There is a common misconception that free Antivirus tools are not good enough to protect your system and only a premium antivirus program can provide complete protection. The efficacy of an Antivirus tool can be judged by the virus definition updates the developer provides.  Your computer is most likely to become infected if your antivirus developer does not provide timely updates for new viruses that appear on the Internet. Paid Antivirus tools may provide additional features to the free tools but, for the most part, many free tools will provide you with adequate protection. Here we look at the top 5 free Antivirus Tools – if you are looking for the additional feature provided by a paid tool then there is a link for this at the end of the post.

Avast Antivirus Software

It is one of the best free antivirus you can install on your computer. It has a very simple user interface which allows you to select different types of protective shields for your computer. The antivirus also includes browser security and malware protection. The browser security features ensures the malice add-ons and annoying tool bars are removed and your browser is safe for surfing the internet. One of the primary reason to select Avast Antivirus is the developer provides regular virus definition updates that ensures your computer is protected from old and new virus threats.

Panda Antivirus Software

Panda Antivirus is effective and also easy to use. Lab results show it has the best score in detecting viruses and malware. It also has the lowest number of false positives. The antivirus tool does not use too much system resources and its virus detection mechanism springs into action when the suspicious executable file is launched. The success rate of blocking malware during launch is extremely high which means its gives the best protection to your computer from threats. The Panda antivirus tool also has a malware blocking system which ensures you are issued a warning when you try to download a malicious file.

AVG Antivirus Software

AVG antivirus software is one of the more popular free antivirus programs available. This tool offers one of the best protection mechanisms to keep your system safe and free from malicious programs. The program has an easy to use interface allowing you to decide the components you need and don’t need. AVG is also known to provide very timely virus definitions that protect your system from new threats.

Bitdefender Antivirus Software

Bitdefender Antivirus is one of the lightest and fastest free antivirus tools available. While it is common to see Ads in free versions of antivirus programs, Bitdefender antivirus is an exception as it is Ad free. The antivirus tool scans processes in real time and counters any threats before it affects your system. If any threat cannot be removed in normal boot mode, the antivirus boots the system in Rescue mode and cleans all virus infections and restores clean copies of system files.

Comodo Antivirus Software

Comodo Antivirus is a free and reliable protection tool for your computer. Aside from protecting your computer from malware and viruses, it also improves performance and efficiency of the system by a minimal use of system resources. Comodo antivirus is known to have cloud based scanning that is faster than normal antivirus scanning processes.

One of the advantages of using free antivirus programs is it doesn’t cost anything to try them. If it doesn’t suit your security purpose, you can remove it and install another antivirus program. The majority of the free antivirus programs have all essential components that are required to protect your computer from viruses and malware.