As recently as a year or two ago, it was easy to pick a free antivirus package

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As recently as a year or two ago, it was easy to pick a free antivirus package. Almost any of a half dozen free virus scanners did an acceptable job, and largely stayed out of the way of the OS when configured properly. Times change, however.

A combination of increased malware and virus activity along with lax updates and regression on free antivirus suites has narrowed the field down to a handful of worthy packages. Older chart toppers like AVG have fallen hard and fast, while outside-the-PC solutions such as router-based antivirus scanning (some routers offer full-service antivirus solutions built right into the firmware, blocking threats before they ever buy csgo skins touch your PC) have become new preliminary lines of defense. It’s a whole new world out there, with more threats and vectors of attack but fewer worthwhile defenders.

We looked at the remaining free antivirus packages of note, examined their security, stability and performance in various independent test reports and compared them in a series of usability tests on our own PC to arrive at the results below. While there is a rough ranking here, these products are largely separated by usage profile and personal style. All have made the cut, but some are better in certain areas than others.