5 Free Antivirus – Download Free Antivirus and Save your computer from Virus Attack!

Today I switched my computer ON just like any other day and the hell broke lose. Computer was running slow, high-speed internet was acting choked and I almost thought my monitor belongs to a 16 year old sexually charged with adult pop-ups all over the screen.
By the time I could figure out what went wrong (virus attack), I had already lost some data on my hard drive and my Operating System was acting weird.
A computer that is inadequately protected is vulnerable to all sorts of viruses, spyware or malicious codes which could attack your data or even your operating system.
Some malware are programmed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk. Other malware programs are not designed to do any damage, but simply replicate themselves and perhaps make their presence known by presenting text, video, or audio messages. (Wikipedia)
I gathered information on about 5 most popular free Antivirus softwares which do a good job of protecting your computer and keep your data safe from such attacks.
Why pay for Antivirus softwares when free ones are equally good? Following is the list of top 5 free antivirus softwares.
Avast.com – avast! is a fully featured free antivirus designed specifically for home users or for non-commercial use, however, it requires you to register your free version with Avast within 60 days of installation. It is compatible with Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT/ME/98. The latest version of Avast 4.8 comes with 39 downloadable skins to personalize your free copy of antiviurs software.
Some of the features of avast! Free Antivirus for Home Edition are listed below.
•    Anti-spyware built-in
•    Web Shield
•    Anti-rootkit built-in
•    Automatic updates
•    Strong self-protection
•    Virus Chest
•    Antivirus kernel
•    System integration
•    Simple User Interface
•    Integrated Virus Cleaner
•    Resident protection
•    Support for 64-bit Windows
•    P2P and IM Shields
•    Internationalization
•    Network Shield

AVG’s is one of the most popular free Antivirus softwares available online. AVG has a strong userbase of 70 million users and the number just keeps going up! AVG is easy to download, install and use. It is compatible with Windows Vista & Windows XP and freely available for home and non-Commercial use.
AVG keeps it virus database udpated with the latest virus definitions, this helps its users detect the latest virus threats as soon as it hits internet.
Her are some of the key feature of AVG FREE Edition
•    Automatic update functionality
•    The AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run
•    The AVG E-mail Scanner, which protects your e-mail
•    The AVG On-Demand Scanner, which allows the user to perform scheduled and manual tests
•    Free Virus Database Updates
•    AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files

Avira AntiVir Personal – FREE Antivirus is a another reliable free antivirus solution, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs such as viruses, Trojans, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc. It also monitors every action executed by the user or the operating system and reacts promptly when a malicious program is detected.
“AntiVir is also low-profile. By that I mean it spawns only two background services and if there weren’t a system tray applet to access the program, you probably wouldn’t even know it was running.” – (pcworld.com)
Avira is a Free Antivirus protection for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and also for Linux users. It has over 30 million users worldwide.
Some of the features that Avira AntiVir Personal has are following.
•    Protection from viruses, worms and Trojans
•    Protection against expensive dialers
•    Protection from hidden rootkits
•    Faster Scanning up to 20% faster
•    Protection from phishing

Bitdefender offers its version of free antivirus and it also publicizes that it is “one of the world’s most effective antivirus engines for free!”
Bitdefender’s Free Edition is an on-demand virus scanner, which is best used in a system recovery and is ideal for users who connect to the internet on a regular basis; however it’s not for users who are “always-on” the internet. For these types of users Bitdefender recommends them to upgrade to a more powerful version of their software which is the paid version.
Few features offered by BitDefender are listed below
•    Antivirus
•    IMPROVED Proactive detection
•    Spyware scanning and cleaning
•    IMPROVED Deployment and use
•    IMPROVED User Experience
•    Hourly Updates
•    NEW Rootkit Detection and Removal
Bitdefender also comes with other features such as Skinable Interface, where you can customize the looks of the scanner.
Also included in this version is the “Quarantine” and “Report” feature. In Quarantine you can isolate the infected file to reduce the risk of your other files and OS getting infected any further. In the Reporting feature you can check the statistics of your last scan.