The question I am looking answer: simply, what is the best free antivirus program, and how does it fare compared to the paid programs. I will also copy the practice from av-comparatives, of considering Microsoft Security Essentials as a control, the idea being that since it is now provided pre-intalled with on many Windows PC’s, you would need to install another antivirus program in it’s place only if it is the case that this new program provides significant additional protection. (Note: I debated whether to include Panda free antivirus, which seems like it wants to be a contender, but decided to skip it as it is clearly ‘not there yet’). In order to provide a frame of reference, I will also include the test results of the top three paid antivirus programs, which can also be identified with a cursory inspection of the results: Kaspersky, BitDefender, and Eset. For free antivirus programs, the top three are Avira, AVG, and Avast.

The contenders: a scan of several of the tests they conducted reveals a clear picture of who the ‘real’ players are. As I write this in Jan 2016 I will use the latest versions of their tests, conducted within the last 6 months of this writing. We will turn to “ ” for our data, since they regularly run what are arguably the web’s best and most comprehensive antivirus tests. I have been looking into the question of which free antivirus is the best for almost 10 years now, and the only way to answer is by looking at comparative tests with hard data, keeping in mind that the programs themselves are constantly changing and being updated, and that the picture that emerged from last year’s tests, say, may have changed with the more up-to-date round of tests, etc.

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