Virus scanners

So the other day I was chatting with a friend about virus scanners and thought, why not put up some info on here for anyone interested.  Most people I know seem to use norton or AVG.  Now thats all well and good, but there are plenty more out there.  I originally used to use PC-Cillin.  Then after a few years it lost its edge and I flittered between Bitdefender and Kaspersky.  In the end I settled on Kaspersky and have been using it for the past 6-7 years.  Love it to death.

Now I'm not just mindlessly using it.  I'm always looking up info on how each virus scanner is going, particularly which ones are fast enough to pick up new viruses that pop up.  Heres a link that shows off the top 20 scanners that this site reviewed, which was also done this year.


http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

Now depending on which sites you look up their versions of the top 10-20 may differ slightly.  Not a huge amount, but little changes.  Like say Bitdefender at third or second spot, just things skipping one or two places.  But its a good enough idea of whats good, and for years Kaspersky and Bitdefender have been in the top 3-4.  They're also fairly easy to use.  Some out there are horrid.

Now I know some of you are saying 'But I dont want to spend $20-$30 a year on a virus subscription!!'  Thats cool.  There are free ones out there that are just as awesome.  Heres a link showing them..

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm


Avast is an excellent free scanner.  And believe it or not the microsoft free scanner is very very good.  I know, I've been a little shocked by this fact over the past year or so.  Panda used to be the best at one stage but slipped down.  AVG, I still dont like that program.  It seems to miss too many things.  Now just because something like Avast is free doesnt mean its not as good as the paid ones.  The reason its free is because theres 3 versions of this program, much like the other free ones (excluding microsoft).  If you pay you then get the next level of security features Avast has, like Sandbox program running, firewall, anti-spam etc.

Some of you may have noticed that the first link claims AVG is better than Avast.  Thats an example of how some sites use certain 'test' parameters that are different to others.  But again, not a big difference.  I remember when Avira used to be top dog for free scanners. Gone.  But I'll stay with Kaspersky till I notice them faltering.  But considering how they've gone for years, I dont see this happening.  I'd also like to mention I loathe Norton.  Hope this helped some of you.