Good
browsing hygiene and "common sense" only get you so far on the
internet. A good antivirus utility is worth keeping in your pocket in
case either of those two things fail you (as they have been known to in
the past) or someone less tech-savvy asks you for a good tool. This week
we're looking at five of the best antivirus tools, based on your
nominations.
Earlier in the week we asked you which desktop antivirus tools you thought were the best.
We immediately nixed some contenders we knew would come up, namely "nothing," "OS X/Linux," and "Microsoft Security Essentials," for a few reasons: First, "nothing" and "OS X/Linux" don't really help anyone and only serve to stoke a debate that no one will—or is interested in trying to—resolve. We've already explained why you should use antivirus even if you browse carefully and explained that your security has to do with more than just your activities. Second, MSE, while it used to be a great tool, is no longer at the top of its game, and even Microsoft says it's not built to offer the same protection as third-party antivirus (rather, they want it to be a "good enough" tool instead.)
So with those out of the way, let's look at your top five nominees, in no particular order:
Avast! Free Antivirus
Avast! Free Antivirus is our current pick as the best antivirus for Windows,
but it remains to be seen whether it'll be your pick as well. It's come
a long way in a few short updates, with the 2014 version offering a
streamlined, easy to navigate interface and a plethora of on-access
scanning and protection tools (some of which you may not want, so take care when installing). It's still one of the top picks available, according to AV Comparitives and AV-Test,
and performs well in antivirus tests. Avast offers an on-access
antivirus scanner that examines files downloaded, pages you visit,
emails you receive, and any files downloaded, and also features an
on-demand scanner you can run at any time. It updates quietly in the
background without fuss, and has a "silent" mode where you can disable
any and all notifications and warnings to keep performance slim and
trim. The app itself is relatively resource light—you may not even
notice it's there. Best of all, it's completely free.
In the
nominations round, many of you praised Avast for its performance and
light use of system resources, and others pointed out that you'd been
Avast users for a long time and were pleased to see its updates. Others
highlighted specific features, like Avast's screensaver scan, where the
application only kicks in when you're away from the computer or the
system is idle. A few of you even highlighted the fact that Avast is
cross-platform, and available for multiple operating systems. It's not
perfect by any means, but it's a great tool. You can read more in its nominations thread here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment