http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_od_feb2011.pdf interesting as ever and funded by the aussie government so should have no bias however for those who cant be bothered to read through it basic details are Avira 97.5% detection rate Avast 98.4% (this was Avast 5 not the latest Avast 6) AVG 91.4% MSE 95.8% for those who like to compare to paid for solutions McAfee 96.8% Norton 95.5% NOD32 97.5% Kaspersky 97.0%
I have tried most including Avast which was OK but I think MSE is the best atm. Mini your post only includes detection rates. Avast had a lot of FPs so was scored down. This is what you need. You can see MSE because of its very low FPs scored the same as Avast. I prefer MSE due to its ease of use and low foot print.
But something to consider... all these tests mentioned look at if detects a Virus. Me too I can do a anti-virus solution which finds 100% of virus... Who? I mark all files as virus. Problem solved. Am I a good A/V? This is also something else to consider. Also performance.
When the popup ad says 25% off I don't mind it- have now bought a 3-user to cover the whole family's machines, for £7 more than a single licence, thanks to their 25th Anniversary sale four months after the Christmas offer. Before a long gaming sesh I always hit the update just to make sure it doesn't kick in after 2hrs and ALT-TAB me but the suite above mine has a gaming mode to stop that happening. MSE failed to catch some spyware and it was gone in a flash, Avira's done the job and you get faster scanning with the middle (Premium) suite.
The best antivirus is common sense. But that's not so common anymore so I would suggest MSE. It's not often that I would suggest any Microsoft software (apart from Windows), but I was running it on a fairly old laptop (WinXP - around 2005) perfectly fine before moving to Linux.
Aye, I update as soon as I go online. I installed MSE on my mum's laptop but that's because an ad would freak her out and I'd get phonecalls. Tried a few others very briefly over the vears but Avira Antivir all the way for me.
I have used Norton antivirus products 5-8 years ago and they were the resource hogging days, today's best Paid Antivirus/Internet Security is by Kaspersky and Norton IMO. The best free Antivirus IMO is Avast, Avira and Microsoft Security Essentials.
AVAST is the best free anti virus to use. I am using it from about a year and never suffer from any kind of issue.
