Best Free Overall PC Antivirus 2017

AVIRA FREE ANTIVIRUS Avira offers very strong protection against both widespread and zero-day malware. Its austere but option-packed interface can be intimidating at first, and slower computers might see a performance hit during active scans. However, Avira Free Antivirus' sheer effectiveness, high degree of customization and wide range of free add-on features — including a VPN client and a privacy-minded Web browser — make it our Editor's Choice. BITDEFENDER ANTIVIRUS FREE EDITION Bitdefender's malware-detection rate is second to none. The company's free antivirus product covers all the basics, offers a very low system-performance impact and, with free add-on software, provides such useful extras as a secure browser and a limited password manager. But Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition's bare-bones interface is hard to figure out and offers no customization options — you can't even schedule a scan. It is software that's best for users who want a set-it-and-forget-it security solution. PANDA FREE ANTIVIRUS Panda's very good malware-detection scores are marred by its high rates of false positives, or benign files mistakenly flagged as malware. But it has a fresh, customizable user interface that's easy and even fun to use, a small system-performance impact, and enough configuration options to satisfy most users. On the downside, it offers few extra features, shows a lot of ads and tries to hijack your Web browser's settings. AVG ANTIVIRUS FREE In the past year, AVG has improved its malware-detection rate so that it now rivals industry leaders Avira and Bitdefender. AVG Antivirus Free only moderately slows down a user's PCs, and offers a wide range of customization options, if few extra features. But we were turned off by its pushy, incessant recommendations to upgrade to paid AVG software. AVAST FREE ANTIVIRUS Avast Free Antivirus for its friendly interface, nearly imperceptible system impact, sophisticated configuration options and useful extra features, which include a password manager and a network scanner. But nearly every other product we evaluated offers better antivirus protection. You may still want to consider Avast Free Antivirus if you already use other Avast products, such as Avast Free Mobile Security for Android (our top choice in that category) MICROSOFT WINDOWS DEFENDER Windows Defender comes with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, but that doesn't mean you should use it. While its once-subpar malware-detection rate has been getting better, Windows Defender still came in last among the six products we reviewed, and its high rate of false positives confirmed that ranking. It has a surprisingly high system impact during full scans, and does nothing to protect non-Microsoft browsers from online malware. In addition, it has nearly no extra features. Even if you don't want to pay for antivirus protection, you can do better than Windows Defender.