I've done a lot of research for the company I've worked for. Like most people, I prefer free-of charge software when it's good, but for anti-malware, you want to keep these characteristics in mind when choosing:
1. Lowest resource utilization
2. Fastest scans
3. Most effective detection
4. Lowest false positives
It's hard to find objective rating sites, where they don't get paid to say what their handlers tell them to. If you do extensive research on these sites:
AV-Comparatives
Virus Bulletin : VB100 award and logo
You'll probably agree with my conclusion:
#1 ESET NOD32 -http://www.eset.com/
#2 Avira -
Anti virus for Linux, Windows and more with firewall, antispam, recovery security - Avira AntiVir
Avira has a free-of charge installation.
You just know great software, the few times you come across it, and ESET NOD32 is one of those. It meets all the requirements above and has won most years for the last 5 I think. It is the thing, and like Firefox when it first came out, no one has heard of it in the corporate environment, which is good. When it becomes an industry standard, then it's on the hackers' radar.
I wouldn't stop there though. ESET comes with a firewall and anti-spam suite called Smart Security. I recommend that for anyone who can't deal with a software firewall. Otherwise, if you're tech savvy, get NOD32 anti-virus and use Comodo's firewall, it's the best free firewall made, wins consistently in the firewall wars.
SSL Free Firewall Two Factor Authentication Products from Comodo
If you want to bog your system down, you can add extra spyware protection with Spysweeper. It's probably the best anti-spyware software out there, but if you practice defense in depth techniques and are a smart user, you won't need much more than Vista, an anti-malware product, and a nice firewall.
I would steer clear of:
McAfee, Norton, and Trend. They're too resource intensive. Norton consistenly is in the top of detection so if that's all you care about Norton is one of the best detectors, along with NOD and Avira.
I found McAfee Total Protection to be "partial protection" in real life. They were the best back in the DOS days, but no anymore.
This competition doesn't stay static, but the trend for large software manufacturers usually follows this pattern:
Inovate
Become the best
Get fat
Try to do everything for everyone
Lose customer base because they lose track of the basics and the customer's desires.
Try to re-invent and rebrand self
Become second rate and exist off the laurels of vague concepts such as "industry standard"
Linear Mode
