Personal computers, from the moment of their appearance to the present day, are an irreplaceable working tool, means for communication and entertainment of the entire population of the earth. However, with the growing popularity and spread of the PC, the threat of its infection with malicious programs grew. Attackers are constantly improving the codes of their programs to bypass security software, called antivirus software. Therefore, to protect confidential documents, passwords, and other personal information on a computer, it is necessary to use modern anti-virus programs with the latest database updates, which usually cost a lot of money. However, some free programs are also able to protect your computer. Therefore, in this article, we will consider the best free antivirus, which was chosen by Reddit users.
Avast! Free Antivirus
Avast! Free Antivirus was developed by the Czech company Avast Software in order to comprehensively protect your computer from all types of threats and unauthorized intrusions from the network. It is a simplified version of Avast! Premier, and contains the most essential anti-malware tools.
Main Features
According to the developers, the main feature of Avast is excellent optimization and work with the company’s cloud servers. This approach reduces the load on the system, consuming a much smaller part of the computing power of the computer. In other words, this is the best option for office machines, mobile devices, and laptops. When a special mode is enabled, scanner activity decreases, performance improves, and notifications do not interrupt the game or movie.
Another distinctive feature of Avast! Free Antivirus is a comprehensive one-click scan. When entering the main menu of the antivirus, the user is greeted with a protection status window with a single button “Start smart scan.” After pressing it, the program checks for vulnerabilities on the system disk, analyzes the status and security of the network (Wi-Fi access point), checks the security of the router, and identifies suspicious background processes. At the end of the check, Avast will issue a report with tips for eliminating the problems.
Password Storage
Avast! Free Antivirus can offer its users the functionality of secure password storage, which is not often found in free security utilities. Thanks to this, banking transactions carried out on a PC will be hidden from intruders.
Kaspersky Free
One of the largest Russian IT companies, Kaspersky Lab, and its permanent head Evgeniy Kaspersky has long become a symbol of security in the digital world. Therefore, we included the free version of the most popular antivirus Kaspersky Free on our list.
Kaspersky Free is a smaller version of the antivirus program Kaspersky Internet Total Security. Despite this, it successfully copes with everyday tasks such as the following:
- Blocks actions of potentially dangerous software;
- Identifies dangerous sites;
- Protects registration data (passwords, logins, etc.);
- Checks websites for phishing scripts;
- Blocks spam and advertising;
- Completely scans the computer to find viruses and suspicious processes.
These features make this antivirus one of the best among its free competitors.