Ask a dozen who owns a computer or laptop what their preferred anti-virus software is, and two names are going to pop up regularly – Norton and McAfee. In fact, you can get into a heated debate with some people over those two programs. Why? Well, for a lot of those in the tech industry, they use one or the other on their company servers, so when they give advice to end users as to which is better, they tend to side with the one they’re the most comfortable using.

 

Now both of those programs are fine for anti-virus software in their own right; however, I prefer something that doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg to own. I don’t have a major server network, and I don’t need phone support 24/7. What I need is an anti-virus program that does what I need it to (stop bugs from getting into my system) and is cheap – or in this case, free.

 

That’s why I go with programs like Avast!, AVG, Panda and others. Now, out of that list, the one I personally prefer (currently) is Avast!. Why? Well for several reasons. First of all, they’re a smaller company, which means they have to try harder than the big dogs to impress me. That means they’re going to work harder at catching everything they can. Secondly, they have one of the few Anti-virus softwares I’ve ever seen that can install on an infected system without corrupting the program in the process.

 

I recently installed it on a client’s laptop, rebooted and discovered over 200 viruses on their computer – all of which were caught and quarantined. After the reboot completed, I let it update the virus database and ran the scanner under Windows – to find over 100 more viruses on the system. All were caught and quarantined by Avast!.

 

Now are these programs truly free? Not exactly (you knew there was a catch, didn’t you?). Most of them require you to register with the company, so they know who’s using it. This means they get to have your email address. Considering how many places require us to register with our email address, I don’t really consider that much of a fee – but you might. So just be aware that most will require some form of registration in order for you to enjoy your “free” software.

 

Another downside is that most of them require you to agree that you’re using it only for your home system and not in a company computer. That’s an important distinction and one I support fully. If you’re going to put an Anti-virus program on a company system, do it right. When you pay for it, you’re not just paying for the program, you’re paying for the support that comes with it, should anything nasty happen.

 

So in short, don’t let a professional box and a network guru fool you into thinking you need professional grade software for protection on your home computer. As a computer tech myself, I can assure you that free software often works as well, if not better, than the stuff you can buy in stores.

 

Download Avast Anti-virus here

David Gillespie

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Tags: Free Download, Free Software

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