Indeed, the AVG brand remained even after AVG's parent company was acquired by Avast Software in 2016.

These are especially good choices if you're the unofficial IT admin for friends and family members who can't always spot a scam or a phishing attempt.Īfter nearly a quarter-century with its free product in the US market, AVG has developed a solid identity as the go-to name in free AV software. We don't recommend any of these programs for use by businesses, which need quick access to support lines and, in larger businesses, centralized management and monitoring dashboards. You can also expect frequent, occasionally annoying upsell offers as the developers try to convince you to upgrade to a paid plan.Īll of the programs we list here are completely free and are appropriate for use in a home setting by nontechnical users.

Typically, these programs include the exact same scanning engines and malware definition files, minus most of the fancier features and, crucially, offering minimal support options. The best-known commercial antivirus programs for Windows typically require an annual paid subscription, but some perfectly respectable names also distribute free versions of their software, usually for noncommercial use only. In a world where ransomware is an existential threat to businesses and banking-related Trojans and phishing attacks can drain your checking account in minutes, you want every edge. Even if the difference is small, it's still an improvement.

A roundup of the best software and apps for Windows and Mac computers, as well as iOS and Android devices, to keep yourself safe from malware and viruses.īut for some picky PC users, replacing the basic built-in antivirus protection with software from an outside developer is just natural when setting up a new Windows PC.

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