P c antivirus free download

Only a few free antivirus applications offer decent virus and malware protection for Windows PCs.

Free antiviruses can be risky — some are actually malware in disguise designed to steal your private information and damage your computer. This is especially true for Windows, because it’s the most targeted and most frequently hacked operating system in the world. You can avoid being scammed by only downloading trustworthy antivirus software with a history of high-quality performance.

While there is no such thing as a “free antivirus” with zero limitations, these 5 free downloads each offer a great set of internet security features for Windows 7, 8, and 10 devices. And all of these free downloads are better than Windows Defender — the default protection included with Windows.

I tested all the free Windows antiviruses I could find and ranked them on malware detection, ease of use, and additional cybersecurity features.

Here’s what I found out.

Yes, You Already Have a Free Antivirus on Your PC, But it Isn’t Good Enough

Your Windows computer already comes with Windows Defender — which, as you can see from our recent review, is a decent free antivirus. But the problem with Windows Defender is that it doesn’t do enough for cybersecurity and online protection, and Microsoft rarely updates it. To keep your PC actually safe, you need the kind of protection that you can only get from dedicated antivirus software.

There are some impressive free antivirus applications out there — but remember that none of these free versions offer complete protection. It’s not totally safe to rely on the free version of a paid product.

These free versions don’t just limit special features. In fact, many brands reserve their highest level of security for paying users.

For example, advanced protection against ransomware is often a premium antivirus feature. Ransomware works by locking up your computer or personal files and demanding that you make a payment to release them. It’s risky to leave yourself open to this kind of serious attack, but a premium antivirus almost always includes guaranteed ransomware protection.

My number 1 free Windows antivirus application, Avira Free Security for Windows, is particularly generous with its free offerings.

But the premium version of any one of these products will offer more security features than all the free versions combined.

How I Rated the Best Free Windows Antivirus Software

While many brands offer something for free, there’s a huge difference in terms of quality and security. Most so-called “free antivirus programs” turn out to be just a virus scan — some programs will detect malware for free but demand payment to remove it. To earn a place in my top 5, a free Windows antivirus software must offer the following:

• Genuinely free. Brands usually try to trick you into staying with them by offering a free trial and then making you pay to keep using the product. I checked to make sure that each one of these programs was actually free and not just offering a “free trial”.
• No surprises. I don’t tolerate surprises when it comes to online security. Every antivirus here does what it says it does and doesn’t hide anything or mislead you into paying money.
• Strong protection. I can confidently say that each one of these free antivirus programs provides a relatively safe level of security for you and your devices.
• Excellent test results. There are fake antivirus programs out there, but I’ve personally tested each one of my top 5 on a wide variety of criteria and feel 100% safe in recommending them to you. For more info on how we test an antivirus, go here.
• Additional features. You’re not going to get the best a brand has to offer without paying for it. But I’ve given special consideration to brands that offer a few extra features at no extra cost.

1. Avira Free Security for Windows — Best Overall Free Windows Antivirus

Avira Free Security for Windows runs on one of the most powerful antivirus engines in the world. Avira’s virus scanner operates in the cloud — so its detection and analysis doesn’t actually take place on your PC — making Avira extremely fast, lightweight, and low on system resources.

Avira’s anti-malware engine detected all of the malware files in my testing, and I was able to run CPU-intensive programs during scans with almost zero slowdown. Paid programs like McAfee and Norton are equally effective at detecting malware, but their full disk scans will slow down your system much more than Avira will.

Apart from excellent virus protection, Avira also includes more additional internet security features than any other free antivirus, and they’re all surprisingly good.

Avira’s free antivirus comes with:

• “Safe Shopping” browser extension.
• Privacy + performance optimizer.
• VPN (500 MB monthly limit).
• Password manager.
• File shredder.
• Web privacy extension.

The Safe Shopping browser extension for Firefox and Chrome is really good — it blocks suspicious phishing sites, web trackers, and unwanted advertisements, and it automatically offers links to better deals when shopping online. In my testing, Safe Shopping detected phishing sites more accurately than Chrome, blocked ads on YouTube, and helped me find hidden deals on everything from electronics to camping gear!

I’m also a big fan of Avira’s privacy and performance optimization tools — they cleaned out my cookies and junk files, as well as fixed hidden privacy settings that were leaking personal information on the web. For even better privacy optimization, as well as a startup booster, more powerful system cleanup tools, a VPN with unlimited data, premium Android and iOS apps, and a lot more, you’ll need to upgrade to Avira Prime.

Bottom Line:

Avira has one of the best virus scanning engines on the market — it’s lightweight, fast, has perfect detection rates (read full review here), and is 100% free. I’m also a big fan of Avira’s free internet security tools like the Safe Shopping browser extension and the privacy optimizer, which can make a big difference in overall cybersecurity protection. To get more advanced internet security protection, you’ll need to upgrade to one of Avira’s paid plans, but in terms of free Windows antiviruses, it doesn’t get better than Avira.

Download Avira Free Now

2. Panda Free Antivirus — Best for Beginners

Panda Free Antivirus is lightweight, secure, and easy-to-use. Everything is laid out on the dashboard in an attractive and intuitive way. It’s great for beginners who don’t want to worry about a lot of advanced settings — just open it up and let it run.

Panda might be one of the lesser-known brands on this list, but its antivirus scanner scored exceptionally well in my tests, with a 100% virus detection rate. The included firewall is also pretty powerful, blocking more intrusions than any other free antivirus I tested, including the Windows firewall.

I really like that Panda Free Antiviruscomes with a virtual private network (VPN). I always recommend using a VPN if you’re on a public Wi-Fi network — not only is all of your data exposed to the network administrator, unsecured Wi-Fi networks are notoriously easy to hack into. While Panda’s VPN is free, it has a data limit of 150 MB per day — this is good for browsing the web and sending emails, but it’s not nearly enough data for things like streaming or file sharing. You can only get unlimited VPN data on the Panda Dome Premium plan.

Bottom Line:

Panda Free Antivirus is a powerful and easy-to-use antivirus, offering 100% free protection. It’s one of the most intuitive antivirus programs out there — no advanced setup required. The VPN is powerful, but it’s limited to 150 MB per day. If you want unlimited VPN access — and other extras like a password manager, parental controls, and advanced malware detection — you’ll need to upgrade. Otherwise, Panda offers a great free Windows antivirus.

Download Panda Free Now

3. Sophos Home Free — Best for Parental Controls

Sophos Home Free is a free antivirus package that not only offers some pretty good protection against malware, it also allows families to protect their households for free.

Sophos’s free plan includes great parental controls — something that usually comes only in premium internet security packages, such as Norton 360 Deluxe. Sophos’s Web Filtering tool enables users to block kids from accessing malicious sites, adult content, or specific websites that could be inappropriate for young children, such as certain social networks.

Sophos Home Free also includes real-time malware protection and an internet security browser extension that blocks phishing websites. When I tested the browser extension, Sophos correctly identified all the phishing websites I tried to go to, and the extension wouldn’t let me access these dangerous sites.

You can install the free version of Sophos on up to 3 devices. This is very generous for a free product, but if you want to cover more devices (up to 10), you’ll need to upgrade to Sophos Home Premium.

Bottom Line:

Sophos is a great option for parents who want peace of mind when their kids are using the internet. This free internet security package includes real-time malware protection — something which isn’t included with most free antiviruses. While Sophos Home Free covers up to 3 devices, if you need more devices (and some advanced features), you’ll have to upgrade to Sophos Home Premium.

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4. Kaspersky Security Cloud (Free) — Best for Added Features

Kaspersky Security Cloud — Free is an impressive free antivirus suite. It includes Kaspersky’s cloud-based malware scanning engine, which caught 100% of the threats I threw at it during testing.

Not only does Security Cloud scan for malware, perform system cleanup and use active scanning to prevent new threats, but it also provides complete privacy protection with a VPN, a password manager, and dark web scanning.

The VPN is pretty good — it didn’t slow my computer down very much, and allowed me to unblock geo-restricted streaming content with servers around the globe. Unfortunately, there is a 200 MB daily limit, but that’s better than the 150 MB daily data on Panda’s free VPN.

The limit on the password manager is a little bit worse — only 15 separate logins can be saved, which is not nearly enough for most users. Still, if you have 15 logins which are your highest priority, the password manager generates and auto-fills extremely complex passwords for an added layer of security.

The dark web scanner is simple, but effective. After I gave it my essential logins, it regularly checked the database at Have I Been Pwned to see if my information was getting shared around the dark web.

Bottom Line:

Kaspersky is a powerful free antivirus suite with some cool extra features. The VPN and password manager work really well, but the usage limits on them make them less useful than standalone products. However, considering that you’re getting an antivirus suite for free, along with these useful extras, I’d recommend heading over to Kaspersky and giving this free program a shot.

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5. Bitdefender Antivirus Free — Best for Simple Windows Protection

Bitdefender Antivirus Free is a great choice for users looking for an antivirus scanner that they don’t need to think about after installation. Bitdefender is designed to run in the background, with only essential notifications in case of suspicious program activity. Malware scans, detection, and removal all happen automatically, unless you decide to adjust the settings.

If you’re looking for extra features like a password manager, parental controls, dark web monitoring, or a VPN, this is not the right product for you (you’ll need something like Norton 360 for that). However, it’s still really good antivirus software, and its minimal design means that it won’t slow your PC down at all.

As we saw in our full review, Bitdefender’s malware scanner is one of the strongest on the market, and the Advanced Protection feature now extends to ransomware detection — any suspicious behavior on your PC will get frozen immediately. This scanner is really fast — malware files and ransomware processes were all caught just moments after I downloaded or unzipped them.

The anti-phishing and fraud protection features are pretty good as well. Bitdefender flagged all of the latest known phishing sites and alerted me when I was asked to enter private data onto 3 different suspicious web forms.

Bottom Line:

Bitdefender Antivirus Free doesn’t include as many extra features as other free antivirus softwares on this list, but it is one of the easiest to use. If you’re looking for 100% malware detection that runs in the background, keeps your computer safe, and monitors browsing, Bitdefender is a good choice.

Download Bitdefender Free Now

🤔 What’s the catch with free antiviruses?

There is no such thing as a truly free antivirus. You always “pay” with something. Most antivirus companies offer premium versions of their apps and limit the free version to only offer basic protection. This leaves a lot of holes in your computer’s cybersecurity defense. The company hopes you’ll recognize you’re not well-protected, and they’ll try to get you to upgrade to the paid plan by sending you a ton of notifications and advertisements.

Some other antivirus companies even sell free users’ data to large corporations for marketing purposes.

If you’re only using your device for simple online browsing or word processing, you’re probably fine with a free antivirus. But, in general, if you have any kind of sensitive information being stored or entered on your Windows device, it’s always better to invest in a full-featured internet security suite than it is to trust a free antivirus.

🤔 Why should I use another free antivirus instead of Windows Defender?

Windows Defender is a great product for basic needs. It detects and protects against viruses pretty well, and the included Windows Firewall is pretty good. But it doesn’t offer protection against other cyber threats like ransomware or phishing scams.

Many free antiviruses, like Avira, not only protect against these threats, but they are on the front lines of cybersecurity and know how to keep you safe better than Windows Defender.

🤔 What are the most common types of viruses that affect Windows computers?

Trojans are usually the go-to viruses for hackers looking to infect or steal your personal data. These are viruses that look like other files with extensions like .exe and .doc. But once downloaded, if you don’t have an antivirus installed on your PC, you will be running a serious virus that could debilitate your machine and potentially send all of your information to a hacker. A good antivirus will stop you from running that virus on your PC. An even better antivirus will stop you from downloading that virus in the first place.

That said, there are potentially millions of new and dangerous threats for Windows, so it’s crucial that your virus protection is updated with the latest known malware database.

🤔️ Will Windows allow me to install a free antivirus?

Absolutely! In fact, I recommend you choose Avira as a secure way of protecting your PC for free.

But if you’re looking for advanced protection and a lot of other great cybersecurity features, check out the list of the best premium antivirus products on the market.

If PC security is important to you, check out SafetyDetectives’s best premium antiviruses for Windows (Updated 2020):