How To Get Free PC Antivirus and Spyware Blockers

There are several antivirus options that are free for non-commercial use. They can be a little hard to find unless you know what you’re looking for.

My assumption is they're free for home users as a way of marketing their commercial products to people who are likely to be in a position of recommending their use in a business environment… kind of like giving out free samples in a grocery store.

For each free antivirus program there is a fully featured version you can pay for. The paid version for each of these is usually more robust, and easier to use, but the free versions will usually still do what you need them to.

Bit Defender's Free PC AntivirusProgram

http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-Free-Edition.html

Avira's  Free PC Antivirus Program

http://www.free-av.com/

AVG's Free PC Antivirus Program

http://free.avg.com/

There’s also an open source antivirus program called ClamWin.

http://www.clamwin.com/

Most antivirus products being sold as a suite with a combination of antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software. Windows XP and Vista both have one built in, so a second one might be a little redundant, but you’ll still want spyware protection. I haven't had a chance to play with Windows 7 yet, so I can't say much yet about its built-in tools.

Microsoft has a free antispyware program called Windows Defender. It’s built into Vista, and it can be installed on XP. I’d suggest having it as your first line of defense against spyware.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx

No Anti Spyware program is perfect, but you should be able to catch most by using 2 different spyware programs. Ad Aware is another good free anti spyware program, and is one of the best Anti Spyware programs available.     http://www.lavasoft.com/

 My favorite is SpyBot. It’s a good solid anti spyware program, and the licensing agreements make it so it can be used, free, in a business environment.  In addition to scanning for spyware, it also uses system settings to keep a lot of spyware from installing itself in the first place.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

There’s one called Malwarebytes that’s free to use, but you have to pay for the full version to get updates. The reason I mention it is that I’ve used it to find and catch bugs the other programs couldn’t. http://www.malwarebytes.org/

There is also Spyware Doctor with Antivirus by PC Tools. The free version of Spyware Doctor with Antivirus is available as part of the Google Pack.

 
If you'd like to step your security up a notch with a paid program, I suggest taking a look at  Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 . Kaspersky Anti-Virus has been a top rated anti-virus program.

Out of the paid programs that are available, a personal favorite of mine is the security software provided by Computer Associates.

When you check out Computer Associates  CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2010 , make sure to take a look at their internet protection plan.