Antivirus or
anti-virus software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including but not limited to computer viruses, computer worm, trojan horses, spyware and adware. This page talks about the software used for the prevention and removal of such threats, rather than computer security implemented by software methods.
A variety of strategies are typically employed. Signature-based
detection involves searching for known patterns of data within executable code. However, it is possible for a computer to be infected with new malware for which no signature is yet known. To counter such so-called zero-day threats, heuristics can be used. One type of heuristic approach, generic signatures, can identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses by looking for known malicious code, or slight variations of such code, in files. Some antivirus software can also predict what a file will do by running it in a sandbox and analyzing what it does to see if it performs any malicious actions.
No matter how useful antivirus software can be, it can sometimes have drawbacks. Antivirus software can impair a computer's performance. Inexperienced users may also have trouble understanding the prompts and decisions that antivirus software presents them with. An incorrect decision may lead to a security breach. If the antivirus software employs heuristic detection, success depends on achieving the right balance between false positives and false negatives. False positives can be as destructive as false negatives.
Finally, antivirus software generally runs at the highly trusted kernel level of the operating system, creating a potential avenue of attack.
Following are the Top 5 Antivirus softwares that are mostly used to Protect your computer from Virus
1: Avast AntiVirus: Avast! is an antivirus computer program developed by
AVAST Software a.s. (formerly known as
ALWIL Software a.s.), a company based in Prague, Czech Republic. It was first released in 1988
. Avast! is based on a central scanning engine that is certified by ICSA Labs
and West Coast Lab's Checkmark process
and incorporates anti-spyware technology, also certified by West Coast Lab's Checkmark process,
as well as anti-rootkit and self-protection capabilities. It is a multiple recipient of the
Virus Bulletin VB100 Award for its detection of 100% of "in-the-wild" viruses, and is a past winner of the Secure Computing Readers' Trust Award The name
Avast is derived from "
Anti-
Virus �
Advanced
Se
t".
Its trademarked name is styled in all lower-case and includes an exclamation mark.
Avast! Free Antivirus is the freeware version of the Avast! antivirus software available to Microsoft Windows and Linux users, while Avast! Pro Antivirus is offered to businesses and users who want additional features. Priority updates are delivered automatically using PUSH update technology in Avast! Pro Antivirus. Avast! Pro Antivirus also has a command line scanner and a script blocker; however, in version 6, the script blocker is available to users of the free version.
Avast! Antivirus is a widely used antivirus program, with over 160 million users worldwide as of July 2011.
2: AVG AntiVirus: AVG is a family of anti-virus and Internet security software for the Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD computing platforms, developed by AVG Technologies, a privately held Czech company formerly known as
Grisoft.
The brand name AVG comes from Grisoft's first product, "Anti-Virus Guard", launched in 1992 in Czechoslovakia. In 1997, the first AVG licenses were sold in Germany and UK. AVG was introduced in the U.S. in 1998.
The AVG Free Edition helped raise awareness of the AVG product line.
In 2006, the AVG security package grew to include anti-spyware, as AVG Technologies acquired ewido Networks, an anti-spyware group. That same year, Microsoft announced that AVG components would be available directly within the Windows Vista operating system.
AVG Technologies acquired Exploit Prevention Labs (XPL) in December 2007, and incorporated that company's LinkScanner safe search and surf technology into the AVG 8.0 security product range released in March 2008.
In January 2009, AVG Technologies acquired Sana Security, a developer of identity theft prevention software. This software was incorporated into the AVG security product range released in March 2009.
According to AVG Technologies, over 110 million users have AVG Anti-Virus protection, including users of the Free Edition
AVG features most of the common functions available in modern anti-virus and Internet security programs, including periodic scans, scans of sent and received emails (including adding footers to the emails indicating this), the ability to "repair" some virus-infected files, and a quarantine area: "virus vault/chest" in which infected files are held.
A handy & clear (if somewhat misleading) feature / product comparison table is at Free vs Paid
AVG AntiVirus Latest Version Free Download 3: Kaspersky AntiVirus: Kaspersky Anti-Virus (Russian:
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AntiViral Toolkit Pro; often referred to as
KAV) is an antivirus program developed by Kaspersky Lab. It is designed to protect users from malware and is primarily designed for computers running Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, though a version for Linux is available for business consumers.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus features include real-time protection, detection and removal of viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, keyloggers malicious tools and auto-dialers, as well as detection and removal of rootkits. It also includes instantaneous automatic updates via the "Kaspersky Security Network" service.
According to Kaspersky, "Kaspersky Security Network service allows users of Kaspersky Lab security products from around the world to help facilitate malware identification and reduce the time it takes to provide protection against new (�in the wild�) security risks targeting your computer." Kaspersky Lab maintains a strict privacy policy for use of this service and asserts that volunteering to use this service by sending certain information "contains no personally identifiable information about the user and is utilized by Kaspersky Lab for no other purposes but to enhance its security products and to further advance solutions against malicious threats and viruses."
Microsoft Windows users may download an Anti-Virus Rescue Disk that scans the host computer during booting inside an isolated Linux environment. In addition, Kaspersky Anti-Virus prevents itself from being disabled by malware without user permission via password access prompts upon disabling protection elements and changing internal settings. It also scans incoming instant messenger traffic, automatically disables links to known malware hosting sites while using Internet Explorer or Firefox and includes free Technical Support and free product upgrades within paid-subcription periods. Kaspersky Lab currently offers 1 year, 2 year and 3 year subscriptions.
According to AV-Comparatives, Kaspersky Anti-Virus rates highly amongst virus scanners in terms of detection rates, even despite the fact that the program has failed two Virus Bulletin tests in 2007 and another two in 2008.
In addition, PC World awarded Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 the Editor's Choice in its 2007 anti-virus comparative
. The well-known and highly regarded Ars Technica lists Kaspersky as one of the best choices for Anti-Virus on the Windows platform.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus was "A-listed" by the UK PC journal PC Pro in late 2007, where it scored very highly for detection and removal of malware
. PC Pro attributes this to �a combination of the software�s heuristic scanning and uncompromising approach to database updates
. While many packages check for new virus signatures on a daily basis, Kaspersky runs to an hourly schedule, improving your chances of being immunized before an infection reaches it.�
Kaspersky Anti-Virus was tested by PassMark in June 2008 and was accoladed as having "the industry's fastest scan times" on Windows Vista.
Kaspersky AntiVirus Latest Version Free Download 4: McAfee VirusScan:
McAfee VirusScan is an antivirus program created and maintained by McAfee Inc. (formerly known as Network Associates). McAfee markets VirusScan to home and home-office users; McAfee also develops
VirusScan Enterprise for use in corporate environments. The product is not available as a standalone package, but is included in the
McAfee VirusScan Plus package or as part of
McAfee Internet Security Suite. McAfee also produces a similar product for Mac OS X under the name of
VirusScan for Mac. Additionally, BSkyB and McAfee have produced a "Sky Broadband" branded version of VirusScan, offered free to Sky Digital customers upon broadband modem installation.
The 2010 edition of VirusScan Plus integrates antivirus, firewall and anti-spyware capabilities.
It includes, amongst other things;
- On-access file scanner (McAfee OAS)
- Inbound and outbound firewall protection
- Spyware protection
- Daily definition updates
- McAfee X-Ray rootkit detection
- McAfee SiteAdvisor - displays a safety rating for websites based on tests for evidence of spam, malware and phishing
- McAfee SystemGuards - monitors a computer for activity that may be caused by virus infection or hacker activity(discontinued: see below)
- In the upgraded release in February 2010 McAfee discontinued SystemGuards in favor of its Active protection(Artemis), which detects suspicious activity in real-time and contacts McAfee labs to determine whether the file is a threat. Artemis was released around August 2008.
VirusScan Plus 2010 is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 only.
In tests by Virus Bulletin and other independent consumer-organizations, McAfee virus scan has not fared well, frequently failing to detect some common viruses.
A review of VirusScan 2006 by CNET criticized the product due to "pronounced performance hits in two of our three real-world performance tests"
and some users reviewing the same product reported encountering technical problems.
Some older versions of the VirusScan engine use all available CPU cycles.
As of 2009 McAfee virus-scanning products did not handle false positives well, repeatedly removing or quarantining known clean files even after the user restores them.
Reviewers have described customer support for McAfee products as lacking, with support staff slow to respond and unable to answer many questions.
On April 21, 2010, beginning approximately at 2 PM GMT, an erroneous virus definition file update from McAfee affected millions of computers worldwide running Windows XP Service Pack 3. The update resulted in the removal of a Windows system file (
svchost.exe) on those machines, causing machines to lose network access and, in some cases, to enter a reboot loop. McAfee rectified this by removing and replacing the faulty DAT file, version 5958, with an emergency DAT file (version 5959) and has posted a fix for the affected machines in its consumer "KnowledgeBase"
McAfee VirusScan Latest Version Free Download5: Norton AntiVirus:
Norton AntiVirus, developed and distributed by Symantec Corporation, provides malware prevention and removal during a subscription period. It uses signatures and heuristics to identify viruses. Other features include e-mail spam filtering and phishing protection.
Symantec distributes the product as a download, a box copy, and as OEM software. Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security, a related product, held a 61% US retail market share for security suites as of the first half of 2007. Competitors, in terms of market share in this study, include antivirus products from CA, Trend Micro, and Kaspersky Lab.
Norton AntiVirus runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Version 18.6.0.29 is the latest Windows build.
Windows 7 support is in development for versions 2006 through 2008. Version 2009 has Windows 7 supported update already. Version 2010 natively supports Windows 7, without needing an update. Version 11.1.1 is the latest Mac build.
In May 1989, Symantec launched Symantec Antivirus for the Macintosh (SAM).
SAM 2.0, released March 1990, incorporated technology allowing users to easily update SAM to intercept and eliminate new viruses, including many that didn't exist at the time of the program's release.
In August 1990 Symantec acquired Peter Norton Computing from Peter Norton.
Norton and his company developed various DOS utilities including the Norton Utilities, which did not include antivirus features. Symantec continued the development of acquired technologies. The technologies are marketed under the name of "Norton", with the tagline "from Symantec". Norton's crossed-arm pose, a registered U.S. trademark, was traditionally featured on Norton product packaging.
However, his pose was later moved to the spine of the packaging, and eventually dropped altogether.
By early 1991, U.S. computers were invaded by hundreds of foreign virus strains and corporate PC infection was becoming a serious problem. Symantec's Norton Group launched Norton AntiVirus 1.0 (NAV) for PC and compatible computers.
Ads for the product, with suggested retail $129, featured Norton in his crossed-arm pose, wearing a pink shirt and surgical mask covering his nose and mouth.
With the 1998 version 5.0 update, SAM was renamed Norton AntiVirus (NAV) for Macintosh.
From 2009 to 2012 series, Symantec makes a huge change in product's speed and performance. Norton products now have only 2 running processes, using about 15 mb of RAM.
According to PassMark Security Benchmark 2012 Norton AntiVirus and Norton Internet Security are the lightest suites available. Av-comparatives.org also tested these products and give similar results.
PCMag recognises 2011 and 2012 lines as the fastest and strongest in protection.
PCWorld's tests of security software put Norton Internet Security 2009 on the 1-st place.
In 2011's test of PCWorld Norton Internet Security was the winner. Av-test.org certifies Norton, putting it on a second place after BitDefender.
. Many other reputable sources like Dennis Technology Labs confirm the performance and effectivness of Norton 2011 and 2012 lines
Norton Antivirus Latest Free Download 
