However, there are some additional notes which I’d like to add for anyone seeking clarification about AV software. A recent review from an independent organisation dedicated to testing Anti-Virus software (avcomparatives) rates AVG as only providing “Standard protection” with a mean (average) detection rate of 94.2% in this years February On-Demand test.

You can also see that it does not perform well in comparison to other Anti-Virus software on the VB100, a reputable AV community that releases periodicals on AV detection rates.
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Other [b]free[/b] AV’s that I would personally recommend and have a long-running history (apart from McAfee and Norton) are AVIRA-PE (very high detection rate, personal edition has an option to de-activate advertisement during updates), ESET’s Nod32 (fast), Kaspersky (user-friendly), Avast (many features) and Panda (innovative). I think PC Tools has a free AV also, and a free Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) application called Threatfire.

All have achieved the Advanced+ detection standard by avgcomparatives and a few have been in the IT security business for well over a decade, earning a solid reputation as a robust AV provider.
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I’d like to make one last recommendation that I believe to be the best security setup I have tested so far on _un-Sandboxed_ or non-virtual systems, is the use of the Panda Cloud Antivirus client (22MB).
One thing to note: it can scan suspicious files online (you can de-activate this feature and scan offline). You can also disable the auto-management (set and forget) feature, and this prevents anonymous statistics from being sent to its servers. Based on its EULA (End-User License Agreement), the data collected to identify viruses is confidential and anonymous and it has been in business for a very long time.

Anyway, it has a small memory footprint and runs heuristic scans through its labs, and has thus far performed very well in detecting viruses in the wild with very few false positives. Of course, it is freeware, but if you decide to test-trial the “security suites”, please stay far away from McAfee, Avira, Agnitum and AVG.

The first has a very weak security system and is easily circumvented (i.e. disabled). The Avira security suite has a weak firewall with a few bugs that it cannot fix due to the design. Agnitum firewall is complicated and incorrect setup will result in allowing an intruder access to your network. The last is bloatware (i.e. too many things going on, eats system resources like a pig, hence resource-hog and questionable detection signatures). From personal experience,
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I tested AVG6-7 and found that it prevents access to files it deems as “suspicious”, a very inconvenient feature enforced by a background service that eats 80MB of memory (shocking). When i installed AVG8, I was astounded at the bulk of the thing, and some forums that many IT security professionals visit like wilderssecurity have stated that AVG is bloatware and too resource-intensive for mainstream use.

Nonetheless, AVG is used widely, and it does have a pretty high detection rate with a scanning speed faster than McAfee, BitDefender, Norton and other commercial AVs.
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If you’d like to scan your system partition with commercial engines for free (and this includes the Advanced+ rated ones), simply use “Hitman Pro” (6AVs), “Immunet” (anti-malware), “Prevx”, Regrun’s “Reanimator” or opt-in for an online scan called “VirusTotal”.
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Additional Notes
Cloud-based AV scanners are the least resource intensive and offers very high detection rates. It’s been very popular ever since it was introduced to the IT security community, and definitely worth looking at for _set-and-forget_ end-users.