Antivirus software is the most important software you can have for your computer. It can be a very tough decision to choose the right antivirus program especially when there are so many of them and you can only have one on a computer. Late 2008 I did a test on 29 antivirus software to look for the free antivirus that is the lightest on system memory usage. I only checked the total memory usage during idle and during scanning. Other than that, I’ve also checked on the detection to see if it can detect the private trojan which I had at that time. Two years has gone by and I was curious to know if Kaspersky still do well or has been overtaken by Norton? After the new year, I’ve decided to do some tests on a total of 104 different types of antivirus and internet security applications. I’ve taken nearly a month, running the test day and night to finish this report. This is what that has been keeping me really busy the whole month of January 2010.
The test includes Application Launch Time, Boot Time Increase, Time to complete a Full Scan, Memory usage during Idle, Peak Memory Usage and Installation Size. Every test is done on the same clean Windows XP SP3 with all latest updates. Norton Ghost is being used to re-image the hard drive whenever I am going to test the next antivirus so that the test is fair. All antivirus tested had the latest versions, upgrades and updates and default settings being used. Here are the antivirus and internet security that is included in the test.
1. Avira AntiVir Personal v9
2. Avira AntiVir Premium v9
3. Avira Premium Security Suite v9
4. AVG Anti-Virus v9
5. AVG Internet Security v9
6. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition v9
7. avast! Free Antivirus v5
8. avast! Internet Security v5
9. avast! Pro Antivirus v5
10. a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5
11. Ashampoo AntiSpyWare 2.10
12. Ashampoo Anti-Malware v1
13. ArcaVir 2010 Antivirus Protection
14. AhnLab V3 Internet Security 8.0
15. Antiy Ghostbusters v6.5.1.4
16. Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security v8.1.3
17. BitDefender Antivirus 2010
18. BitDefender Internet Security 2010
19. BitDefender Total Security 2010
20. BluePoint Security 2010
21. BullGuard Internet Security 8.7
22. CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2010
23. CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
24. Command Anti-Malware v5.1
25. Comodo Internet Security v3.13
26. Digital Patrol v5.2
27. DriveSentry Desktop v3.4 and DriveSentry Security Suite v1
28. Dr.WEB Anti-Virus v5
29. Dr.WEB Security Space v5
30. eEye Blink Personal v4.5.1
31. eScan AntiVirus v10
32. eScan Internet Security Suite
33. ESET NOD32 Antivirus v4
34. ESET Smart Security v4
35. FortiClient Endpoint Security Suite v4.1.2
36. F-PROT Antivirus v6
37. G Data AntiVirus 2010
38. G Data InternetSecurity 2010
39. G Data Total Care 2010
40. IKARUS virus.utilities v1.0.166
41. Immunet Protect v1.0.22
42. iolo AntiVirus v1.5.3
43. iolo System Shield 3
44. KV AntiVirus 2010
45. K7 AntiVirus v7.0
46. K7 TotalSecurity v10.0
47. Kingsoft Internet Security 9 Plus
48. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010
49. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010
50. McAfee VirusScan Plus
51. McAfee Internet Security
52. McAfee Total Security
53. Microsoft Security Essentials
54. mks_vir v9.0
55. MultiCore AntiVirus & AntiSpyware v2
56. My Free Antivirus v2.2
57. Net Protector 2010
58. Norman Security Suite
59. Norton AntiVirus 2010 v17.1.0.19
60. Norton Internet Security 2010
61. Norton 360 Version 3.0
62. nProtect Anti-Virus Spyware 2007
63. Outpost Antivirus Pro 2009
64. Outpost Security Suite 2009
65. Keygold Secure Internet Security Suite
66. Panda Could Antivirus
67. Panda Antivirus Pro 2010
68. Panda Internet Security 2010
69. Panda Global Protection 2010
70. ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS v6.1.1
71. Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2010
72. PC Tools Internet Security 2010
73. Prevx 3.0
74. Protector Plus Professional v9
75. Rising AntiVirus 2010
76. Solo Anti-Virus 2010
77. Spyware Terminator 2.6.5
78. Steganos AntiVirus 12
79. Steganos Internet Security 12
80. The Cleaner 2010
81. Security Shield 2010
82. The Shield Deluxe 2010
83. Thirtyseven4 Antivirus
84. Trend Micro Internet Security 2010
85. Trend Micro AntiVirus + AntiSpyware 2010
86. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010
87. TrustPort Antivirus 2010
88. TrustPort PC Security 2010
89. Twister AntiVirus
90. Vba32 Personal v3.12.10.11
91. VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
92. Vir.IT eXplorer AntiVirus v6.5
93. ViRobot Desktop v5.5
94. VirusBuster Personal v6.2.51
95. VirusBuster Professional v6.2.51
96. VirusBuster Internet Security Suite v3.1
97. Virus Chaser v5.0b
98. VIRUSfighter
99. Webroot AntiVirus with Spy Sweeper 2010
100. Webroot Internet Security Essentials 2010
101. Zondex Guard v5.4.2
102. ZoneAlarm Antivirus 2010
103. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2010
104. ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010
105. F-Secure Antivirus 2010
106. F-Secure Internet Security 2010
Test 1: Application Launch Time
- 10 launches of a web browser (Mozilla Firefox) were timed. The average in launch time is shown in the graph below.
Test 2: Boot Time Increase
- Ten reboots were performed and the average boot time is shown in the graph below.
Test 3: Idle Memory Usage
- Allow the computer to idle for 10 minutes and then the memory reading is being taken.
Test 4: Peak Memory Usage
- Allow the computer to idle for 10 minutes and then the peak memory usage is being taken.
Test 5: Installation Size
- The installation size of each Antivirus program before any updates were downloaded.
Test 6: Detection
- Bifrost trojan being crypted with Incognito to avoid detection. Theoretically it should bypass all antivirus scan time because each stub is nearly 100% unique, thanks to the polymorphic generator. This test will show how good is the runtime scan of an antivirus (heuristic).
Test 7: Full Scan Time
- Scan Times shown below are for default settings for each Antivirus program. 13.23GB of used hard-drive space was scanned with each virus scanner.
Note: To me, the idle memory usage readings is no longer accurate because a lot of antivirus is able to clean its memory usage bringing it to a really low number when the computer is idle. Do take a look at the peak memory usage instead. If I would to compare between the few giant antivirus brands such as Avast, Avira, Norton and Kaspersky, I’d say that Avast is the lightest of all. As for Kaspersky, it is also very light but it took longer to run Firefox and this is caused by the Kaspersky URL Advisor plugin. If you remove the plugin from Firefox, it only takes about an average of 0.79 seconds. As for Avira, it has one of the fastest launch time but the peak memory usage is pretty high and the boot time is slower than Kaspersky and Avast. From the charts, I also found out that Outpost did pretty well. It is able to successfully block the crypted Bifrost trojan by detecting memory injection/modification.
Update: Added F-Secure (duh not sure how I missed that one) in the test report and also included full scan time test which I suppose to attach but somehow it got left out. Make sure you hit the Refresh/Reload button to see the latest bar graph.
Related posts:
The KV web site contains spyware. Stay away from KV Antivirus.
Spyware Terminator seems to be working well on my netbook. Updates are fast.
I’m with Expectus here… where’s the conclusion? Thanks a lot for all the data, but as they’re images we can’t even copy it to calculate the final score on our own… A roundup would really add to the value of this article :)
I dont think all these criterias describes the best AV program.
You cant say that program X is better because it is faster.
I would choose slower, if it could guarantee me to clean all viruses.
Dude, show us the overall best performing speed and memory usage on ur own advise…that would be a good help…thanks mate…its not easy to do that but i know you would indeed you already did the above thanks alot!
Since the title of this test regards performance, where are the numbers for DPC Latency, Hard Page Faults etc?
How did you test boot times?
I suggest that you use BootTimer, which takes the time for a complete restart, which means it records the time it takes from you click ok until the last startup application is loaded after the restart.
Your results are close to my observations but has two holes.
One are memory graphs. I don’t see real memory compsuption. Please add also graph with virtual memory allocation from task manager which shows real memory used by antivir.
Second hole is boot time. Real boot time are longer because some antivirs like Microsoft Essentials loads after windows pulpit is on shown. It sometimes takes a lot of time – in this time processor is used in 99%. So the real boot time is time to cpu load<1%
Megbaszom a szátokat.
This is the best review combinding with AV-Comparatives.org. I bookmark this page for future visit. From both sites review, I tempted to try Avast free, using Nod32 for many year with v. 2 and now v. 4 but seems to be slower than v.2.
Thanks for a great article – especially the memory tests. Most of my customers have very old PCs and it is useful to know which is the best free AV to install for them. And for those who say “just buy more memory”, if you have an old PC, it is usually because you can’t / won’t afford a new one!
there is no quick heal antivirus
Raymond, can you run the test again?
Because I have Avast v5 installed in my computer and I think my computer is running more faster than before. Before this, I had used Avira as my default antivirus utility and it have low detection malware files after all.
How to update norton antivirous
iv used prevX and it was a disaster in terms of finding viruses
Clamwin works but is slow in picking up viruses
AVG is just too big in terms of memory hogging for me
i found mse or Avast to be the handiest in terms of everything to be honest
btw this was a great read and thanks
A WARNING for all who thinks to be clever, like I thought, by installing the only two YES/YES programs…
I did not know them, so I installed them…
Do NOT install KV Antivirus 2010! The program damaged my system quite a lot…
Google Updater? Backdoor. Bit Che updater? Backdoor. Cleanup! by Steven Gould? Backdoor. And the list continues.
THESE ARE ALL FALSE POSITIVES! This program might be great for the Chinese internet, but it is UNUSABLE on a ‘normal’ internet machine!
Although you set the options, the options are forgotten.
When I left my computer this morning I already closed the program. To my surprise it still had scanned my hard disk. Including my precious tools folder (and the backup on the other disk too!). I NEED these tools to fix computers. They ARE TESTED VIRUS FREE! Still, a lot of them got identified as malware. And now THE BAD PART… Restoring the files from quarantine fails on a lot of them… Even after you close down the antivirus program. My avast shields are down, so this is not blocking it. Spyware Doctor is shut down, so also not interfering. For the rest no antivirus installed.
I asked for support, I’ll post a reply if I find out more. But BE WARNED! DO NOT install it : )
The second and last YES/YES program in this list (PrevX 3) should also be avoided, for it is far too paranoid too…
An antivirus is not as good as how much it blocks, but as good as it keeps you safe with a minimum of expertise or trouble…
Peace!
Devvie – an old-time fan : )
~~~ devnullius@googlewave.com ~~~
Cuisvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore persevare
——
All spelling mistakes are my own and may only be distributed under the GNU General Public License! – (© 95-1 by Coredump; 2-10 by DevNullius)
thanks for your effort to compare which is the best anti virus.. it helps a lot.
Thank you very much! A much needed comparison!
nice work
Just another grateful reader wishing to thank you for this post. Awesome work.
thank you so much for taking the time to do all this research. I need one that takes up little memory with the programs I run and you had both I was considering in your testing. Thank you
Great Work Raymond, very interesting reading.
Have you done any tests on the ram usage while updating. We have 1200 odd low ram devices and its when an AV updates that we are having issues and I would love to know which of your list is the lightest when updating. Cheers
Hey Raymond,
Amazing effort and great work. Could you upload the csv file for this as well. As these AV’s are fairing differently in different tests, it would help to evaluate the best one as per needs. :D
Anybody knows, when there will be results under the changed tests?
Nice article, however, I must really ask: Does it really matter how much memory an A/V program really uses? Most modern day systems have at least 2 GB of RAM if not more, so a few MB of memory use is rather trivial. I have KIS 2011 running and the 2 process that belong to Kaspersky only take up a combined total of 5 MB, this is on a 4 GB system, explorer takes up more RAM then the A/V. Now as far as boot times go, I have been using Soluto to test boot times, and I know that KIS 2011 takes 28 seconds to load at start-up, sure that is a long time for a computer, but it does not affect the overall performance of the system at all.
waiting for Symantec Endpoint 11 (big corporations) and Symantec Endpoint 12 (small business )
Hello Raymond,
No doubt, its an ultimate article. How can I thank you I don’t know. Well, I’m really happy using KIS 2010 (Upgraded to 2011) on Win 7. I’m just loving it. Still I needed one for my old desktop with XP and I will try some of these light ones like Prevx 3.0. KIS 2010 also works fine with minimum 512 MB RAM. But, the lower the memory usage, the higher the detection rate, makes me happier than before :D.
Njoy!!
Thanks.
Regards
Abhijeet
Although I like Prevx a lot, Hitman Pro 3.5 is a really great AV too. No real time scanning, but I’m fine with it. Would it be possible to put it in your tests? I wonder how it would compare to the others…
Thanks and keep up the good work!
I’m just using MS Security Essentials. For surfing the net, I Downloaded VBox and installed a Linux distro. Since then I’ve running without any problem and the host machine is quicker. But then it doesn’t much anymore for work as I got used to the free Linux tools for almost everything.
Nonetheless, anytime I need to test small bits of software for MS Windows, I also have virtual machines with XP and 7 installed and it’s as simple as making a system’s snapshot, test, delete the snapshot and there it goes again.
Wow, this is great.. this is very much helpful. i always use eset nod32 smart security for the past few years. and now i will try to use avast and see for itself. thanks a lot for the awesome review.
I am confused enough.
Can anybody please suggest me which antivirus should I opt for:
I dont care about Boot time increase, Installation size and Full Scan Time.
Other parameters I have prioritised them:
Detection And Blocking: Priority-1
Application Launch Time: Priority-2
Idle Memory Usage: Priority-3
Peak Memory Usage: Priority-4
Folks, when it comes down to it, detection rate is what counts. KV and Prevx were the winners hands down. Threatfire would also be a great suggestion. I’m currently running Windows 7 32bit Build w/ Avast 5, Threatfire 4.7.0, Prevx 3.0.5.161 and OA 4.0.0.44 free.
wow, this is what i call test!!! gr8 job bro
mcafee official reply for not detecting trojan :
“I can’t see from the article whether or not the test included our Artemis technology, which may have made a difference to the results, but without further information about the file it hard to say for definite.”
so raymond , can u clarify whether u used Artemis or NOT??
Great work! By any chance, is there any way to copy your data into a spreadsheet, so we can more easily sift through it?
Did you ever think about doing an overall “composite” performance index ranking? It’s a bit hard to grade overall which packages are better than others, with so much info.
thats one amazing article..hats off to you man!! terrific job :))
Raymond …what about panda’s free cloud antivirus?? they claim thats the lightest antivirus ..
I don’t know what you mean with Idle, because my dr.web antivirus v5, when I’m not downloading anything, eats 5+5 with spiderguard and not more than 1mb with drwebengine.
Here’s the screenshot bildites.lv/images/yjt6tggsj6he3ri0d3x.jpg
It eats 60mb and up with drwebengine only when I’m downloading something or opening an archive, when updating it eats more memory, too. Could you explain me why in your test the results are not so ‘idle’ as they should be?
KV Antivirus 2010 is also named jiangmin antivirus in China provides the most effective proactive antivirus and easy-to-use protection with dynamic heuristic engine and advanced intelligent scanning, which is compatible with Windows 7. It also can detect potential threats and supply solutions when professional Proactive Threat Protection is used. Moreover, over ten new or advanced functions are included, such as advanced Cloud Computing, Anti-Rootkit, advanced Anti-Trojan for Webpage. It protects your PC completely from known and unknown malicious threats, such as Trojans, spyware, rootkits, online fraud, identity theft.
nice article .im really impress with u man.
gr8!!!
Could you test the new Kaspersky 2011? It will launch in 6 days.
Thx.
firstly , well done for ur HUGE effort
really appreciated !!!
good to see my norton securing good marks in every field …
though i recently migrated to MCAFEE total protection 2010 and must say that its very good..
u have tested 2009 version but i am sure next year mcafee is going to go very high with its latest product
NOTE: i shoul mention that i hated mcafee for years so there might be people who would think i am idiot praising mcafee :P .. but same happened when i review norton 2009 and praised it … i m sure this time its mcafee
I think, Avira is no longer the lightest antivirus ever because it takes more space of RAM to run the program rather than Avast! 5.
dear
sorry instead of Its I have mistakenly written item
Dear
Item Very Very nice, good …. I have no word for your greatness. I am also helping the computer users free of cost. But I am physically helping them. Dear Its long since taht you have not updated your site. I personally need 3 Kaspersky Insternet security 2010 Keys. If you can help me then I will be thankfull to you.
Great work Mr. Raymond. This will surely help before buying an anti-virus. Good effort.
You did a great job, but some antivirus have already a configuration to give the best result … you know they are very clever about business :-)
Great work
Everybody loves Raymond.cc :-)
Hi Raymond.
You have done really a great job. According to you which is the best lightest runing antivirus software.
(best in the sense) it should be light runing and detect all viruses.
Awaiting for your response
Wow, nice info.
What I really want to know is how much they slow down web browsing.
How about setting up mozilla and opening 10 bookmarks in tabs, and loading them all at once, and seeing how much the AV slows it down.
Great work! Thanks!
I’m a long time avast user, but I think that your memory number is way off. Avast uses a number of processes; here is what I show right now:
ashDisp: 1.5 mb
ashMaiSv: 4.8 mb
ashServ: 35 mb
ashWebSv: 103 mb
ashUpdSv: 476 k
So we’re talking more than 140 mb! The total VM size is about 92 mb. Of course, you can turn off the web shield and reduce the memory footprint by a lot.
Bottom line – without accounting for equivalent features (e.g., web, p2p, mail scan services), the above list is not very meaningful.
3. is OA++ better than KIS 2010 ?
Hi raymond,
what about Online Armor++.
1. is it poor or good or Excellent…?
2. What’s Your Opinion about Online Armor++ for Real-time protection?
3. OA++ is better than KIS 2010 ?
i though you miss an information about your computer specification when benchmarking that list of AV.
but overall, this is awsome job. it’s not easy to benchmarking lot of AV:)
great job Raymond.
Great work Raymond, and is true Bullguard take 200 mb when the pc is idle iacs!, im still using Avast Internet Security is so light and safe, maybe change it to Avira Security Suite 2010 :).
What an outstanding test! Thanks!
I’ve used Bitdefender for several years. Lately they have many problems like a complete meltdown today where their own update was tagged as a Trojan and all system files were tagged as infected. The result was a computer that could not be rebooted. Luckily I had a second computer and after hours of trying to figure out how my computer was attacked I did a web search and found many reports of same problem on Bitdefender’s forum… many saying the same and that Bitdefender sucks for not notifying people. Beware Bitdefender!! I’m going back to Kaspersky.
How about try the returnil virtual system. I’m curious to see the results.
oh man how did u do it
great great great great great great great great job!
thanks raymond for this post.what abt norton internet security 2010 or superantispyware pro?
Now that’s a huge effort Ray.
cheers
amay
i think NIS 2010 better than Kaspersky.
wow that’s amazing. you are amazing nice :)
thenk’s wery cool.
Thanks Raymond. Good stuff. Any plans to update the Norton 360 results for the newly released version 4?
Thanks,
Seema
i use avira ant-virus with comodo internet security i wander if its good can anybody tell me if its good or give me a internet security together with Avira Anti-virus
Thank you for the extensive survey. But I am interested to
know if boot time scan of any of the anti-viruses can detect and remove Bifrost trojan.
for next time report can u include comparison for OS?
thanks….
How about Clamwin Free Antivirus???
grate test buth note surprise :D
i se that u test a loot of new AV, in the dayli use how to they work ?
i prefer to stay in guard and watch my PC
G DATA Internet Secuity 2010 till now and on …
Wow, awesome report, Im sticking to Kaspersky Internet Security right now and its the best antivirus according to my usage.
please also include malwarebytes anti-malware in the test as they do claim to detect virus too.
I tripled checked the Trojan test results but can’t seem to find the results of BluePoint Security??
When you testing Comodo, was its Defense Plus HIPS turned on?
Hi, Where r the stats for The Cleaner? Cant find! Did I miss something?
Thanks a lot raymond. personally i also prefer AVIRA and KASPERSKY. Not used Avast yet. I mentioned your post in my blog as well.
@ LunarWolf
IMO, Avira has better detection but Avast has better GUI. :)
Thanks sharing this Valuable report Ray……….
What is KV antivirus 2010? Jiangmin’s AV? Right?
Anyone else find it interesting that the only free anti-malware program able to block the encrypted bifrost trojan was Spyware Terminator? I am assuming Prevx blocked because the paid version blocks but I thought the freeware version only detects.
Thank you very much!
It’s a hard work you do Raymond!
Greetings
Thank you Raymond.
I use kaspersky internet security, on an quad 4Ghz, boot time is slow, like 1,4-2 minutes, open folders slow, i install avast, not liking this, every folder or exe named: keygen is deleted, like avira, i do not like this.
I put an folder into exclusion, but Avira still delete some files from this folder, never have this problem with Kaspersky.
Right now i;m on Outpost Security, nice, very nice, just like kaspersky but faster on boot, on restart, shutdown, open files and folders.
All antivirus are not as good as your experience :)
eset is the smartest security ever
Great job
Why did`nt You put DefenseWall into the test?
I think that conclusions dont say anything. Each of soft will base on private mind, so those tests are true with you but wrong with others.
Anyway, tks for sharing
Exemplary, systematic and exceptionally thorough work, Raymond! Kudos!!!
Tommy’s question (#133) is quite interesting.
What are your thoughts on his proposed defense setup?
I’m looking at setting something up like that myself but considering adding DefenseWall to the mix, especially given your recent review of ver. 3.
I really need this especially after being the victim of the trojan virus and i need to reformat the whole system to a newly bought PC! pitty me..pls
Dear Raymond,
Kapersky failed to block Bifrost trojan but u still recommend Kaspersky!!!
Why?
I was glad but not surprised to see how well Comodo Internet Security did. It has the best firewall you can get and as this test has shown, is also lightweight and has good detection capabilities
great bit of work ,great information, well done
@RAYMOND: Vexira??????
Thanks !
Thanks for the effort you put in for this informative and useful review and for testing Avira again with heuristics set to high. Also, for your clarification on ‘yes’ & ‘blocked’.
Now, what is that KV antivirus? Do you think the detection could be error on kv’s part (false positive) as you say that heuristics and not signatures should have detected the trojan?
could u please clarify – Blocked especially in case of Spyware terminator & outpost means automatically blocked or a pop up alert suggesting suspicious activity and asking user for action. Please provide more information on the above aspect (the softwares which blocked put a real block or just popups which all appear to be the same to an average user as such popups keep on appearing even during safe activities and users mostly allow such activity).
@Raymond,
Awaiting your reply…
ummm…..the issue gets complicated in a layered setup….ex. nod with prevx or kis with mbam and prevx then the numbers change
thank you so much for delivering good information
use linux. i said linux not ubuntu ok. no need antivirus.
sorry, i’m tired with so call the best antivirus, internet security whatever.
no virus, no warez. time to change.
im gonna use spyware terminator!
Amazing Job!
I would just like to suggest that you will say specifically which antivirus is the most recommended in your opinion and if it’s Kaspersky, why to ignore its failure in the detection test.
Great article for the noobs who still depend on AV as their first line of defense and for those who are asked for advice as to what they think is the “best”. Honestly Ray, do you actually run one of these full time?
LUA+SRP+Surun+Firewall+Sandboxie+VirusTotal and a VM this is what I’d expect someone like you to be running. Complicated, but water tight and very light.
This by far is one of the most comprehensive work done by you. This article should be featured in a puter mag.
Ray, this is great job!
Amazing amount of work!
My only 2 cents?
Rotate Image Clockwise.
Sweet either way
Awesome post Ray!
Hi Raymond,
Just found a new one: ANVIR Security suite[of Anvir Task Manager fame],but I have no idea if its a anyi-virus or internet though,What do u think?
Very ambitious work going through so many products!
Performance is important, but protection is critical. A fast product that doesn’t protect is of little value to most people. I would suggest a broader test into protection beyond the single sample. The test labs all show norton, kaspersky, avira doing tops in real world tests but don’t dig down into the smaller players.
hello ray!
thank u anyway for the information i’ve got from you. you really took such time to spend more on testing those antiviruses. amazingly, you made a tabulation for all available antiviruses. some trojans were really undetectable.
@Raymond,
So between Avira free v9 and avast free v5, which will you recommend for my friend?
Thanks a lot for your hardwork & appreciate you for puting all of your effort to do this job.But in this time of 2010 we don’t need to chase for antivirus (free or commercial) if we learn the way of browsing & computing safely.Just use sandboxy & got some addon like wot.Not to browse adult site.Lastly most importantly use your pendrive carefully coz most of the virus today spread through this way.So be careful about browsing,web surfing & computing & using your pendrive.You can only use a usb protector such as ikill.Thanks to raymond again for his awsome job which will help some of us to choose the right antivirus or the right way to computing.
@Raymond,
So between Avira free v9 and avast free v9, which will you recommend for my friend?
Yes means it is able to detect the trojan as a threat using its virus signature database. Incognito is supposed to fully undetected by all antivirus but unsure why KV Antivirus managed to detect it as a backdoor trojan.
Thanks again for such a comprehensive analysis.
You have too many questions to answer. Good Luck!
Nevertheless, what is the differnece between Block and Yes. Which is mention on K7 AntiVirus.
Kind Regards,
Anyware
2 more antivirus added to the report and they are Preventon and Online Armor. Make sure you refresh your browser to load the latest graphs.
@Raymond,
Between Avira free and avast free v5, which will will you recommend fo someone who wants to go for free antivirus. My friend is asking my opinion.
hello raymond,
your work is very impressive and helpfull too.
i and others i guess would like you to do 1 more test(request) only on detections of o day malwares by diffrent AV.
also 1 more thing can you please scan the file you have used in your this test with high settings of KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY 2010 and give the result here,i mean in response to my comment
thanks
regards
Hi, Raymond.Which Do you Prefer? Kaspersky And norton.
And What Security Do You Use?
Hi, totally implressive. Is it possible to see results in table format, what are condition on using them?
Can we reference them in our materials?
Impressive review Raymond. Specially because of the amount of unknown contenders to me, that are worth to be looked in more detail.
Personally, I am very proud of the good results obtained by Avira Antivir, my regular choice.
Nice work ! Really useful.
Hi,
Thank you …. an impressive work .
However, what is the differnece between Block and Yes. Which is mention on K7 AntiVirus.
Kind Regards,
Anyware
Even though Kaspersky looks to be GOOD recently it has shown false positives wrt Google.
@Raymond
Thanks for your reply. I’ll read your updated test with interest.
It’s a huge work (thanks for that) and the readers should complete with other more classic comprativ (ie for the detection ou false positiv score).
Also, it should be a good idea to describe how you test memory charge as often there is many different method for an application to load into memory (multi processes, hiding virtual drivers etc..)
Very good job, Raymond. Thank you, first of all.
Many would benefit out of this comprehensive test.
But you missed biggies like Online Armor++. Probably you will do an individual review on it later.
wow, what a great research>.< THX Raymond
I’ve never seen such a comprehensive report (based on speed and memory usage) about Anti-virus. Hundreds of software were literally tested. Even now, the list is getting updated!.
Impressive work.
WOW!, what a test! I appreciate the hard and exhausting work you did to rank these av programs. Only I am set in my ways and have been so happy with Nod32 for goin’ on 5 years now, and it has kept me safe (along with some other antispyware programs and windows tweaks). I have to go with consistency. Actually, I rarely see any true viruses, but mostly the Fake Antivirus Program malware, and I have seen them get through whatever antivirus program the customer has. But I can honesly say that I see the lowest occurrence with Nod32. Aside from that, spyware prevention goes a long way, and will probably work fairly well with almost any reputable av program, only I hate the ones that affect computer performance and speed.
Thank you again,
Dale Powell
Amazing job Raymond!!! Thank you so much for sharing your efforts with us. My only complaint……. I miss your daily emails. Hopefully sometime in the future you will be able to continue with them again.
hi Raymond,
first of all, thanks for the effort u had put in running the test and share v us about the result..
If i’m not wrong, in previous post you did mentioned how good Eset is..and that’s why im wondering why Eset never been mentioned under this topic..
hope can hear from you soon..thanks in advance
Hello Raymond. Very nice and comprehensive list you have. Nice job indeed. As for Sophos AV I believe a free product uses Sophos AV realtime as well as Ad-aware on demand, the product is called Prevention. I do not know what version of Sophos it uses though and I have not tried it.
preventon.com/
Have you been able to test Online Armor ++ ? It uses the OA firewall/HIPS and A-squared (antidpyware plus Ikarus AV). Would be nice to see if you could run your Bifrost aainst the above two and see what happens. Also, the Prevention may be one that is of interest since it is not well known at this point.
I see Webroot did not do well against Bifrost and I believe it uses Sophos- although I don’t know if it uses the latest engine or not. I believe the latest version of Sophos is 9.
Thanks
Heard people talk about being passionate in one’s job in TED talks; Oh! Dear! You are jus mind blowing; why don’t you give a lecture at TED talks; jus think it over; overwhelmed by your service motive; hats off joe;
@manas: I did try to include QuickHeal in the test but I wasn’t able to update the product. I kept on getting the error “Unable to complete the download process due to Internet Connection disconnected by remote side. Please check your Internet Connection and run Quick Update to update your Quick Heal.” By the way, Thirtyseven4 Antivirus is EXACTLY the same as Quick Heal Antivirus.
@HNicolai: PrevX, Immunet and Panda Cloud is what they now call Cloud Antivirus. They are usually very light and only scan system areas which are not really fair in the test. However I just simply included them in the test since they provide real time protection.
@Francis: I did try to search for Sophos but they don’t seem to have Home products anymore. They only have Business and Enterprise products.
@drwiz: Microsoft Security Essentials is already in the test.
@gvaudan: The crypted bifrost can be considered as 0day thread since it cannot be detected by any antivirus at all and it very much depend on heuristic detection. Read comment #19, I’ve mentioned that I I did try to include Drive Sentry to the test but then I was unable to “activate the advisor account” and unable to start database synchronization.
@che: During the test, I noticed that most of the antivirus never takes up more than 50% of the cpu usage when running a full scan. Moreover I’d say that it is hard to measure the CPU usage. Well I will consider to include CPU usage in my future reports.
@Haakon: This is an antivirus test that’s why I did not include malwarebytes and superantispyware. As long as their software being advertised that it can catch virus, then I will include them. I will do a test on TallEmu Online Armor++ now and update the graph.
hello mas raymond….
terima kasih (thanks) for your information, emmmm…what the next project test..? i hope the next test will be great test.
whoa Raymond u did a gr8 work and spend hell lot of time its really a terrific article i personally like norton but really like to know which u ll like use frm one of them and which u using currently on ur system? plz do reply
Pretty impressive , great job.
cpu useage??
ram useage not important
cpu useage important
cpu useage big… system heavy
norton, kaspersky cpu useage big…
scan …so on.. cpu useage big
internet download speed decrase..
kaspersky decrase internet speed…
online game angry…
Thanks Ray. …. I have installed Kaspersky internet internet security 2010 on windows 7, and could barely see the difference , it was so light and effective at the same time…
@Raymond,
Thanks.
You were right. Most user will just use the dafault settings. They won’t meddle with it.
By the way, nice review and thanks again.
Thanks Raymond Very Good
great what an effort ,than q.
Wow Raymond. What an effort this must have been.
106 security products must be some kind of record. Thanks alot for doing this. I’m glad NIS2010 (which I’m currently using) did pretty good in all tests, especially blocking the trojan.
You should publish this information in a tab of its own so its easy to find. As you wrote, there is alot of security products and its difficult to choose which suites you best, and doing own tests is both time consuming and boring. Really impressive work.
Marvelous report! Thank you!
You still recommend Kapersky as your first choice. What would be your second choice? Your third?
I think I will stick with a-squared AntiMalware until your reply. It rated very high on detection, blocked
Bifrost trojan crypted with Incognito, and was average or better on everything else except for loading Firefox. Very, very poor there :>((.
It often finds several false positives, but reviews them later and very often offers to restore them if found to be o.k.
Also, it gives you the option of white or black listing malicious sites that want to open on your computer..*** I have never heard of most of the sites it reports, so I black list them and I never see them again.
*** Please answer this question – how do these sites get through the firewall? I use ZoneAlarm free.
Missed your daily input, but this report made your absence worthwhile. And — Thanks again!
–Hi Pockets
Thanks for the outstanding effort!! But…
Tallemu??
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware??
SUPERAntiSpyware??
Next time, maybe?
@Raymond,
Congratulations for your great work on testing so many antivirus softwares.
All of us who subscribed your bulletins have the privilage to have access such valiable information.
One way to make the test more accurate would be testing CPU usage of different antivirus.
Thanks so much!!!!
thanks Raymond, ur the best !!
thanks for the result. it really help a lot of people specially me now i know what i want :D
nice job raymond as always, ; )
even though some of the replys you got back from others were still
” which antivirus do you think is the best”
A very nice test.Splendid effort.
There is so much information to digest,I will be busy for some time.
thanks very much.
Hi Raymond,
Please also include antimalware bytes, superantispyware pro and Agnitum poducts,others,etc. too,if that isn’t much of a trouble,LOL.
BTW,thanks so much for the detailed report,was looking for like this quite a long time,you really made my day:-)
Very Good Mr. Raymond !!!
Thank you very much !!!
Hi Ray. nice job keep it up,
MORAL OF THE TEST “KASPERSKY IS BEST”,
GET FREE LICENSE OF KASPERSKY FROM THESE LINKS—
FOR XP/VISTA USERS—-
raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/06/24/download-latest-kaspersky-security-suite-cbe-2009/
FOR WINDOWS 7 USERS—-
raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/12/11/free-kaspersky-security-suite-cbe-win7-internet-security-2010-for-all-windows-7-users/
Thanks Raymond… Your da best!!!!
Gonna keep all info on PDF and store on my HDD :P
You missed Quick Heal Antivirus. I know.. there are many small av companies but quick heal is worth testing.
Thanks Dear Raymond.
what’s your source for this test?
Best Regards,
afew days ago i compared full scan time of avast 5 free with avira 9 free.
one thing ,you must note,is that avast unpacks some archive types with default option ,which aren’t default in avira,that’s why avast is slow in compare with other anti viruses,if you disable these options,avast and avira have same speed,maybe avast is even faster.
in my test avast detected some infected applications more than avira.
Prevx 3.0 should not be in this test! It’s a crappy AV!
If you pack any file (virus.exe or legit.exe) then it will show up as “Virus/trojan” and if you make a program in AutoIt (just a “msg(0, “Hello World”, “Hello World”)) and unpack the program then it will still show up as a virus/trojan
thanks for the info Raymond..
I think you should also test for Autorun virus type so that we can know which is better.. This types of virus has recorded much higher result infection among the computer user..
Just my opinion.. Sharing is good… :)
WOW,
quality of raymond’s articles are getting unique.
thanks for the info.
Why was Sophos not included in the test?
@Raymond: Thank you very much for taking the time to set the euristic throttle to “Hight”… I Believe the best thing now would be to post your crypted Bifrost trojan to the Avira’s “Suspicious Files and Miscellaneous Uploads” at analysis.avira.com/samples/index.php if you don’t mind…
@LunarWolf: I may be mislead, but I believe It was U who put a note as “King Grub” on the AVIRA Forum at : forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=106343 ?
Nevertheless I think this is the maximum we can do for now.
Great Job Raymond. Thanks :)
What’s your opinion about Microsoft security essentials?
What was interesting to me was how poorly Kaspersky did in the results.
It appears that those blocking the virus did so because they had HIPS/behavior blockers and Kaspersky (claims) to have one too. Except theirs didn’t (evidently) work.
Next time someone tells you that Kaspersky is the greatest show on earth, show ‘em this.
If nothing else, what this data shows is that adding a HIPS/behavior blocker (like the freeware Threatfire) is a good idea.
Cheers (and thanks for the results, Raymond).
wow… amazing test…
how about create the pdf report with more complete explanations ?
But, thanks anyway… really worth article
This is pretty darned impressive and you remain the King of SW blogs. I continue to get more from 1 of your columns than months of columns from others.
Thanks!
And the results pretty much confirm what I’ve found: Oline Armor++ (with A-Squared AV) is a pretty good choice for me.
Thx for the report…..
Hmm I m using only A-Squared Antimalware n Happy to see it Blocked while run time
WOW! A huge amount of work. All I can say, is thank you – most sincerely.
I guess I’ll be keeping Avast :)
great work bro…hails for your job
As these graphics are quite difficult to read,
Some synthetic report would be welcome. ie the booting cost for those which were able to see/block the 0day-like threat.
Like some other comments, I regret there is not more detail about versions and the lack of some modern solutions like DriveSentry
you are the man!! thanks for such a comprehensive analysis, it helped me a lot
tc..n all the very best
I don’t care about speed.
But I care about detection and environment usage.
Thank you for testing result. ^^
@LunarWolf: It’s not really fair to set Avira’s heuristic detection level to High when the rest is also using the default configuration. High level of heuristic detection also means higher false positives.
Anyway, as a test, I set Avira’s AHeAD to HIGH. Right clicked on the crypted Bifrost trojan and select “Scan selected files with AntiVir”. It shows 1 scanned files and 0 detections, 0 suspicious files, 0 warnings, 0 objects searched and 0 hidden objects. I even double checked the log file and the File heuristic did say “High”.
Next, I also set the heuristic level to HIGH for Guard. Ran the trojan and no warning or any detection at all. I hope this simple test is what you wanted.
Thanks for coming up with a study like this. I feel enriched after going quickly through your report. How I wish the others who make comparisons of security products do something like what you do. Keep up the good work and God bless!
hmm.. this is why i love your blog… very informative and you do research with your own
Thanks Raymond, very nice review. It help us a lot which antivirus we’re going to buy…
..tnx raymond..i think i made the right choice..ive Bitdefender total security 2010..for me the most important thing is the detection rate…
tnx ray……
@Raymond,
Surprise that Avira miss that one.
You should try Avira with heuristics set to high and see it detects or not.
Kaspersky detect but couldn’t block, speechless.
Norton, didn’t expect that.
Thanks You a LOT; Raymond, Aim High Great Yob, Please tell us the Best 4 stars FREE AV …….
I thought your wife was keeping you busy all these days, Ah ! now I know what you were doing.
Great work, so much of effort, time, and such a useful report.
Take some rest now !
Thank’s Raymond for this tests !
@Nicolas: The default settings were used during scanning and runtime since most users doesn’t really meddle with the levels of sensitivity.
If I am not wrong, most antivirus that has heuristic technology should have automatically used the heuristic detection whenever I run a file. Modern antivirus doesn’t rely solely on virus signature anymore.
Awesome & comprehensive report !
Though I do realise that this is tested in part with the first test you did here. But, for example when doing file intensive operations some antivirus cause major slow downs.
Thanks for the quality post. I tested some of the heavy weights and after using them for months I finally decided to use Avast v5.
It’s pretty light and works like a charm. I am using it on 4 different system with different configurations and compared to other AV’s it’s quite stable and reliable.
Overall the new GUI looks stunning and the extra eye candy increases its appeal to users. Also, the free version does offer some very good protection.
I would recommend users to at least try the new Avast v5.
This post worth the days spent on it, awesome work Ray, thanks.
Thanks for a very informative article Ray.
A suggestion for a future test would be to test CPU use by different antivirus software to see how much of a slowdown the real time protection causes. This can be difficult as some AV software can cause a slow down without showing high cpu usage in task manager.
OH, It was fixed when I rebooted.
Good Job. Really nice share.
Wao. Thx Raymond.
How about next project is testing the best firewall 2010?
thx alot for info
nice topic
I have a problem. There is waves rolling when i scroll this page. I couldnt find the solution. Please help!
Hi Raymond
I got AVIRA ANTIVIR tech. support’s feedback on your Bifrost trojan test with the following comment :
“As you can see, the test details are not given. The most important detail (heuristic level) is also not specified.
Moreover, the run time scan is not the same as heuristic scan.”
As I particularly appreciate Avira (I don’t have any specific interrested in their company) , I would appreciate to help to make any progress on this if needed.
Best Regards
Nicolas
Great Job, Reymond!!!
You showed that most AV and IS products are mostly for the Easy Malware. When things get difficult, most are only for decorative purposes (i.e. little toy-scanners).
Keep up with the Revealing work!!!
great work ray.
it helped me a lot.
but whenever install avg antivirus my computer slows down .
but avira and avast doesnt slow down.
many of those antivirus is new to me , i never heard of them (e.g my free antivirus).
thanx again man.
nice post of 2010..great work raymond…
Good article… I think kaspersky is still the best but when see your test, norton internet security always dominate…
BTW when U say that kaspersky still recommended from all antivirus, i think will stay using the kaspersky… =)
Nice info…
This is quite refreshing and interesting too. Thanks Ray!
Well, Prevx really got a huge and nice malware dbase. But it keeps flagging packed files as a potential infection.
Nah, that really doesn’t work for me. I do pack and encrypt files for legitimate purposes other than spreading malware.
@sharath: Even if a computer comes with 1GB or 2GB of memory, it doesn’t mean you can use a heavy memory loaded antivirus.
Reason is when you utilize the computer more heavily and has more stuff installed, the antivirus will definitely have to work harder which makes Windows sluggish.
Best artical of 2010
Hello Raymond,
Marvellous work..!!
Many thanks for sharing the report..
I am using Kaspersky and I wanted to know should I shift to any other antivirus/internet security software..
Kindly suggest and please do let me know.
Waiting for your response,
Thanking you in advance
now a days all computer comes with 1 or 2gb ram.so there is no need to think about memory usage.
we should consider the detection rate its the important thing .
Wow, great work, good informative article as always
nice and detail info
ray.
Oh, useful preview, thank Raymond!
hfng February 3rd, 2010 at 4:51 pm 6 “Hi raymond, So which free antivirus would you recommend? At the moment I am using AVG.”
Raymond February 3rd, 2010 at 5:26 pm 19 “@hfng: I still recommend Kaspersky.”
Raymond
Is Kaspersky free somewhere I’m missing?
Very helpful, great test and the results are interesting…
Wow! Great work Ray & thanks for sharing
whoah raymond that is nice test. Thank God I use avast! 5 free :D
very gud effort ray
Thanks a lot Ray. Its a terrific review.I am really impressed the time you spent on testing all these antivirus.
We missed your articales but you came back with you came back with bang.
This is your best post of 2010.
But answer is still unclear that which anti virus you would recommend to your subscribers.
Please help us.
Hi Raymond, Superb.. Simply superb..
Thanx Raymond, this is interesting… too bad you didn’t test on a Vista system… never understood why people hate Vista so much… the security is not hard to handle after you learn how it works and have a right-click take ownership context menu item…. I prefer Vista to XP anydayMaybe we could see these tests in Vista and 7/ 32 and 64 bit….
Thanks ray – useful
Great work man….Can you put light on A2 and BIT..Which one has an advantage on other.
@flash113: Oops, yeah I guess I missed F-Secure. I am testing it now and will include in the report.
@Nicolas: Avira is able to detect the public bifrost but since it is crypted with Incognito, it now cannot be detected. As for PrevX, I tried the free version which has no problem detecting it.
@hfng: I still recommend Kaspersky.
@Nicolas: I did try to include Drive Sentry to the test but then I was unable to “activate the advisor account” and unable to start database synchronization.
Woah, I’m certainly gonna try out ‘Multicore antivirus and antispyware v2′, that looks to be the best program out of the lot. /sarcasm.
Thanks a lot Raymond, Such a great informative article, I miss your articles but you are now back with bang. I like this article, very helpful for selecting antivirus.
Once again, Thanks……..
Wow. That is sure good to know. I would get my friends to look at this and perhaps change anti-viruses or suites.
Thanks Raymond.
nice report ray !
a GOOD article……
That’s a terrific review.
Thank you so much.
Thank you Raymond for this post, really great job, very informative
Thanks a lot Raymond for the information’s,
but I’m using Kaspersky internet security 2010 (9.0.0.736) and the memory usage is much higher than yours (it takes about 150 MB).
Any reason for that ?
Best regards
Raymond here is another remark….
Did you try the test with Drive Sentry Desktop 3.4 (drivesentry.com/) ?
Nicolas
very very helpful comparison ray. u r certainly great and good to see that norton able to block the virus
Hi,
Thank you …. an impressive work .
Best regards !
Impressive !!!
Very Good Work Mr. Raymond !!!
Thank you very much !!!
Hi raymond,
So which free antivirus would you recommend?
At the moment I am using AVG.
Hi Raymond
Wow ! I am really impressed by the methodology and the time you spent on testing all these antivirus !
I hope you’ll get some recognition from these security vendors somehow.
I run the Avira Antivir personal V9 on my laptop, and I was interested to see it failed your Bifrost trojan test detection…
I believe no antivirus is perfect anyway but this is worth raising the issue to the Avira support team as I believe it is one of the best free antivirus.
It is interesting to mention that only Prevx 3 was able to immediately stop on both run time and scan time in your test. BTW which package of Prevx 3.0 did you use for your test ? (Free, Cleanup, Protection, Safe Online)
Kind Regards
Nicolas
Awesome
why wasnt f-secure included im using is2010 and its very good i think
what do u think about NORTON?
Wow, nice share.