A Free Anti-Virus Comparison: 5 Popular Choices Go Toe-To-Toe

What is the best free antivirus? This is among the most common questions we receive at MakeUseOf. People want to be protected, but they don't want to have to pay a yearly fee or use bloated security suites with unwanted features. I myself am a free antivirus user for these very reasons.

Discovering the best anti-virus isn't easy, however. There are a lot of points to consider including the user interface, resource and overall effectiveness against the baddies. Let's take an in-depth look at five popular choices (Avast!, AVG, Ad-Aware, Avira and Microsoft Security Essentials) to see which is best.

Criteria

Our performance testing in this article consisted of a selected scan of a single 500GB mechanical hard drive that was approximately half-full. We used the full scan option. Our gauge of memory usage is based off the memory the software uses while running in the background and is the rounded average of what I witnessed over three minutes of use.

Protection information comes from AV-Comparatives and AV-Test, two leading sources for information about antivirus effectiveness. The specific studies referenced are AV-Comparative's March 2012 Detection Test andAV-Test's June 2012 round-up.

All testing was done under Windows 7 64-bit.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+

Lavasoft's rather wide main menu does a good job of providing information without overwhelming the user. Most of the features are turned on or off using sliders and the big, bright "Scan Now!" button makes it immediately clear where a user needs to click to perform a scan.

I was somewhat confused by the custom scan options, however, because individuals drives can't be selected before a specific box in the options is checked.

Lavasoft tries to lure users in by displaying advanced features that can't be used until the full version is activated. It's a bit disappointing to find a feature is not available, but this approach is less bothersome than the sidebar ads used by AVG.

Performance didn't prove to be a strong point. A full scan took a tad over twenty minutes, the second-longest result. The background application consumed about 32 megabytes of RAM while idle. That's not enough to drag down most systems but it is by far the worst result among the software evaluated here.

AV-Comparatives still does not include Lavasoft products in its file detection tests. AV-Test does test it, however, and found that it was able to handle 99% of recently discovered threats during the most recent round-up. The only flaw is 0-day attacks. Lavasoft detected just 80% of those threats, which ties Microsoft Security Essentials for last place.

By the way, you can grab Lavasoft Ad-Aware Pro for free in our Rewards section. It's just 500 points!

Avast!

Avast! features an interface that appears smooth and modern relative to most competitors. Its large window includes a lot of free white space and provides all the information you need to know about your computer's current protection.

I really like the software's real-time shield menu. It lumps all of the different threat vectors which Avast! protects against into one menu and shows you how much of each have been scanned. It even updates in real-time as new potential threats are checked.

Advertising is included but is mostly restricted to the installation process and the main menu. The computer scan and real-time shield menus, which users will deal with most frequently, are devoid of ads.

A full scan of our test drive required about 15 minutes, the second-best result. The background process required 3.5 megabytes of RAM at idle, which is technically the middle result.

Avast! missed about 2% of all samples thrown at it in the last AV-Comparatives malware detection test, an average result. The last AV-Test comparison agreed with those findings.

AVG

The interface of AVG is simple. It provides a list of icons, each representing a form of protection, and places the scan functions to the sidebar.  The "Scan Now" link is literal. Click on it, and AVG will starts to work on your entire computer without any additional prompts.

While the basic anti-virus features are easy to use the additional components are a bit bewildering. AVG includes everything from e-mail protection to rootkit protection. A lot of these components are handicapped, however, and direct you to buy one of AVG's paid solutions. Other icons direct users to AVG products on other platforms, like Android.

AVG posted the least impressive scan time result. It required almost 23 minutes to chew through our 500GB test drive - about 75% longer than the quickest competitor. The background process, however, was the second smallest. It consumed just 2.4 megabytes of RAM at idle.

AV-Comparative's last file detection test found that AVG missed about 3.5% of all threats thrown at it, one of the least impressive scores in the test group. AV-Test, however, found that the software detected 99% or recent threats in its last round-up.

Avira

Avira has a confusing interface. For example, performing a specific scan requires that the user go to the System Scanner menu, then click on an option, then click a very small magnifying glass icon. Alternatively you can click the gear button on the main menu, but this opens up another menu that declares you must be in "expert mode" to change settings. Uh, what is expert mode? The big fat "Scan!" button used by competitors is more intuitive.

In-app advertising was light, but I was hit by a pop-up advertisement immediately after installing the software. Pop-up ads on my desktop are extremely annoying and not something I want to see, ever. There are also many features which are visible, but disabled until you buy the full version.

Avira blew away the competition in our performance tests. It required just over 13 minutes to perform a full hard drive scan and its background process consumed a measly 1.8 megabytes of RAM at idle. This software is clearly the best for users who prefer protection that is light on system resources.

Avira did extremely well in the last AV-Comparatives file detection test. It missed less than .5% of all samples and scored second-best overall, beating all other free solutions tested. Avira also detected 99% of recently discovered threats in the last AV-Test roundup.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials is different from the competitors because it's not a marketing tool. All the other vendors offer their free anti-virus in an attempt to earn name recognition and impress users, but Microsoft has no paid anti-virus to sell. This makes for a clean interface that's not cluttered by advertisements.

Some of the cleanliness is due to a lack of features, however. MSE can scan for, detect, quarantine and attempt to remove a virus, but that's all it does. There's no mobile version, no e-mail protection, no bundled anti-phishing. It is, as the name implies, only the "essentials."

MSE posted middling results in our performance tests. It required almost twenty minutes to fully scan our test drive and its background process consumed about 6.8 megabytes of RAM at idle.

Early testing of MSE suggested it was surprisingly competent, but more recent tests have been less kind. MSE came in last during the most recent AV-Comparatives file detection test. It missed almost 7% of all samples. AV-Test found that it missed 5% of recently detected samples in its last round-up.

So Which Is Best?

Avira is the technical standout. It has posted excellent scores in recent protection tests and it also ran away from the competition in our performance metrics. The downside is a confusing user interface. I had to explore the software for a few minutes before I understood how to operate it. If Avira could make the software just at tad more intuitive it would have the perfect product.

Avast! may be a better option for users who want to fuss with protection as little as possible. It is nearly as good as Avira in our performance benchmarks and it offers a slick, simple interface. Advertising is kept to a minimum, as well.

Lavasoft and AVG are suitable choices, but both have a catch that may be significant for some users. Lavasoft uses far more resources than the competitors while running in the background and AVG has an unattractive interface loaded with advertisements for the full version and other AVG products. Both offer competent protection, however.

Last, and least, is Microsoft Security Essentials. It was not the slowest in our tests, nor did it eat the most RAM, but protection studies have shown it to be the least effective at stopping threats by a large margin. Missing 5% of recent threats in the AV-Test roundup doesn't sound like much, but all other competitors missed 2% or less. Going with MSE makes you substantially more vulnerable.

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How To Remove Spam Apps & Ensure App Privacy [Weekly Facebook Tips]

Apps on Facebook can be great, but they can also be a right pain in the neck. On one hand, there's useful apps like Spotify or Last.fm which make it easy to share your music taste with your friends. Mostly these are welcomed and vaguely interesting for the friends to view. On the other hand, there's annoying games and spammy viral apps that post things on your timeline.

There are several ways to clean up the apps you're using and ensure your privacy settings for apps are set just right. There are also some easy ways to remove and report applications when required - like when you've accidentally clicked on a viral scam app. Here's what you need to know.

Setting Privacy For Applications

When your absent-minded friend installs yet another dodgy application, how much information do you want the developers to find out about you? And what about this way around - if you're using a new game, how much information do you want the developers to know about your family? Your grandmother? Your kids?

This is the reason people need to check privacy settings for applications. Until you lock down your privacy, you never really know what information is being collected about you and your friends via apps you or your friends may have installed. Scary, isn't it?

Go to the drop-down menu in the top right of Facebook and choose "Privacy Settings", then choose to edit the settings for "Ads, Apps and Websites". From here you can choose exactly what information can be seen by applications your friends install. Since you don't know anything about the developers of most apps or what your friends might install, un-checking most of these boxes is a great idea. Then, if you care about your family and friends, teach them how to do this too.

Clean Up Your Apps

There are two main ways to get a list of all your apps. Firstly, you could go to the arrow at the top-right of Facebook and choose "Account settings" and then choose "Applications". Secondly, you could navigate from the Facebook Home page to the "App Center" using the links on the left hand side, then choosing "My Apps" from the menu on the left.

Either of these options will give you a list of all the applications you have authorised for your account. Although, the second method has the option of sorting by "Last used", which is handy when searching for something you recently added or got annoyed by. To remove the applications, just click on the cross to the right of each application. Remove anything that looks suspicious, unfamiliar or unused and you could clean up your apps in no time. And don't worry, if you remove something useful it can always be added again later. It's no big deal.

How To Get A Spam App Off Your Timeline Wall

It happens all the time. People see an update in their feed from a friend claiming to let them view a certain video or see who looks at your Facebook profile. They click on it impulsively because they're curious and instantly they have posted that same update on to all their friends. The viral app continues to annoy and intrigue their friends and the cycle continues. So, how do you get rid of it?

Every update on your timeline can be removed and the application may be reported as spam. Simply head to your timeline and click on the edit pencil in the top-right of the update. The menu for an update will show a "Remove" option and a "Report Spam" option, while a clustered bundle of information from an application will show options to "Remove Application" or "Mark As Spam". If you accidentally remove the post first, you can use the methods above for cleaning up your apps to remove the app, which should show as recently used.

Never Get An App Request From THAT Person/App Again

If you hate getting reminders and requests from apps, there's an easy way to block them. Head to the Facebook Home page and choose "App Center" from the menu on the left, then "Requests ". You'll see a list of all your recent requests from apps. From here it's simple - just click on the cross to the right of a request and it will give you the option to block the application completely.

Or if you're always getting requests from the same person, you can block that person's requests completely instead.

Hiding Apps From Your Newsfeed

We went through this in detail recently in the article "How To Get Rid Of Facebook Notifications & Other Annoying Things You Don't Want To See", but it's worth noting quickly here too. If an application shows up in your news feed that you find annoying, just click the drop-down arrow to the right and choose "Hide" from the menu. It will then give you the option to block the application or the person who made the update. Most of the time, hiding the application is the best move.

What bugs you about Facebook apps? Tell us all your pet moans and groans in the comments!

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CV Maker Creates Beautiful, Professional-Looking Resumes Online in Minutes

• 250,817downloads
 
• 126,329saved CVs

Regardless of the job you apply for, you'll need a sharp-looking resume that looks good on-screen and in-print to make a good impression. CV Maker is a webapp that makes it easy to create multiple professional, good-looking resumes online, save them for future updates and editing, and print them off whenever you want, all for free.

You can head over to CV Maker now and start building your resume for free without signing up for anything, but if you do sign up for an account (sign up with Facebook, or click the Login/Register link at the top to create an account by email address), you can save your resumes, come back to them later, and create multiple resume templates for different types of jobs, which can save you a lot of time when you're working hard looking for work. The service will even host your resumes publicly if you want, so others can come and download them. CV Maker also has multiple resume types to choose from, and while none of them are going to win any design awards, they all look professional, and sharp enough that they'll catch the eye but not so much that they're too flashy.

Sure, you could spend hours wrangling with templates in a desktop word processor and wind up with a resume that's difficult to update,  CV Maker fits well in between.

CV Maker

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