Top Ten Free Antivirus of 2009

I keep track with developments of antivirus software nearly everyday and have get myself into testing various kinds of antivirus. Same as last year, i decided to summarize my topics on antivirus for the last month of 2009 by re-adjusting my list of top ten FREE antivirus of the year.

1.Microsoft Security Essentials

Who'd thought that Microsoft's home-made security solutions would take the number one spot? Previous versions of Microsoft Live OneCare sucks bad in detection in my opinion, but after revamping and redeveloping the scan engine into what was now know as Security Essentials, the antivirus actually sort of outperforms lots of existing antivirus in terms of detection rate, speed and usability (why, it caught some malwares on which Avast! and Kaspersky missed in my independent testing!). The only nuisance about Microsoft Security Essentials is that it can be very harsh on the CPU, especially during computer bootup.

2. Avira Personal

Last year's number one antivirus, Avira, has been taken off the top of my list, but that doesn't mean it is bad. Avira still has one of the best detection rates out there for a free antivirus and is actually easy to use and pretty stable and consistent with its detection rate and performance. However, malware database update for Avira can be a painstaking process (this is due to server overload on which Avira has yet to find a solution). Also, Avira sometimes throw up lots of false positives, especially if users set the heuristic level too high.

3. Avast! 

Avast! is one of my favorite antivirus (no bias intended) because it is interactive, simple to use, and quite light on resources. In fact, Avast! outperforms both Avira and Security Essentials in terms of performance, consuming less RAM and CPU power on idle. Detection rate is reliable and consistent too. The bad thing though, is its ridiculous, media player-like user interface which looks as though it is lacking professionalism. Besides, Avast has been sticking to the v4 label for more than three or four years already, without any significant upgrades or optimization in its features. Let's just hope that the significantly improved Avast! v5 Beta can come out of beta as soon as possible.

4. Panda Cloud Antivirus

Panda is the first company to popularize cloud-based protection and actually was successful at it. It requires users to sign up for a Panda Cloud account in order to use its protection features but then it's pretty much worth it; Panda Cloud Antivirus utilize cloud-based scanning which means that user's PC does not slow down to a crawl during scanning and detection rates are greatly improved. The only problem is Panda does not seem to offer lots of side features apart from scanning and reports, which might not be attractive to advanced users.

5. Qizhi 360 Security (known as Qihoo 360 Security in some media)

This might sound unfamiliar to most but then it is a very popular free antivirus in China, barely a few months old into its official launch. Qizhi 360 Security is a Chinese antivirus which utilizes a modified BitDefender scanning engine with additional enhancement from Kaspersky malware database, making it a very powerful antivirus free for use (In fact, it totally outperformed local Chinese antivirus such as Rising and Kingsoft till a state that those companies started complaining Qizhi 360 Security...). It is easy to use, consumes extremely little resources and also offers gaming mode, a function not available in most free antivirus software. Despite this, Qizhi 360 Security's installer is extremely hard to download, thanks in no small part to the extremely poor download server used by Qizhi. Also, the antivirus is available in Chinese language only, which is rather disappointing for non-Chinese affiliated users.

6. AVG Free

Despite claims that it is the most widely used free antivirus in the market, AVG's performance says otherwise: The antivirus is getting more and more bloated and resources hungry with every release, has a so-and-so detection rate and often conflict with lots of software, which has never happened before in previous releases. Regardless, it is still considered quite easy to install and use and actually is quite easy to configure, second only to Security Essentials and Panda Cloud Antivirus.

7. PC Tools Antivirus Starter Edition

Not much change has occured with the PC Tools Antivirus; in fact, i have a weird suspicion that the 2010 version is essentially a rebranded version of the 2009 version...with no major upgrades or feature tweaks. Nevertheless, PC Tools serve well for those who ask for simple protection and nice user interface. Only problem is, unlike the top 5 antivirus mentioned above, PC Tools is significantly heavier on PC resources, which does not make it an attractive antivirus to use on a low-end PC.

8. SecureIT 2009

Another lesser known antivirus - SecureIT 2009 is essentially an Internet Security packed with firewall, online protection, popup blocker and integrated antivirus and antispyware module powered by ClamAV. It does not have a glossy user interface, but it does offer all-round protection with moderate PC resources. Only problem with SecureIT 2009 is the scanning engine itself: since when did ClamAV ever made an impact on the antivirus industry? Nevertheless, SecureIT 2009 can be considered the best antivirus around that uses the ClamAV antivirus engines, and i appreciate that.

9. Immunet Protect

Another cloud-based antivirus. Like Panda Cloud AV, it requires users to sign up in order to enjoy its features, but then there are lots of issues to iron out. From that bulky-designed interface to the lack of features, Immunet Protect does not strike me as a better Cloud antivirus than Panda Cloud Antivirus. It is still currently in beta stage, but then i guess we can give credit to Immunet Protect, since it does work as advertised and most importantly: it is light on resources and actually scans at super-fast speed in comparison with Panda Cloud Antivirus, which is significantly slower.

10. DriveSentry

The only antivirus on the list that utilizes whitelisting and HIPS technology extensively. DriveSentry is in my opinion, a decent antivirus for advanced users. Like Norton, DriveSentry is another antivirus company that emphasize innovative technology development in more efficient detection but then with a massive installer size (more than 90MB excluding its database), slightly confusing interface and fewer database update than conventional antivirus, it is not the best antivirus for novice users. It does have an impressive interface and scanning speed though, and is thus, still a good addition to users' existing antivirus protection (being one of the few antivirus to be able to run side by side with other antivirus).