Five free security software suites

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We uncover five of the best free security downloads that you can get for your PC.

By Asavin Wattanajantra, 10 Dec 2009 at 12:30

Good computer security is worth every penny you pay for it - especially for SMBs or home workers not protected by corporate systems.

But the proliferation of free software packages - lead by AVG Free - means you don't actually have to pay a thing for good quality security. In fact, Microsoft has ditched its paid security system OneCare in favour of a free system.

Here are five free packages you can download now for instant protection - there's now no excuse not to protect your PC.

Avast! Avast
Avast recently released Avast 5.0, a new version of its free security software which claims to have 90 million users and has been around for more than 20 years.

It is a nice looking package, catering for more than 30 languages and offering some good features.

Compared to the other free security software, the installation is very quick, even though it does suggest you download Google Chrome during the download.

After installation, it advises you to restart and let Avast run a pre-emptive scan that should hopefully clear your computer of any malware it could be hiding.

It has a pretty unique ‘WinAmp’ style interface, which is available in different skins. The whole look is designed to be hidden and work behind the scenes, and that it does pretty successfully.

There are a number of features, including protection for instant messages, internet mail, P2P, Outlook and Exchange, as well as web and network shield.

There is also a real-time scanner, as well as anti-spyware and anti-rootkit abilities built in.

All in all, Avast offers an impressive little package, and if its claim of 90 million users is true then you won’t be the only one using it for protection.

AVG Anti-Virus Free AVG

One of the most well-known free anti-virus packages, this took a while to install compared to the other packages, and also hounds you to buy the professional version.

It also asks you to download the AVG toolbar and ‘encourages’ you to switch your browser toolbar to Yahoo, which can be annoying when you simply want to download the software.

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8 comments

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"Suites" doesn't apply here.

A software suite is one that covers more than one perspective. Typical security suites include AV + Antispyware + Firewall + SpamFilter (etc). Only one item in this article covers more than one (MSSE) and it's only because it now envelops Windows Defender. Secondly, to recommend ClamWin for any sort of non-poweruser is irresponsible as there's no real-time protection (which you did state but the average Joe doesn't understand the implications of that).

By HousecallsNiagara on Thursday Dec 10

Yes' but are they any good

It's nice to see some of the free AV packages brought to our attention, however it would be nice to see some performance results so we can see how good they actually are at doing their job, and how they stack up against the packages you have to pay for (in terms of protection).

By Cooperman on Friday Dec 11

Avira for me

I moved from Kaspersky to Avira due to an odd bug with a slowly expanding the control panel menu. I got the premium for free by doing an eMusic trial, very happy with it.

By Ip5_e9c608009d6 on Tuesday Dec 15

Mistitled Article

This article should perhaps have been called "Five free security software suites for a Microsoft operating System" as none of these is necessary with a Linux alternative.

By 6tricky9 on Tuesday Dec 15

Interface

How is Avast's GUI "unique" if it's similar to Winamp? Unique means there is nothing similar.

By RJD123 on Wednesday Dec 16

MSSE

Microsoft Security Essentials is a very good antivirus, but it is not so transparent to the system, in some cases MSSE uses a lot o CPU processing, I could observe that with application that creates a lot o temporary files (tmp), understand Internet Explorer, specialty the IE Feeds Features. A workaround is preventing scanning of TMP files or IE Process, which are not recommend.

By alexandrejds on Thursday Jan 28

"Suites" doesn't apply here.

I moved from Kaspersky to Avira due to an odd bug with a slowly expanding the control panel menu. I got the premium for free by doing an eMusic trial, very happy with it.

By PetreTerror on Thursday Oct 7

"Suites" doesn't apply here.

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By PetreTerror on Thursday Oct 7