Best Free Antivirus Mash-up - PC Magazine, PC World, AV-Comparatives.org

August 1  -  Updated table at

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/08/summer-review-mashup-free-antivirus.html

 

PC World published  “Free Antivirus You Can Trust” on April 29.  The table below is a simple compilation  of scores from PC World, AV-Comparatives.org and PC Magazine, of  four free antivirus SW packages,  from Avast, Avira, AVG Technologies, and Panda, respectively.   

These were the top 4 free antivirus products in the "trust" article. The article in PC World has  a table ranking seven free antivirus packages.  The number of stars given range from 3.5 to 4.5.    

For each publication in the table below, the first column is the ranking. The second is the number of stars. For www.av-comparatives.org , the maximum number of stars that could be awarded was five

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Sources for the Rankings

 PC Magazine – April 20 the Best Antivirus for 2012 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372369,00.asp

 

PC World - April 29, Free Antivirus You Can Trust http://www.pcworld.com/article/254121/free_antivirus_you_can_trust.html

 

AV-Comparatives.org -  March – 2012 On Demand Detection of Malicious Software   (about 18 products in this free report)

 http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_fd_mar2012_intl_en.pdf

In terms of global  market share, the top four antivirus  products as of  March 2012 (www.OPSWAT.com )

1. 16.3% - Avast
2. 11.7% - Avira
3. 11.0% - AVG Technologies
4. 10.1% - Microsoft

 http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-2012-opswat-report-on-worldwide.html

For ratings of more antivirus packages (Neil Rubenking and PC Magazine)

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-antivirus-software-2012-pc.html

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.

Best Antivirus Software - Readers Choice Awards 2011 – Antivirus.about.com

Mary Landesman and About.com have announced their Readers Choice Awards for Antivirus, Internet Security Suites, and Free Antivirus. The complete text and link to the article is below. These are popularity contests and don’t reflect the ability of the software to actually stop anything (though one would think that that’s what readers are interested in). For example, Rubenking of PC World tends to like Norton for their internet security suite. Comodo did win a www.download.com popularity context. The folks at Avira have to be pleased with the results below. No details on the number of participants, whether people could vote more than once, etc.

http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/ss/Best-Antivirus-Software-Winners_2.htm

Best Windows Antivirus for 2011

• GFI VIPRE Antivirus: 44%
• Avira AntiVir Premium: 28%
• ESET NOD32 Antivirus: 18%
• ZoneAlarm Antivirus: 6%
• Norton AntiVirus: 3%

Best Internet Security Suite for 2011

Some surprises in this table.

• Comodo Internet Security: 42%
• Panda Global Protection: 26%
• ESET Smart Security: 25%
• Kaspersky Internet Security: 4%
• Norton Internet Security: 3%

Best Free Antivirus

• Avira AntiVir Personal: 62%
• Avast! antivirus: 13%
• Microsoft Security Essentials: 10% (how did they do this?)
• AVG Free: 9%
• Panda Cloud Antivirus: 6%

People looking at the above, may want to look go to www.virusbtn.com , www.av-test.org, and www.av-comparatives.org prior to making a purchase decision or downloading. Alternatively, look at relevant blogs on this site! Go to www.kensek.blogspot.com to view results from these blogs, including tables showing the rankings of the antivirus and internet security suite products for 2012 that PC World has tested and reviewed, cross tabbed against some of the test organization's results. It is well worth reading Rubenking's reviews after looking at the rankings. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html . There are also reviews on www.download.com by Rosenblatt.