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Best Antivirus for PC
Having good antivirus software is the first step to staying protected online. It’s the best defense against hackers who want to compromise your devices for their financial gain.
Viruses have changed their behavior over the last couple of years, but generally, the objective is the same; to steal your cash and credentials.
Threats come in several forms; however, malware, ransomware, and Trojans are overall engineered to either steal your personal information or such damage to your computer that you’ll pay a high price to reverse the effects.
This review isn’t meant to scare you, but now you have a rough idea of why virus detection and elimination are so vital.
Fortunately, some of the antivirus programs available for PC combine watertight protection and additional features to keep you safe from malware and scams.
If you’re looking for a free antivirus, then we’ve got you covered as well. But considering how cheap some of the best antivirus programs are, we’d recommend you pay and be safe.
1. Bitdefender
Bitdefender is one of the best antivirus programs beating some stiff competition and doing so without requiring users to break the bank concerning subscription charges.
Bitdefender’s basic plan isn’t what anyone would term as expensive.
Of course, affordability wouldn’t mean a thing if Bitdefender was by any means shaky about the core malware and ransomware protection it offers.
We have found Bitdefender to be excellent in protecting your PC against malware, albeit with slight caveats when it comes to how it dealt with some trial ransomware threats.
2. Kaspersky Antivirus
Kaspersky Antivirus is Kaspersky Lab’s entry-level offering for PCs with coverage for up to 10 devices.
Kaspersky Antivirus doesn’t have as many integrated features as some of the products on this list. However, it focuses on the security fundamentals and does that very well.
Kaspersky’s core antivirus features are very robust, ranking at or near the top of all recent reports from the big independent test labs.
This is great news because it means that Kaspersky Antivirus is very efficient against malware and ransomware, even eliminating unknown threats almost instantly and managing to recover some of the files affected by an attack.
In addition, Kaspersky Antivirus also has some ingenious self-protection schedules, so you can be certain you get what you pay for.
3. McAfee Antivirus
McAfee Antivirus has an interesting approach to its range because all offerings are versions of its core Total Protection product.
However, there is a slight difference being that more devices are supported in the higher tiers.
McAfee Total Protection Single Device is an entry-level antivirus offering, and as the name suggests, it only provides coverage for one product.
The good news here is that McAfee has a commendably light system footprint meaning that it won’t take up so much of your computer’s resources.
In addition, McAfee has a host of features it offers, especially for a baseline product. However, not all of its features are top-quality, but you still get value for your buck.
These features include an integrated VPN with unlimited data, an intelligent firewall, PC speed-up options, a quality spam filter, and a secure file vault.
4. Norton Antivirus
Norton Antivirus is an authentic antivirus software designed for various devices, including PCs.
The main attraction here is the entire stack of features you get even with the free version, not to mention the immense quality of those features.
Some of these features include a handy firewall which is a massive help in terms of policing your system alongside thorough browser protection to keep your web activities safe.
In addition, you get some extras that you don’t find on other antivirus software, such as handy PC maintenance utilities, and an integrated backup tool that offers 2GB of cloud storage; this tool is user-friendly, thereby ensuring data backup is a breeze.
5. Trend Micro Antivirus
Trend Micro Antivirus offers simple but valuable protection with its user-friendly interface that spells out the various options in plain English as opposed to confusing jargon.
This software’s antivirus engine is rated highly by the main independent antivirus test labs, and it has achieved some impressive results in recent tests.
However, there is a slight caveat; some testing found that this antivirus program raised more false positives than other programs.
No need to worry, though; this is still a formidable antivirus and anti-ransomware protection program whose particular strength is blocking phishing sites.
Final Thought
You might have heard arguments that if you’re careful about what you browse, click or download on your PC, you’ll be fine.
This is true to a certain extent, but it’s not advisable to risk it. As a result, you need to download and install one of the antiviruses illustrated above.
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