PC Magazine Best Free Software of 2012

This year’s PC Magazine Best Free Software of 2012 list contains 257 products in over 40 categories. Something for everyone! http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381528,00.asp In the interests of this being a security focused blog, below is a link getting you right to the antimalware (best free antivirus) “stuff”.

Antimalware (Antivirus)

Below are the preferred free antivirus products, in order. There are links taking you to these products. You may want to look at sites such as www.av-comparatives.org , www.virusbtn.com and www.av-test.org to see how these companies’ products test, in general. For some of the advanced features for the free antivirus, you may be required to download and install a toolbar.

1. AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012

2. avast! Free version

3. Avira Free Antivirus 2012

4. Comodo Cleaning Essentials

5. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381531,00.asp

Should you decide to upgrade from the free antivirus to the paid Antivirus product or Internet Security Suite, visit the above sites to see how well these companies stop malware. You can also go to

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html None of the companies in the top 5 above are among PC Magazine’s top 5 Internet Security Suites.

Only Avira (in the products above) was represented in the AV-Comparatives Summary Report for 2011 (www.av-comparatives.org ) as having a top 5 product with Kaspersky topping the list. This 129-page report containing information on a number of internet security suite solutions is well worth checking out.

About AV-Test.org http://www.av-test.org

The AV-TEST Institute is a leading international and independent service provider in the fields of IT security and anti-virus research. The aim of the research work carried out by AV-TEST is to directly detect the latest malware, to analyze it using state-of-the-art methods and to inform their customers of the top-quality results obtained.

About AV-Comparatives.org http://www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.