FREE ANTIVIRUS SOLUTIONS

My computer came with a version of McAfee or Norton but it has expired. Are there any good free antivirus programs I can just download?

Answer:

Most definitely, yes. There are two free products for home users that we currently recommend. The first is the AVG Free Edition, made by Grisoft. If this link no longer works, just go to the parent site, www.grisoft.com, choose Download, Products, and choose the AVG Free Edition. The site requires you to register first, and then sends you download instructions via email.

The other free product that we like is Avast! Home Edition. If this link does not work, go to www.avast.com, and choose Download, Programs, and then choose the Avast! Home download. The site allows you to download the program without registration, but you will still need to register the program to get a year of free updates. The makers currently allow the home edition to be reregistered for free after a year, so the product is, in essence, free.

Finally, if you just want to do an on-demand free scan, without installing any software, we recommend Trend Micro's house call, an online virus scan.

Author:
Dimitri Karhu
9/30/2004