There are several free antivirus tools available now that could be as effective as fully-paid antivirus software. Here are some free antivirus solutions for you.

Comodo Free antivirus software:

Comodo free antivirus software comes from Comodo, one of the leading IT security providers. It is a fully featured free antivirus tool that comes as a part of Comodo’s free internet security suite.

Installing the software is relatively easy. You don’t have to register for the product. The user interface of the software is not cluttered and key functions are easily accessible. Also I felt it’s not draining too much of the system resources.

The features that come with comodo free antivirus include network protection, on access and on demand scanning, HIPS protection, Email scanning, Compressed file scanning, Removable device scanning, free automatic updates, Safe List etc. Most of these features are not normally seen in a free product. It scans .zip compressed files and the Safe List feature provides you with immediate feedback on possible viral files.

Considering that it’s free antivirus software, its scanning speed is excellent. Though during the test scan, the software allowed me to plant the test virus onto my system, the software got into life when I physically tried to access the infected file. However the email scanning did a fair job as it detected the infected file instantly. Download Comodo free antivirus software.

Digital Defender:

Digital Defender is a light weight free antivirus product from digital-defender.com. It provides real time protection against malware. It’s developed keeping the end user in mind and so offers a very easy to use interface.

Installation of the software is a simple task. Download Digital Defender by following the link and install it. It may take a while to set up the software. You can find a small icon sitting on your system tray and that says the antivirus software is on and running.

Digital Defender is a freeware that does a pretty neat job in detecting the popular viruses in your system. But if you are looking for something to impress you by knocking out every virus from your computer, then Digital defender may not be a good choice. I tried the software against a set of 5-6 trojans and it could only quarantine 2 or 3 out of it.

Microsoft Security Essentials:

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is a decent attempt from Microsoft to push back virus, malware and trojan attacks. Compatible with Win 7, Vista and 32-bit version of XP.

It provides real time protection against Spyware, malware, rootkits and trojans.  Download and install the Microsoft Security Essentials by following the link. It comes with automatic updates and doesn’t hog your system resources.

Though the software is good I can’t say that it’s great. Even if it claims to be a spyware remover, it may fail to catch everything. Super Antispyware pinned many spyware for me that Microsoft Security Essentials failed to do. Also the full scan is still a resource hog and takes a long time.

Panda Cloud Antivirus:

Panda Cloud is free antivirus software that implements cloud computing. It runs on Win Vista and Win XP with SP2 or higher.

The software uses cloud computing at its best. During the computer scan the software connects to the Panda cloud that stores all the threat related information. This cloud updates by itself if a user reports a new threat and this cloud is shared among the users. This has an advantage and can be quite helpful in identifying and fighting against 0-day attacks.

But that also has a disadvantage as Panda Cloud Antivirus could only work against known threats. It can’t flag unknown malware based on its behavior. The best use of the software may be in Netbooks and it doesn’t take too much of your resources.

Of course the software lacks and cannot be relied as the only line of defence but I think it will improve. Download Panda Cloud Antivirus here. You may use it along with ThreatFire behavior based free antivirus software.

Avira AntiVir Personal:

Avira AntiVir Personal is one perfect antivirus solution that can be installed on Windows machines. It protects against malware, Trojans, worms, viruses, rootkit, dialers, adware.

You can customize your scans. The Extended threat category option allows you to choose the type of threat that you want the software to detect. There are two modes for the on-access protection module: Normal and Secure start.

If you can tolerate the pop-up nagging of Avira AntiVir, then this is a good piece of software to work with. But still I vote for the older version of Avira AntiVir when compared to the newer one.

Conclusion:

Some other free antivirus solutions are Avast free antivirus, AVG free antivirus etc.

[Continue reading Digital Defender free antivirus, free firewall software, rootkit removers...]

I was asked to suggest a light weight free antivirus solution and here I review Digital Defender free antivirus software which supposedly is a light weight program.

Here is what Wikipedia says about antivirus:

“…is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses…”

Digital Defender:

Most antivirus software such as Avira AntiVir Personal, AVG Free antivirus etc provides good antivirus protection for your system but it eats up a lot of your system memory and thus slows down your computer performance. Digital Defender can be used to overcome such issues. This free antivirus software is a light weight product from digital-defender.com

Installation:

Installation of the software is a simple task. Download Digital Defender by following the link and install it. It may take a while to set up the software. You can find a small icon sitting on your system tray and that says Digital Defender antivirus software is on and running.

Interface:

Digital Defender comes in a very easy to use interface. It doesn’t provide you with too many features but also doesn’t complicate you! Find the GUI screen print below.

 Features:

·         Provides real time protection against malware

·         Detects viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, backdoors etc.

·         Developed keeping the end-user in mind and so offers a simple interface.

·         Light weight program.

Conclusion:

Digital Defender is a freeware that does a pretty neat job in detecting the popular viruses in your system. But if you are looking for something to impress you by knocking out every virus from your computer, then Digital defender may not be a good choice. I tried the software against a set of 5-6 trojans and it could only quarantine 2 or 3 out of it.

Though I can’t say that it really is a very light weight program, it certainly is not heavy. I had the software up and running when my system was supporting two Operating Systems along with lot many other processes. And I should mention that the software did a decent job. It definitely is not the fastest antivirus software as what it claims but is not that slow too.

Some other free antivirus tools include Panda Cloud, Microsoft Security Essentials, Comodo free antivirus etc. Try out these tools for yourself and see which one is good. Also couple a free firewall along with it for better security.