Reviews of antivirus

This antivirus software detects even the latest types of ransomware because its virus database gets constantly updated. If Avira recognizes a file as a threat, it encrypts it and sends it to the quarantine folder. To remove a file from this folder and your computer or smartphone , you have to delete it manually. Otherwise, Avira Antivirus will store it there indefinitely. It will scan your system for outdated apps and suggest updates.

Remember that it will inform you about risky programs even if you only use Avira Free Security Suite. This feature is yet another reason to purchase a paid version of Avira Antivirus.

Keeping your programs up-to-date minimizes the risk of infection and security breaches. All versions of Avira Antivirus offer the firewall feature. Even though this feature might seem a little useless at first, it can actually come in handy. It is fast and easy to use, connecting you to the nearest server with a single click.

Unfortunately, it is limited to a mere MB per month. After the installation process, you will notice that Avira Free Security comes with a free extension called Avira Password Manager. This password manager is a great help if you are tired of keeping up with the login credentials throughout all your accounts. All you need to do is remember a single master password, and Avira will fill out everything else.

Additionally, the extension auto-generates strong, reliable passwords for your new accounts and syncs your credentials across all your devices. It can come in handy if you like shopping online, as it will help you avoid scam sites and trackers. Safety aside, Safe Shopping is a great tool for price comparison, as it will display the best current deals for the product you want to buy.

Unfortunately, this extension is only compatible with Google Chrome, Edge and Opera at the moment. To prevent this from happening, you can use the file shredder of Avira Antivirus. Simply drag and drop the file you want to erase forever, and the shredder will take care of the rest. Here you can apply either recommended or custom privacy settings to your device. In short, this will prevent Microsoft from collecting and using your personal information.

The recommended settings block ad tracking, disable location tracking, and make your activity private. You can apply or disable these settings anytime you want. You can also customize your privacy settings. This will give you an even wider range of the info you can hide including your search history. Avira Crypto is a recently implemented feature that lets you mine the cryptocurrency Ethereum ETH while your computer is in idle time. The feature is completely optional and the way it works is that it lets you mine Ethereum and then gather your earnings in a built-in Avira Crypto wallet.

On top of that, since you can only mine Ethereum, which is banned in several countries, you might not get the feature with your antivirus package. To conclude, Avira Crypto is a feature for users who are interested in or want to learn mining , however, if you don't need it, you can simply not enable it or disable it in the Avira Crypto dashboard.

Using Avira correctly might significantly boost the performance of your device. In this section of the Avira Antivirus review, you will explore the Performance tab to take a look at the features that might help your battery last longer.

The optimizer of Avira declutters your device by detecting and deleting all the unnecessary files and cookies. As time goes by, you might notice that the battery life of your laptop or smartphone gets shorter and shorter. Once activated, it reduces screen brightness, closes unnecessary applications, prevents updates from happening, and blocks push notifications together with location tracking. An outdated driver might serve as a gateway for a hacker attack.

As a result, keeping your drivers up to date is essential if you want to prevent bad things from happening. Just click on the Scan button, and Avira will show you which drivers are already vulnerable. I was surprised to find out that even the free version of Avira offers this service. I checked this feature and it indeed found some identical files. Even though at first glance Avira might seem a bit pricey, buying it actually pays off when you keep in mind all the extra features that come with it.

On the other hand, you can just use the free version of Avira Antivirus. It offers a few basic features that make your computer more secure, and it comes together with the password manager and the safe shopping extension. However, if you want features like unlimited VPN usage, web protection, ransomware protection, and premium mobile apps, you might consider buying one of the full packages listed below.

As you can see, Avira Free is a decent antivirus solution. It offers lots of extra features that will make your browsing easier, including useful plug-ins and a VPN. This version offers internet protection real-time malware blocking and email protection which scans all unencrypted emails and attachments. Review and where to download: Avast Free Antivirus. Microsoft Defender formerly Windows Defender was generally seen as a bit of a joke in the not-too-distant past.

It performed terribly by most measures and was a good advert for why you should really pay for antivirus. But as we explain further up this article, Microsoft Defender has come on leaps and bounds and can now legitimately be mentioned in the same company as Bitdefender, Norton and Kaspersky. As well as very solid virus protection, Defender has extra bits and bobs like a ransomware shield, webcam protection, privacy tools and even basic parental controls and cloud backup.

And the best bit No need to download a thing, just find it in your menu and get protected straight away. Read more and see how to use: Microsoft Defender review. The paid-for version of Kaspersky's Windows security software frequently tops charts of best virus prevention solutions and AV-TEST once again gave it full marks across the board in its latest round of testing.

As you would expect, Kaspersky Free is a scaled down version of the full program - a tool that we really like more on which below. The free version ditches additional features such as privacy protection and safe payment sandboxes to concentrate on powerful, no-frills and - most importantly - free protection for your PC.

The result is a tremendously easy to use and navigate bit of software that does an effective job of keeping you protected from viruses. Using the nuts and bolts real-world scanning engine of the paid-for suite, Kaspersky Free is fiendishly hard for viruses and trojan horses to break down. And we love that it doesn't constantly pester you with nudges to upgrade to the full version. But, ironically, we will just for a moment, because Kasperksy Anti-Virus isn't expensive to buy and yet affords much better protection to your PC or PCs.

Review and where to download: Kaspersky Free. Marketing itself as "business-grade security", Sophos Home does a little more than most free antivirus software, and actually seems better suited to families. You get standard virus protection and anti-malware protection, along with browser tools like anti-phishing and, most importantly, content control.

Combined with central management of up to 10 PCs, this means you can effectively lock down your kids' browsing options.

Although Sophos Home has always had desktop notifications, there was no premium version of the software for it to encourage an upgrade to. That changed in February with the launch of Sophos Home Premium. Review and where to download: Sophos Home. Each entry in this list has been carefully chosen for its business features, such as remote installation and central management. The best business antivirus software will have enterprise-level protection against threats, but that doesn't mean they have to cost a lot of money, either.

The price per installation can sometimes be cheaper than even our recommended best antivirus packages. Avast Business Antivirus Pro An excellent business antivirus suite, giving you various tools such as virus protection, Firewall, email protection, anti-spam and the ability to sandbox applications for complete security.

Avast Business Antivirus Pro as opposed to the standard Avast Business Antivirus also includes Sharepoint and Exchange protection, as well as a number of tools for your servers. Bitdefender products are loved by the independent testing labs, highly rated for malware detection, removal, performance and usability. Most of the features work automatically — anti-malware, firewall, web advisor, URL filtering — but you can also customise the product to control user actions. Symantec Endpoint Protection Symantec's first benefit is the company's Insight file reputation technology, an effective way to detect and block even the very latest undiscovered threats.

Other layers of protection include virus protection, behaviour monitoring, intrusion protection, a firewall, and the 'Power Eraser' to remove stubborn threats and repair your system. Avira Antivirus for Endpoint This is Avira's main small business product. It takes all the core features you'd expect — antivirus, baseline network protection, web filtering — and extends them with file server protection and optimisation, along with application whitelisting and blacklisting.

The desktop side of the package has all the usual quality Kaspersky modules — antivirus, antispam, a firewall, more — but the mobile security technologies are even more impressive. Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace. He now covers VPNs, antivirus and all things security for TechRadar, although he still has a secret love of quirky open-source and freeware apps which find brand new ways to solve common problems.

North America. If you're looking for the best possible protection for your online devices in , then you've come to the right place - we've tested all of the best antivirus providers out there to come up with a definitive list of the absolute greatest. View Deal. Bitdefender Antivirus. Maximum devices covered: Stand out features: Safepay banking protection, privacy tools, multi-layered anti-ransomware, VPN.

Reasons to avoid - Room for improvement on detection. Norton AntiVirus. Stand out features: Intelligent firewall, PC maintenance features, bundled backup tool with online storage. Reasons to avoid - Mixed results from the testing labs. Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Stand out features: Highly configurable virus scans, anti-ransomware, drive-by cryptomining infection prevention.

Reasons to avoid - Not a huge amount of features. Trend Micro Antivirus. Reasons to avoid - Not as many features as key rivals. Avast One. Reasons to avoid - Not a huge upgrade from free version. Microsoft Defender. Specifications Operating system: Windows only.

Stand out features: Anti-ransomware, webcam and privacy protection, web filtering. Reasons to avoid Avira antivirus. Stand out features: Proactive anti-ransomware, software updater, web protection.

Reasons to avoid - Ratings from some independent test labs are a concern. McAfee antivirus. Stand out features: VPN, spam filter, intelligent firewall. Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus. Specifications Operating system: Windows, Mac and Android options. Maximum devices covered: 5.

Stand out features: Identity theft protection, real-time anti-phishing, firewall monitor. Reasons to avoid - Below average results in independent tests. Sophos Home. All of the antivirus software has at least one Windows version available. Microsoft has released new versions of Windows approximately once a year, with major revisions every five or six months.

Modern antivirus software may not work on older versions of Windows. Companies like Amazon may have some of the older versions of antivirus software on their shelves. If they do, you might be able to find one that works with your version of Windows. Like Microsoft, Apple has constantly released new versions of its operating system. Make sure the antivirus package you get is compatible with your version of the Mac OS. Linux The Linux operating system is a portable version of the Unix operating system written from the ground up for PCs.

Although Linux is now virtually identical to Windows in its user interface, many people still shy away from it. Therefore, it is difficult to find antivirus software for it. Antivirus software is usually sold according to how many devices it will protect, with a license for each device. PCs and Macs are commonly covered on most packages, and many packages cover up to five devices in any combination three PCs and two Macs, four Macs and one PC, etc. Some will only protect one to three devices, while a few offer protection for an unlimited number of devices.

Protection can also be purchased for mobile devices, although this is less common. Determine how many devices in your home need protection before you start comparing antivirus software.

A firewall is a software tool that monitors network traffic, both incoming and outgoing, to determine which traffic to allow or block.

It performs this function based on a predetermined set of security rules. Early firewalls were mainly hardware. Today, a firewall can be software, hardware, or a combination.

A firewall is the first and most basic feature an antivirus software package should have. Online data breaches have become a growing problem in recent years, and identity theft is on the rise. Antivirus companies have stepped up to the plate by incorporating privacy and identity protection in the suite of services offered in their software packages. The implementation can be spotty, which is why we encourage you to investigate our highly reviewed products.

The file itself is still there, but is essentially invisible. It can be overwritten, either in whole or in part, by other programs or files. Because of this, file recovery software can often recover a file you thought you deleted.

In the case of sensitive, personal, or financial files or data, this is a bad idea. A file shredder overwrites the file with random binary data not once but multiple times. Ransomware is a big — and criminal — business. If the attacker has used bit encryption standard these days your chance of recovering your files without that key is zero. Anti-ransomware will detect ransomware by its unique profile or according to an updated list of ransomware that has been identified or both. It will prevent it from being installed, quarantine it, and alert you to its presence.

A rootkit is a collection of malicious computer software designed to access restricted areas of a computer and mask its true purpose while doing so. Rootkit installation is often the result of a corrupt website or malicious download. For this reason, an anti-rootkit feature is important and possibly vital in an antivirus software. Real-time monitoring uses various techniques such as signature detection and heuristics to detect malware-like behavior. It continually scans the local file system and memory for anomalies.

It scans emails as you download and before you open them. Webcam manufacturers design their cameras for maximum connectivity and ease of use. Unfortunately, that leaves them open to hacking by unscrupulous individuals who can use them to spy on you or your children. Oftentimes, they can be remotely activated once the malware is installed or connects to your device.

Software that comes with the devices is often the target of hackers.