by Jeremy Jameson

Created on: February 19, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

The other 2 articles under this topic don't tell you how to evaluate antivirus programs: one simply explains their function while the other merely recounts personal experience with 2 specific programs. But I'll tell you how to evaluate them and choose the one that's right for you.

But first, let me recommend a peripheral product: Cyberhawk. While traditional antivirus programs are necessary, Cyberhawk is a useful program to fill in the gaps they leave. Traditional antivirus is signature-based (meaning it finds exact matches of viruses in your system according to its definition/signature files that ID specific viruses). But what if you're among the first to be infected by a brand new virus? What if the AV firms haven't yet ID'd your strand? You need heuristics (a type of AV program that IDs viruses based on program behavior instead of signatures) and that's exactly what Cyberhawk is (other than free). So go ahead and get that before anything else.

Now, on to the main topic. We're looking for a way to quickly compare AV products for free, so the first place I'd go is relevant message boards online. Find the boards on pcworld.com and other well-known computing magazines/sites and look for discussions on AV products. Read what other users say and critically evaluate their evaluations of different products. Look for specific info they provide to support their claim that one is better than the other. If you can find articles about actual lab tests of products conducted by unbiased companies (e.g. PC World), that's great too. So read as much as you can in user reviews and professional test results.

This should help you narrow your choices down to a few that sound good to you. Your remaining choices should first and foremost have a very high rate of successful detections, very few false positives (if any), and a frequent update schedule to keep you armed with the latest definitions at all times. If a product doesn't meet these basic standards it's not worth any of your time or money. You should look for signs of a user-friendly interface as well. It should be easy to navigate menu options, change settings, perform scans within your preferred parameters, etc. And your AV product should have features like email/IM scanning on demand, persistent resident scanners that will alert you to an infection in real time, and so on for the most complete AV security possible.

Now, take your 2 or 3 best choices and see if they are free or have free trials available. Try each one of

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