Best free antivirus: how to choose From hacked ad servers to malicious Facebook pages, the web is a dangerous place, and so it's vital that you install good antivirus software to protect you from harm. And this doesn't have to mean paying a bulky annual subscription for the rest of your life, as there are plenty of free security tools which claim they have what it takes to keep you safe. Do these tools really deliver on what they promise, though? To find out, we took ten popular packages and put them through a gruelling series of tests, measuring their speeds, assessing detection rates, and finding out exactly how their installation affected our test PC's performance. And if you sometimes feel that all free antivirus tools are more or less the same, then our results will prove a real surprise. If you're tired of antivirus packages slowing down your PC, for instance, then the good news is that some are really lightweight. But choose unwisely and you could find your boot times extended by 20 seconds, and Firefox launching up to 5 times more slowly than before. Scan times are important, too. So you'll probably want to know which of our test packages was the slowest, and which tool completed its tests 22 times more quickly. And if you're interested in accuracy and reliability then we've the detection rate scores you need, and some surprising reports of major reliability issues, including one package which refused to install updates, and another that proved unable to complete a single scan. Which is the best free antivirus package, then? Read on to see just what we've uncovered. How we tested The test process started at installation: we checked the size of the installer, the time it took for the installation process to complete, and the hard drive footprint afterwards. And after rebooting, we began looking for any performance impact on our trial PC. We measured this by checking our system boot time, Firefox and Outlook launch times; every figure was taken 8 times, the first three dropped (it's normal for these to be slower) and the others averaged to produce a final result. Our test environment contained malware grabbed from a variety of sources - newly infected URLs, malicious email attachments and more - and we next set our test programs to scanning these. The results and scan times were recorded, but it's not enough to do these just once: many antivirus tools now include intelligent optimisations, for example not checking files again unless they've changed, and these need to be assessed. So we scanned the same environment three times with each tool, just to look for any improvements. And while these definitive figures were useful, we also had to consider the more complex issues which arise in any software review: the range of features, the interface, usability issues and any quirks or problems that we might have noticed. These tests don't cover everything, of course. In particular, we weren't trying to test how antivirus packages protect against malicious websites, or brand new, previously undiscovered dangers. You can see our full test results in this PDF. There's still plenty of useful information here, though - read on to find the best free antivirus tool for you. Best free antivirus: 1-5 1. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus 4.6 After a reasonably quick and hassle-free installation Ad-Aware Free presents an interface that will be reasonably familiar to anyone who's used the company's programs in recent years. So the opening screen has three main buttons to check for updates, scan your PC or monitor your real-time protection, and smaller toolbar buttons allow you to do much the same thing with a little extra functionality. It's basic, and not as straightforward as it should be, but it'll only take a few minutes of exploration before you understand where everything is. Ad-Aware Free is a little limited, by comparison with some of the competition. There's no browsing protection, for instance (though downloads are covered), and no email scanner. The program installs as a trial version of Ad-Aware Pro, with four real-time protection modules - Processes, Files, Registry and Network - but once the trial expires only the first will be available. You don't get the "advanced rootkit removal system", either, and there's no gaming mode. Although you do get one minor extra in TrackSweep, a tool for clearing your internet traces in IE, Firefox, Opera and Chrome. Performance news proved mixed. Ad-Aware Free had no effect on our boot times, but Firefox and Outlook loaded significantly more slowly after its installation. And an average time for our first scan improved significantly after a few tests, with the program achieving the second fastest time by the third check. Not bad at all, especially as Ad-Aware Free also achieved a very respectable 97% in our own accuracy tests. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus is fairly straightforward to use, then, and will certainly help to keep your system safe. Other free antivirus solutions provide more power and features, though, so unless you're a big Lavasoft fan then we'd recommend you look elsewhere. We liked Fairly easy to use, doesn't impact boot time, scan times drop significantly after a few tests, good accuracy scores, cleans your browser tracks We disliked Short on features, no game mode, initial scan times are only average 2. Avast Free Antivirus 6.0.1367 Avast's Free Antivirus is an interesting and unusual package which stands out from the competition in many ways - not all of them good. The program had one of the fastest installation processes, for instance, taking only 153 second to finish on our test system (and that included a quick system scan). The clear interface provides easy access to its many features, including multiple scan modes and real-time shield covering email, web traffic, P2P and instant messaging tools, network traffic, scripts and behavioural monitoring. A browser plugin provides basic surfing protection, too, by highlighting the reputation of the current site. And the program provides spoken alerts on many occasions, so for example a voice will tell you when an update has just been downloaded. At first we thought this was a gimmick, but actually it makes a lot of sense - you can hear what's happening with the program even if you're in the next room, so it's far better than simple system tray alerts. (Although you can turn them off if you like.) On the down side, though, scan times of our test system were lengthy at over 50 minutes, and these didn't drop significantly over time. There was a notable performance impact on our test PC, with boot times extending by around 18 seconds (fortunately the effect on application launch times was relatively insignificant). And the program's score of 94% in our accuracy tests - not helped by its reporting of several false positives - proved fractionally below average. We really don't want to rule avast! out; it's a powerful package, very configurable and with lots of features. But the mix of lengthy scans with mildly below par accuracy isn't a good one, and on balance you'll probably get better protection from some of the competition. We liked Fast installation, lots of features, clean interface, plenty of real-time protection layer, spoken alerts, We disliked Lengthy scan times, PC boot times were significantly longer, marginally below average accuracy, 3. AVG Anti-Virus FREE 2012 The AVG Anti-Virus FREE installation can take a while, as the compact installer must download and process 52MB of files, and recommends a reboot when it's finished. The entire process took around 6 minutes on our test PC, far longer than most of the competition, although still not bad when you consider the features on offer here. There's capable real-time antivirus protection, for instance, and a good on-demand scanner. LinkScanner checks the URLs you're visiting to protect you from malicious sites. E-mail Protection scans incoming emails for spam and malicious attachments, there's rootkit and identity protection, and you even get an (optional) web security toolbar to keep you safe online. To support all this you'll find 7 or 8 AVG-related processes running in the background at any one time, but this doesn't have the system impact you might expect. They'll typically consume a below-average 20MB of RAM, for instance, and while AVG extended our boot time by around 10 seconds it otherwise had little impact on our system. Conventional scanning performance was also very good. The first scan of our test system was lengthy at 33:31, but thorough, achieving a 98% accuracy score and identifying an issue which others missed (an executable signed with a broken digital signature). On the second scan, AVG's time plummeted to 2:40, and by the third it was only 2:23. While this was the best repeat scan performance here, in part it may be due to AVG having a separate scan for rootkits, which required an extra 3:22 on our test PC. The program is still speedy, though, even taking this into account, and overall it remains a capable and effective free antivirus tool. We liked Lots of features, relatively lightweight, fast, accurate We disliked Lengthy installation process, requires lots of background processes, separate scan for rootkits 4. Avira Free Antivirus Avira's Free Antivirus product is unusual in that it provides basic web protection, but only if you install the Ask toolbar. Despite what you often read online, this is no worse than most other browser toolbars, but if you disapprove then the installer provides the option to install the core antivirus engine only. Aside from this, the installation is speedy, with the initial setup complete in 93 seconds on our test PC. And the first scan was even more impressive at a mere 11:21: only Emsisoft's Anti-Malware was faster. There's no clever whitelisting scheme here, though, so subsequent scans remained above 10 minutes, enough to see the program drop back into 5th place. Of course, as we've mentioned elsewhere, speed isn't everything; it's pointless being fast if you miss a lot of malware. And fortunately that's not a complaint we can make about Avira Free Antivirus, as the program scored an excellent 99% in our detection tests. The problem here, though, is that this free build is missing a lot of features from the professional version: antiphishing, behaviour monitoring, email protection, game mode, and an antidrive-by monitor to block unwanted downloads when you're online. So while our tests show Avira's on-demand scanner is good, the program could leave you vulnerable to many other threats. If you're looking for a single free antivirus tool to take care of everything, then, Avira Free Antivirus probably isn't for you. But if you're an experienced PC user looking for an accurate antivirus tool as a base, which you'll then supplement with other tools, then this fast, lightweight program could be the ideal choice. We liked Speedy installation, fast initial scan times, lightweight, accurate We disliked Free version omits lots of features, web protection requires you to install the Ask toolbar 5. Comodo Antivirus 5.9.2 The first Comodo Antivirus feature you're likely to notice is Defense+, the program's host intrusion detection system, which monitors application behaviour and only allows trusted software to run. It's a powerful tool and can do a lot to help make you more secure, but it's also complex, with warning dialogs which can be intimidating to a PC novice. And it raises more alerts than you might expect: Defense+ jumped in to "protect" us from QTTask, for instance, even though it's a well-known and entirely safe component of Apple's QuickTime. Defense+ may also slow down the launch of some applications, at least initially, with Outlook once taking around 10 seconds longer than usual to launch on our test PC. This did seem to improve after a few launches, though, with launch times returning to normal (although the system boot was still a little longer than usual, and RAM use was also above average). The story was a little more uncertain when it came to scanning performance. The program started well, with a third-ranking 16:11 initial scan, but there was little improvement and by the third scan it had dropped back to 7th place. This extra time clearly isn't buying you any better accuracy, though, as Comodo Antivirus scored a below-average 93% on our detection tests. It does do well at detecting "potentially unwanted programs", legitimate tools which can be used maliciously (a utility to display your email client passwords, say), which may appeal to some. But in our case this only wasted time by raising a host of alerts about programs which were entirely safe. Despite these problems, Comodo Antivirus can't be ignored completely. Sure, it's not as accurate as blocking malware as many competitors, but even if a file manages to launch on your system then Defense+ may well still detect and block it (and it'll do the same even with brand new viruses which other tools are yet to recognise). So while PC novices should probably give the program a miss, more experienced users may find the power and configurability of Defense+ has a lot of appeal. We liked Powerful host intrusion detection system, fast first scan time, little impact on system performance (on average) We disliked Defense+ alerts can be complex, some false positives, scan performance doesn't improve much over time Best free antivirus: 6-10 6. Emsisoft Anti-Malware 6.0 Many free antivirus packages have significant omissions, which the developers hope will persuade you to opt for a commercial version - so it's wise to check this before you install. And this applies particularly to Emsisoft Anti-Malware 6.0, as it doesn't provide any real-time antivirus protection. This doesn't necessarily mean you should ignore the program, though, as our tests revealed some notable plus points. Installation is fast and straightforward, for instance. A clear and appealing interface makes it easy to find the functionality you need. And scanning performance proved excellent, with the program checking our test system in a little over 8 minutes for scan #1 - the fastest initial scan of anyone in this group - and accelerating to 6:13 after a few additional checks. In part this speed is due to the program being very selective about the files it scans. This doesn't seem to affect its accuracy, though, as Anti-Malware scored an excellent 98% in our own detection tests, and it's also often rated highly by independent testing labs. The lack of real-time monitoring means the problem had no noticeable impact on boot or application launch times, too, at least according to our tests. So although this does leave a hole in your PC's protection, it does mean you could install another tool to provide that functionality. And while we didn't test this, the developers claim that "Emsisoft Anti-Malware was designed to run parallel with other antivirus and firewall software", so in theory at least you should be able to install other packages without seeing any significant conflicts. We liked Quick and easy installation, clear interface, excellent scanning performance, accurate, can run alongside other security tools We disliked No real-time antivirus protection 7. Microsoft Security Essentials 2.1.11160 As its name suggests, Microsoft Security Essentials is just about the antivirus basics. So there's no application firewall here, no host intrusion protection system, no smart file whitelisting schemes, no bonus extras of any kind. Still, who cares? There's good all-round real-time protection (downloads, on-access file scanning, behaviour monitoring, network checks), on-demand and scheduled scanning options, all wrapped up in a simple, easy-to-understand interface, which works for us. Full review: Microsoft Security Essentials The program's simplicity also helps to reduce its impact on your system. It requires the smallest amount of drive space of any of the competition; typically consumes under 10MB RAM when running in the background; didn't noticeably increase our boot time at all; and had less impact than most on our application launch times. There is one issue, though, in the program's scan speeds. Security Essentials first scan came in at around 20 minutes, for a reasonable fourth place. The program doesn't whitelist files, though, so every scan takes more or less the same amount of time, and in the long term only avast! Free Antivirus proved slower. And Security Essentials' accuracy proved nothing special, too, with the program scoring only 92% in our on-demand scanning tests. The program didn't do anything obviously wrong, then. It doesn't leave out core features or display banner ads in the hope that you'll upgrade to something else; it won't drain your system's resources, or cause odd problems elsewhere. And if you just want something that won't get in your way, picking Microsoft Security Essentials could make a lot of sense. But if you want the very best, particularly when it comes to detection rates, then you need to keep looking. We liked Easy to use, very little impact on system performance, good all-round real-time protection We disliked Scan times not the best, below-average detection rates 8. Outpost Security Suite Free 7.1 Outpost Security Suite Free is the most generously specified product in our roundup, bundling an antivirus engine, firewall, spam filter and surfing protection into a single package. Sounds good. We're really only interested in the antivirus element in this test, though, and here there's a problem. Outpost Security Suite Free doesn't get "priority updates". When we installed the program, it didn't automatically download a database upgrade itself. The message warning us that the system was out-of-date contained a "fix it now" button which only suggested that we upgraded to the paid version. And when we tried to update manually, we repeatedly saw a "cannot download some components" warning, followed by a "Malware database update failed" error - a fairly critical problem. Continuing regardless, we found further issues elsewhere. The program's lengthy feature list also means it uses more RAM than some of the competition (30-40MB in regular background use, sometimes over 100MB when scanning). And after installation our Firefox launch times rose from under 2, to 8-10 seconds (although Outlook launch and boot times remained relatively unaffected). Scan times were also notable, and not in a good way: the first scan on our test system took almost an hour, the slowest in this group. Smart optimisation meant that subsequent scans dropped to around 10 minutes, a far more acceptable figure. And when you're able to use a recent database, the program's accuracy is reasonable enough, with it scoring 95% on our tests. We wouldn't entirely rule the program out, then - there's plenty to like about this suite, and if you're luckier than us on the update front then it should do a good job of keeping you safe. For the purpose of this test, though, the program's repeated inability to download an initial update is inexcusable, and has to result in a low score. We liked loads of security suite features, little effect on boot/ Outlook launch times, reasonably accurate We disliked no "priority updates", repeatedly failed to update our malware database, very lengthy initial scan times, Firefox launch time extended significantly 9. PC Tools Antivirus Free 2012 PC Tools Antivirus Free 2012 is a cut-down version of the company's Spyware Doctor with Antivirus product, which leaves out ThreatFire, most web and real-time protection, the program's game mode, web-based support, and more. You still get on-demand and scheduled scanning, warnings about phishing sites and real-time checks on incoming emails and the files you access, though, so there's just about enough to get by. Despite the program's basic nature, setup takes a while, and its installation footprint is the largest here (the program gobbled up more than 400MB of drive space, mostly due to its huge antivirus database). The various PC Tools background processes typically only consume around 20MB when running in the background, though, and they have only an average impact on boot and Firefox launch times (although Outlook took much longer to fire up). PC Tools Antivirus Free has a few design quirks. Right-click a drive in Explorer, choose the "Scan with PC Tools" option and you'd expect to see the scanning window pop up, right? But it doesn't; if you'd like to monitor the scanning process then you'll have to open the program yourself via its system tray icon. Scanning itself works well, though. Performance was good, with the initial scan time of 29:20 falling to under 5 minutes by the third check (third fastest in this group). And accuracy was more than acceptable, as Antivirus Free returned 94% in our on-demand scanning test. Put it all together and PC Tools Antivirus Free 2012 is a good basic security tool. It doesn't have any compelling features which demand you pick this program above all others, but the strength here is more on Antivirus Free's reliability: it's straightforward and easy to use, with none of the hassles, problems and conflicts we'd experienced with some of the other packages in this group. We liked Easy to use, relatively lightweight, above average scan times, reasonable detection rates We disliked Massive hard drive footprint, slowed down Outlook launch significantly, some design quirks, feature list is considerably cut down from the commercial version Conclusion We spent a great deal of time testing each of our trial antivirus packages, and the hope was that all these objective measurements would clearly reveal which tool was the best. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be quite as easy as that, as no package excelled in every area. Some were lightweight but less accurate, others were good at detecting malware but had a significant performance on your system, and so it went on. Picking a winner inevitably involves some compromises, then, and may vary depending on your requirements. If you're looking solely for the most accurate scanner, for instance, then Avira Free Antivirus topped our list. It also omits a lot of useful features, though, and had only average scanning times by our third system check, so wasn't our winner overall. Similarly, Emsisoft Anti-Malware was fast, lightweight, and only a point behind Avira on the detection scales. But it doesn't provide real-time protection and so also just missed the winning spot. (Although if you want to build your own security suite and run the program alongside another security tool then you could achieve excellent results.) And Outpost's Security Suite Free had to be marked down because of our hassles with its update process, but if you're looking for a one-stop, zero-cost security solution then it may still be worth a try. After weighing up all our results, though, there was really only one candidate for first place: AVG Free 2012. Its initial scan time was lengthy and the program isn't the most lightweight. But it has plenty of features, smart optimisations accelerated it to the fastest third scan here, and it scored a respectable second place for detection rates, making AVG Free 2012 a good all-round winner of our best free antivirus award. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

BBC News app comes to Honeycomb tablets Posted: BBC News has announced the launch of its mobile app for Android tablets. The app offers the same layered browsing and navigation experience as its iPad equivalent and will be packed full of text and video content from the Beeb. An updated BBC News app is now available on the Android Market for Honeycomb tablets larger than 7.1-inches in size. Smaller devices will have to make use of the smartphone iteration. The BBC says it is also working on bringing the BBC News Channel to the platform, while an international version of the basic News offering from BBC Worldwide is also in the works. Personalised "It offers a simple way of navigating through the key news sections in both landscape and portrait mode," said the BBC's Kate Milner. "You can personalise these to suit your interests; we've made it easy to share stories and the app also provides On Demand video within stories, in both 3G and Wi-Fi. "We'll be offering the News Channel live in a later release. We're also working on homescreen widgets." The post on the BBC website also revealed that mobile traffic now accounts for over a quarter of the organisation's total web traffic.

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