[BlackBlade]

Part II



Free Programs:

1. avast!
   Score: 658
   avast! receives 4/5 stars in my review, the highest of the free anti-virus programs. The power of the programs detection is bar-none. It effectively removes viruses and other pests in the first sweep, though once I needed to sweep twice to move something to the virus vault. avast! will also scan your computer on startup, before your core operating system files are even loaded to make sure that your computer is completely clean. The VRDB system is a great companion to the anti-virus system and has a seamless integration. This program got marked down, however, because it requires users to constantly be in front of the computer during the scanning process to determine what to do, and it did require a second pass to clean everything. Scanning speed was also in the “mid” range. Overall, this is the best free anti-virus product that I reviewed, and it was so close to getting 5/5 stars.
2. Avira AntiVir Personal Classic
   Score: 575
   Coming in second place is AntiVir. This program identified all of the viruses in the test on the first scan, though it missed some suspicious files. Also, when I tried to move the virus to the virus vault, two of them could not be moved and I had to change their extension before removal. This scan also took an average amount of time to scan the entire system. This lacked some of the systems that made avast! so great (like boot scans), so it did not score as high, yet it still retained its 4/5 star rating.
3. Grisoft AVG
   Score: 500
   Scoring at an exact 500 is Grisoft AVG. Because this is one of the more popular free anti-virus programs out there, I was surprised to see it perform...average. It took 3 scans to detect and remove the virus files. After the third scan, however, it detected “suspicious files” that were not the ones that I placed. The files it detected were some of the core OS files that had not been touched by the virus programs. This program also requires users to remain at their computers during a scan to tell the program what to do. Updates are manual, and the UI needs a face lift. Overall, it was average. I guess we all cannot get first place....
4. Clam AV and Clam Win
   Score: 448
   Even though this program is built to handle the scanning of emails, it does a decent job of cleaning a computer.

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