Free AVs' Protection Tested

Most independent tests of AVs, such as AV-Comparatives, test mainly the commercial products. (AV-C has tested Microsoft Security Essentials, and avast! Free 5.0 recently, but not other free AVs, such as Avira's and AVG's free versions).

Donna Buenaventura, an MS MVP, has recently tested 10 free AVs for their ability to detect and prevent some 380 malware samples (adware, Trojans, worms, viruses, spyware, potentially unwanted programs, rootkits and other types of malware):
http://www.brighthub.com/computing/smb-security/articles/88397.aspx

The ten AVs tested include:
•Ad-Aware
•Avast! 5
•AVG Free
•Avira's AntiVir 10
•ClamAV for Windows
•Comodo
•Immunet Protect
•Microsoft Security Essentials
•Panda Cloud Antivirus
•PC Tools Antivirus Free

In a nutshell, she found that only a few detected/prevented 95% or more samples:
•PC Tools Antivirus Free - 98.5% protection in real-time.
•Avast - Provides 98% protection.
•AntiVir and Ad-Aware - Both will provide up to 97% of protection.
•Microsoft Security Essentials and Comodo Antivirus - Offer up to 95% real-time protection.

My Comments:

- Donna is a bit sketchy on the methodology employed, and the testbed platform. And 380 test samples of malware is small, compared to what AV-C tests (0.9 million samples). Nonetheless, this is the only reputable test of free AVs of which I am aware, and is in general agreement with AV-C's test results.

- I was unaware that PC Tools offered a free AV, and was surprised that it came out on top. AV-C, in its most recent on-demand tests, found that the paid version detected 98.1% of its test sample, and awarded it the highest certification: Advanced +.

Before anyone rushes out to get this free AV, I would note (as does Donna) that the setup file of PC Tools is bundled with Google Chrome browser installer. The program will install PC Tools Search Defender, a search assistant for Internet Explorer which uses the Ask.com web search service. The URL that PC Tools is using to send the searches is www.search-results.com. A nag window is displayed when using PC Tools and the bad part of this is that you cannot close nor hide the nag window. This not an AV I would want on my PC!

- No surprise that avast and Avira fared well. The Avast setup file is bundled with Google Chrome browser, but is not required to enjoy the free virus protection from Alwil.

- This is the first test of Comodo's free AV of which I'm aware. Although it also fared well, I believe you can only get it with the Comodo Internet Security suite (CIS) of which I am not a fan, for various reasons. Not the least of which is its demanding firewall

- I was also not aware of Ad-aware's free AV, which scored well. It is part of a suite (includes an anti-malware) to which I'm philosophically opposed. I gave up on Ad-Aware years ago for various reasons, but cannot comment on this current product.

- AVG Free did not make the grade. Not surprising, and consistent with AV-C's findings on the paid version of late.

- These tests did not address the problem of false positive detections, which I believe to be the bane of the AV industry.

- In short, I've not changed my mind on which free AVs I would recommend (avast, AntiVir, and MSE). But it's nice to see some supporting evidence.