- Apr 25, 2013
- 5,355
Free antivirus applications aren’t what they used to be. Free antivirus companies are now bundling adware, spyware, toolbars, and other junk to make a quick buck.
At one point, free antivirus was just advertising, pushing users to upgrade to the paid products. Now, free antivirus companies are making money through advertising, tracking, and junkware installations.
What Antivirus Should You Use?
Even the better antivirus solutions here may be obnoxious. Rather than pushing junkware on you at install-time, they may regularly pop up warnings and other messages, encouraging you to install other software or pay for services. They may be harvesting and selling browsing data and other information, too.
Some antivirus products are legitimately free. Microsoft’s Windows Defender comes with Windows 8, 8.1, and 10. It’s also available as Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7. This is a free antivirus product that’s essentially paid for with Windows licensing fees.
BitDefender’s product is currently solid, offering no junk. avast! isn’t perfect and does want you to install additional software, although it is high-quality software. AVG has been full of obnoxious junk on the past but seemed okay when we tried it — we’re not sure what’s going on there, and we’d advise avast! over AVG if you want a free antivirus like these ones.
Paid antivirus are also good options. Kaspersky and BitDefender consistently get better ratings than popular free antivirus applications, so they’re good solutions if you want to pay for something.
Antivirus companies have to make money somehow. Faced with many people who just want free antivirus programs and won’t pay to upgrade, they’ve increasingly turned to advertising revenue, software bundling, tracking, and other questionable practices. Think before you download — even if you download the free version of a legitimate company’s antivirus program, you may end up with junk you don’t want making your computer experience worse.
Full Article
At one point, free antivirus was just advertising, pushing users to upgrade to the paid products. Now, free antivirus companies are making money through advertising, tracking, and junkware installations.
What Antivirus Should You Use?
Even the better antivirus solutions here may be obnoxious. Rather than pushing junkware on you at install-time, they may regularly pop up warnings and other messages, encouraging you to install other software or pay for services. They may be harvesting and selling browsing data and other information, too.
Some antivirus products are legitimately free. Microsoft’s Windows Defender comes with Windows 8, 8.1, and 10. It’s also available as Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7. This is a free antivirus product that’s essentially paid for with Windows licensing fees.
BitDefender’s product is currently solid, offering no junk. avast! isn’t perfect and does want you to install additional software, although it is high-quality software. AVG has been full of obnoxious junk on the past but seemed okay when we tried it — we’re not sure what’s going on there, and we’d advise avast! over AVG if you want a free antivirus like these ones.
Paid antivirus are also good options. Kaspersky and BitDefender consistently get better ratings than popular free antivirus applications, so they’re good solutions if you want to pay for something.
Antivirus companies have to make money somehow. Faced with many people who just want free antivirus programs and won’t pay to upgrade, they’ve increasingly turned to advertising revenue, software bundling, tracking, and other questionable practices. Think before you download — even if you download the free version of a legitimate company’s antivirus program, you may end up with junk you don’t want making your computer experience worse.
Full Article
