AVG Free AntiVirus is one of the best free antivirus apps for Windows 10 thanks to our advanced AI-powered antivirus engine and global threat-detection network. Avira Free Security: the best free antivirus for Windows Download Antivirus For Windows 10 – Best Software & Apps ; WinRAR. · ( votes) ; TotalAV Essential Antivirus. · (83 votes) ; Avast Free Antivirus.
 
 

[Antivirus software free for pc windows 10

There are no parental controls, the password manager holds only 15 entries and the VPN service is limited to MB per day. You can pay extra to get unlimited versions of those.

But Kaspersky Anti-Virus does give you what you need: dedicated protection against encrypting ransomware, a filter against phishing emails, browser extensions to beef up web safety and a security scanner for your home Wi-Fi network. Kaspersky Anti-Virus also has new protection against “stalkerware” spying programs that the company is rolling out across all its antivirus products.

Read our full Kaspersky Anti-Virus review. There’s an unlimited password manager Windows-only for now , a secure browser with an onscreen keyboard for online banking and shopping, a file shredder and new web-privacy software. And of course, there are no parental controls. However, the program is easy to use, its malware-detection record nearly matches Kaspersky’s and it also rolls back ransomware and guards against fileless malware and rootkits. Read our full Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review.

Norton sells nine different antivirus packages, but we’ll focus on the two cheapest here. The next rung up, Norton Standard, puts you in internet-security-suite territory by adding an unlimited VPN, webcam protection, dark-web scans for your personal information and 10GB of online storage. Other brands cover up to 10 PCs for that price. On the upside, Norton’s track record at finding and defeating malware is second only to Kaspersky’s. If you don’t mind paying a premium price for an entry-level antivirus package, or if you were planning to pay for a VPN or password manager separately, you could do a lot worse.

Read our full Norton AntiVirus Plus review. Compared to other best Windows 10 antivirus programs, ESET NOD32 Antivirus is like a street-racing hot rod — light, cheap, fast and effective, but with few extra frills.

It’s got the smallest drag on system performance of any paid antivirus product we’ve seen, it zaps malware with the best of them, and it’s got a unique per-device pricing structure than ensures you pay no more than you need to. ESET’s extra features are under the hood.

It scans a PC’s start-up sector, running memory and Registry for hidden malware and also blocks known malicious websites. But if you’re looking for user-friendly goodies like a password manager, VPN or firewall, you’d better look elsewhere.

McAfee AntiVirus Plus is a bargain among the best Windows 10 antivirus programs if you have a lot of computers and smartphones to protect. Windows users get a file shredder, ransomware rollback, a firewall and protective browser extensions. McAfee’s malware protection hasn’t always been the best in lab tests, but it’s improved a lot in the past year.

The only big downsides today are very heavy system slowdown during active malware scans, plus the fact that you can’t stop threat-data collection from your PC if you choose not to have it.

The downsides are that you’ll see a pretty heavy system slowdown during scans, so make sure to run them during off hours. You may also get a lot of false positives, or benign items flagged as suspicious, which may indicate that Trend Micro’s malware-detection engine is a bit overtuned.

As is the case with other types of software, you need to choose Windows 10 antivirus programs according to both your needs and budget. Both give you access to an unlimited password manager and Standard adds an unlimited VPN and dark web personal information monitoring.

To get the best Mac antivirus software or the best Android antivirus apps as part of a bundle, you’ve often got to upgrade to midrange antivirus software , if not the premium tiers. Of course, if all you want to do is keep your PCs free from malware, then Kaspersky Anti-Virus is the best choice. We evaluated each Windows 10 antivirus program on this list based on its interface, performance, protection and extra features. One of the downsides of the free version of Bitdefender is its lack of extra features.

The profiles you can choose from are:. All of its plans are backed by a day money-back guarantee, so you can try it out risk-free. Download Bitdefender Free Now. Read the full Bitdefender review here. Avira Free Security for Windows has an excellent anti-malware engine and operates fully in the cloud. This makes Avira extremely fast, lightweight, and low on system resources. The Safe Shopping browser extension for Firefox and Chrome is really good — it blocks suspicious phishing sites, web trackers, and unwanted advertisements.

The extension also automatically recommends links to better deals when shopping online. Avira backs all yearly subscriptions with a day money-back guarantee. Download Avira Free Now. Another thing that makes Panda a good choice for Windows users is the Rescue Kit feature, which allows you to download a bootable version of Panda to a USB drive and then use the USB drive to clean an infected PC and get it up and running again.

With lightweight malware scanning, an automatic gaming mode, a Rescue Kit, and a VPN, Panda is an excellent free internet security product.

Download Panda Free Now. It uses a huge blacklist to identify known phishing sites as well as an AI-powered phishing detection system to detect new threats. Out of all the antiviruses on this list, only Norton and Bitdefender blocked more risky sites than TotalAV.

TotalAV is also the most intuitive free Windows antivirus on this list, with easy-to-use and easy-to-understand features and functions inside a minimalistic, well-designed dashboard. Kaspersky Security Cloud — Free is good at detecting and removing malware, and it also comes with plenty of extras — including:. All Kaspersky purchases include a day money-back guarantee. Download Kaspersky Free Now.

Malwarebytes Free is a good choice for users looking for a simple antivirus scanner that they can install and forget about. However, it did miss a few well-hidden files that competitors like Norton , Bitdefender , and TotalAV detected. Apart from the scanner, Malwarebytes Free also comes with a browser extension that protects against a wide range of threats, including malware, ads and trackers, scams, and PUPs.

Malwarebytes Free is a minimalistic antivirus scanner with good virus detection and removal rates. It also comes with a browser extension that blocks malware, phishing sites, ads, and trackers. Download Malwarebytes For Free Now. Plus, Windows Defender consistently ranks below the top antivirus scanners in our independent lab testing.

The free downloads on this list are from top-notch cybersecurity companies that are offering their premium antivirus protection for free. And some of the free programs on my list also include additional cybersecurity protections.

Free antiviruses like Bitdefender , Avira and TotalAV are pretty good, and they can offer some decent protection. Premium antiviruses are way better , as they come with all of the internet security protections you need to stay as safe as possible online. Yes, free antiviruses can offer some good protection, but users looking for complete online protection should consider a paid antivirus most of which are low cost, especially with our promotional coupons and discounts.

It also offers web protection when you browse online to avoid phishing and fraud attempts. It lets you customize the scan to improve your computer security. You can use this free antivirus application to scan your computer to detect and remove all malware, viruses, worms, ransomware, Trojans, etc. Avast Free Antivirus features 6 layers of security, a powerful virus scanner, and no slowdowns or interruptions of your computer.

You can use this program as a free Windows Security alternative. It is packed with the largest threat-detection network, machine-learning virus protection, and home network security. It helps protect your computer in real-time by analyzing unknown files before they reach your device. Malwarebytes is also a top free antivirus program for Windows. It helps protect your devices from hackers, malicious sites, infected ads, credit card skimmers and credential stealers, etc.

Its proprietary ransomware attack technology helps protect your PC, files, etc. It offers a Security Advisor which can highlight your security status in real-time. It has an intuitive interface giving you ultimate control to customize your protection.

[Download Antivirus For Windows 10 – Best Software & Apps

It also offers web protection when you browse online to avoid phishing and fraud attempts. It lets you customize the scan to improve your computer security. You can use this free antivirus application to scan your computer to detect and remove all malware, viruses, worms, ransomware, Trojans, etc. Avast Free Antivirus features 6 layers of security, a powerful virus scanner, and no slowdowns or interruptions of your computer.

You can use this program as a free Windows Security alternative. It is packed with the largest threat-detection network, machine-learning virus protection, and home network security.

It helps protect your computer in real-time by analyzing unknown files before they reach your device. Malwarebytes is also a top free antivirus program for Windows. It helps protect your devices from hackers, malicious sites, infected ads, credit card skimmers and credential stealers, etc. Its proprietary ransomware attack technology helps protect your PC, files, etc. It offers a Security Advisor which can highlight your security status in real-time.

It has an intuitive interface giving you ultimate control to customize your protection. You can also use this antivirus program as a free alternative to Windows Defender. It helps stop various viruses, spyware, and malware with six powerful layers of protection. Its Email Shield feature can block dangerous email attachments and phishing links that may steal your data.

It also blocks unsafe links and web pages. Avira Free Antivirus is also a good alternative to Microsoft Defender. It helps you block spyware, adware, ransomware, Trojans, worms, viruses, etc.

However, the password manager and Cleanup tools are only trial versions that will expire after a time-limited trial. There’s also a firewall, file shredder, and sandbox feature that’s unusable in this free version. Avast Free Antivirus is compatible with Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. Kaspersky Free is a good choice for a free antivirus program if you want a simple program that boasts lots of features.

This free AV program is also useful if your computer is low on system resources. It can automatically postpone scans and reduce display animations if the CPU runs too high. Kaspersky’s free antivirus program runs on Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7.

There’s also an app for Android and iOS that goes by the same name. Resets browser home page and default search engine unless specifically deselected during installation. Panda Security’s free antivirus program installs in minutes and has a minimal design. However, even though it’s not a CPU or memory hog, and doesn’t appear to be customizable, all of its many options are tucked away in the program’s settings.

From there, you can do things like set up both on-demand and automatic scans to check compressed files and scan for potentially unwanted programs. The automatic, permanent scanner includes some additional options, too, like behavioral and analysis scanning options, the ability to ask you before neutralizing a virus, and blocking files from running for so-many seconds until results on whether it’s safe or harmful are obtained from the cloud.

Something entirely unique to Panda Free Antivirus is its security news and alerts sections that can show you critical, warning, and informational messages like when a popular vendor experiences a data breach that could affect your personal information. You can, however, turn those off if you want to. Complete a scan in just a few minutes if you only want to check for actively running threats, like browser cookies, processes, and things currently loaded in memory.

However, there’s also, of course, an option for a full system scan or a custom scan. This software does a fantastic job at keeping the important buttons up front and hiding the additional options within menus so that you’re not constantly bombarded with options or alerts. However, the program will change your home page and the search provider in your web browser, unless you uncheck those options during the initial setup. The minimum operating system requirements for installing this program are Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, or XP.

It should work equally well on Windows 11, too. There’s also an Android antivirus app from this company, and one for macOS, though it’s free only during a trial. Below is the Windows download; those other download links are available on Panda Security’s website. AVG’s free antivirus program is easy on the eyes and even easier to use. The scan button is right in the middle of the screen, turning features off is dead-simple, and all the advanced options are tucked away from view in the settings.

You can either install it and leave the settings alone to have regular protection, or go into the settings and make adjustments to nearly anything.

Choose how to scan files— include only content that might include malware like executable data , only files that use a file extension considered potentially dangerous like EXE , or all files regardless of content type or file extension. Enable rootkit detection, hardcore mode, and CyberCapture technology, which helps detect threats in unrecognized files.

During setup, you have full control over which components should be enabled or disabled after AVG is installed. Windows 10, 8, 7, and XP are the official minimum OS system requirements. It also runs on Mac You can also run scans at any time, either quick scans, full scans, scans of commonly infected areas, and custom scans.

A custom scan in COMODO Antivirus lets you choose which files or folders to scan and enables a host of other customizations like whether to decompress and scan archives, use cloud scanning, automatically delete threats, enable heuristics scanning, check for threats running in memory, skip files over a maximum size, run the scan with full system resources, delete PuPs, and more. The basic view for the program’s settings runs scans, unblock applications, updates the program, and runs software in a virtual mode, while the advanced view reports more details about those areas of the program and displays logs as well as toggles various things like HIPS and VirusScope.

You can run any program you want in a virtual space completely separate from the rest of your files. Launch programs in this protected container from inside the COMODO program, or by right-clicking an executable file and choosing the option in the menu. Here are some other features worth mentioning: password protect the program, show a floating desktop widget, hide the upgrade advertisement, choose which archive file types to unpack and scan, enable real-time scanning of files on the network, define heuristics scanning level low, medium, high , schedule scans as frequently as every hour to as infrequently as once a month, customize the HIPS rules, turn on Silent Mode, force the auto-containment of suspicious or malicious files, and use a unique password for the Virtual Desktop feature.

It’s also available for macOS and for Linux. Immunet offers real-time protection for Windows. It has a bit of an outdated interface but the software is still current and even connects directly to the cloud for updates. There are lots of options you can toggle on or off to customize how the software works, but you can also leave all the defaults and it will still check your computer for threats in real time.

Here are some other features you get with Immunet: detects and removes bots, viruses, worms, Trojans, keyloggers, and spyware; three scan modes let you check just running processes Flash Scan , any location of your choosing Custom Scan , or the entire computer Full Scan ; schedule any scan type daily, weekly, or monthly; start scans directly from Explorer on any folder or file; run a FlashScan right after installation to check the registry and running processes for threats; use a special blocking mode that prevents all programs from being installed unless they first pass a security scan; prevent notifications from the program while you watch movies or play games; automatically exclude certain folders and file types from scans, including temp folders and certain system32 folders; manually exclude any file, folder, or threat by its name ; toggle scanning for archives and packed files.

There’s also a handy timeline that shows the history of threats on the computer, to 30 days in the past. The extremely detailed history of events that have happened in the program can be filtered by date, keyword, and type such as quarantines, cleanings, blocked processes, etc. This program runs alongside many other antivirus programs, such as security software from Comodo, Avira, AVG, and Norton. You not only have protection against threats like spyware, viruses, Trojan horses, and bots but there are also firewall shields to block intruders from reaching your computer files.

Here are some other important features in this free antivirus tool: real-time, cloud-based security updates that rely on millions of other users to stop threats quickly; Gamer Mode blocks interruptions while gaming, such as scans, updates, and alerts; you can set all alerts to be automatically denied or allowed; lock down ZoneAlarm’s configuration with a password to protect its settings from being changed; back up the program’s security settings and restore them later; run quick or full scans on a schedule; a network firewall that can screen every single program with “suspicious behavior” alerts that you have to explicitly allow or deny; and set up notifications for suspicious credit activity.

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By Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher. Tim Fisher has more than 30 years’ of professional technology experience. He’s been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. Christine Baker is a marketing consultant with experience working for a variety of clients. Her expertise includes social media, web development, and graphic design.

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