Protect your PC with a free antivirus

 Protect your PC with a free antivirus

  Hundreds of computers are infected every day and exposed to all kinds of cyber attacks.  How do you avoid it?  Well, keep them well protected.  The message is clear, make sure your computer is well protected with a proper antivirus, but which one?  In our comparison, you can choose the one that best suits your needs

  The vast majority of these attacks target the Windows operating system.  Simple numbers matter: if you are a computer hacker and a bad guy, the more users you have with the medium you direct your attack to, the more damage you do.

  Microsoft knows this, and in a way, this reality is detrimental to its brand.  For this reason, in 2006 Microsoft launched Windows Defender, a very modest free antivirus for Windows XP and Windows Vista that over time has improved its performance and perfection.

  Today, Windows Defender is the security software that is installed by default in Windows 10. It is not necessary to install it, but it is already active with the operating system.  It is automatically deactivated when another antivirus is installed and is automatically reactivated when it is uninstalled or when it becomes out of date.  In this way, Microsoft wants to ensure a minimum level of computer protection at all times.

  Comfortable but limited

  The latest antivirus scan reveals that the new version of Windows Defender is of good quality (this year it blocked 99.98% of the malware we encountered) and has the convenience of not having to install it, but it also has weaknesses:

      It does not contain any phishing protection (only the protection provided by the browser itself).

      Gives many false positives (detects legitimate files and websites as malware).

      The computer slows down somewhat, especially when copying files, downloading files from the Internet, and installing programs.

  Having Windows Defender is minimal, but if you're only equipped with this software, you'd better be careful and use only a web browser with good anti-phishing protection and a lot of common sense when browsing and downloading files.

  Being well protected is free

  Yes, you read that right: Our conclusion to the latest antivirus scan is that you don't need to spend money to protect your PC.  At OCU, we have analyzed 19 antivirus products for Windows, so you know which one to install on your PC, because not all of them are the same and the advertising claims are misleading.

  , the best free antivirus

  If you are looking for a free antivirus, you are in luck: among the best antivirus programs, we find some high-quality freeware.  In fact, among the ten best antivirus programs analyzed, there are three that are free, and Kaspersky Security Cloud Free stands out as the best free antivirus for those analyzed:

      Provides excellent 99.83% malware protection.

      Provides good protection against phishing (86%).

      It has a VPN service of up to 300MB/day.

      In addition, unlike with other free antivirus programs, with Kaspersky Security Cloud Free the user will not suffer from annoying promotions for upgrading to the paid version, it is very easy to use and does not slow down the computer at all.

  However, as with all free software, it has its limitations: it does not offer additional functions such as parental control, its own firewall, password manager or a specific banking protection tool.

  What if your computer is a MAC?

  Although there are malware capable of infecting Apple computers, compared to Windows, there are very few of them, so antivirus software is not as necessary as in the case of Windows.

  In any case, you should not relax, because there are other threats, such as phishing, which affect all users equally because it does not depend on the operating system.  What browser do you use on your Mac computer?

      If you use Google Chrome, you should know that in our study only 63% of phishing scams were blocked.

      Safari neutralized 76% of phishing scams.

      The best percentages were obtained with Mozilla Firefox, up to 83% phishing protection.

  Browse safely, protect yourself, and protect your family and computers from cybercriminals.