Comparison of free anti-virus offerings

[Schlup]

Free antivirus programs vary just as much as paid security programs do in the quality of their protection. And frugal computer users on the hunt for no-cost antivirus software--already faced with tons of options--will have even more to choose from when new free offerings from Microsoft and Panda join the programs currently available from Alwil (Avast), AVG, Avira, Comodo, and PC Tools

To help you figure out which free antivirus app is right for you, we put packages from all of those companies through their paces. Our testing partner, AV-Test.org of Germany, employed its vast "zoo" of collected malware to test detection rates and scan speed. We then poked and prodded the apps to see which ones made stopping malware an effortless task, and which ones made it feel more like drudgery. For a summary of our findings, see our free antivirus software ranked chart. For our in-depth evaluations, see the individual reviews, linked in this story and in the chart.

Link to side-by-side comparison of the Top 6 Free Antivirus software pacakages:
http://www.pcworld.com/product/testreport/compare?chart_id=6403&orig_url=%2Farticle%2Fid%2C170674-page%2C1%2Farticle.html&chart_title=Free+Antivirus+Software&chart_date=Mon+Aug+24+17%3A30%3A00+PDT+2009&prodid=290836&prodid=290835&prodid=290840&prodid=290838&prodid=290834&prodid=290845

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,170587/printable.html

[Monkey_Grill]

We use Comodo at work. Someone called in one time saying, "What is this Commando program?" lol.

[Schlup]

Did you click the link showing the side by side comparison...Comodo is horrible.

[Monkey_Grill]

IDK why we use it at work. Probably because we don't have any problems with it.

[Schlup]

Well, it's not bad...especially if you aren't putting it on your machine.  But for those of you that want to actually get the BEST free Antivirus software out there, you should look at the side by side comparison.

[SuperTim]

I've been using Free AVG for 5+ years now.....and I have never had a problem....Never got a virus...."knock on wood".
Free AVG is very simple to use and they update it daily.....

[Schlup]

I've been using Free AVG for 5+ years now.....and I have never had a problem....Never got a virus...."knock on wood".
Free AVG is very simple to use and they update it daily.....

Correction, never got a virus or had a problem in the last 5 years THAT YOU KNOW OF!  You very well may have a keylogger or a virus that is sitting in dormancy ready to attack at the press of a button by the hacker that created it.  I'm just saying people, they threw slews of viruses at these things and only 1 or 2 picked them all up.  Chances are you have something on your machine.

[Monkey_Grill]

Schlup, how did you like Kaspersky? I'm thinking about getting it.

[Schlup]

Scan times were VERY slow.  Reviews are good on it, but it was too slow for me, especially with 3TB to scan, it was taking days.