Comparison of anti-virus software

The AV Comparative site recently published a comparison of the major anti-virus software, including free software.

The results of the test has provided some surprises especially about Microsoft Essentials, as decried by the suppliers of business solutions against malware, when compared to their own products.

From a battery of viruses, the site tested each solution to see if it could remove them, and better yet, remove all residues that they could leave including changes to the registry.

Software Removal of malwares Removal of leftovers
Avast Average Average
AVG Average Average
Avira Average Average
BitDefender Good Average
eScan Good Good
ESET Average Average
F-Secure Good Average
G Data Average Poor
Kasperky Good Average
Kingsoft Good Poor
McAfee Average Average
Microsoft Good Good
Norman Average Poor
Sophos Average Average
Symantec Good Good
Trusport Average Average

What follows from this comparison is that Microsoft Essentials is the only free product to get a good score next to commercial products such as Symantec and eScan, while many paid solutions offer poor results.

Ranks of anti-virus software for proactive tests:

Microsoft Essentials for example is able to detect 55% of new viruses not in databases yet.
Avast is included in the Google Pack.

A study of GData June 2011, shows that 48% of Internet users use a free software to protect their computer. Only 4% use none.

More