Three most downloaded Antivirus

The Antivirus competition

I’ve downloaded and evaluated several Antivirus software available on the Internet. All of them perform great, the only differences are the features which if you look carefully, and they only differ on names. I’m about to download a Free Antivirus I’ve heard from a friend when I saw its download count. Then I thought, would such free software like this affecting their paid counter parts? In a way of course it does! But the point is, is it killing them? Oh what the heck! Who cares about it. Anyway I made a comparison between the three most popular antivirus software available on the net. I ranked them in ascending order

1. AVG Free Edition by Grisoft

AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users for the life of the product. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy to use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). Highlights include automatic update functionality, the AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run, free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product, and AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files.
We’ll be basing the popularity of the products observing how many people downloads it.

AVG, ranks number 1. with 4,404,671 votes!

2. McAfee VirusScan

With fast, always-on protection, new McAfee VirusScan lets you surf, e-mail, download and chat with less worry about viruses, spyware, worms, Trojan horses and other malicious threats. Proven PC security recognized with an "Editor's Choice" award from PCMag.com (August 2005), McAfee VirusScan downloads and installs in minutes, then automatically looks for known and unknown viruses in both inbound and outbound e-mail, as well as downloads, discs, CD-ROMs, DVDs and throughout your PC. If problems are found, VirusScan immediately attempts to clean, quarantine or delete the infections. Pro-active spyware blocking on access also stops potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) like key-loggers from trying to install or launch on your system before they can steal personal information. Best of all, McAfee VirusScan automatically updates your anti- virus protection daily, for zero-hour protection from the latest threats. Plus, it scans for viruses in messages and attachments in the most popular e-mail clients and instant messaging programs, including MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Eudora and others. You also get ScriptStopper and WormStopper, which block fast-spreading, script-based viruses and mass-mailing worms. Proven security, McAfee VirusScan is the easy, automatic way to help keep your PC virus-free.

McAfee VirusScan ranks 2nd 1,300,191 votes

3. Norton AntiVirus 2005

Norton AntiVirus 2005 automatically keeps virus definitions updated to provide continuous Internet and e-mail protection. It combines virus-detection capabilities with updating and scanning technologies to make it easy for users to secure their systems against malicious code. Norton AntiVirus also is an integral component of Symantec Norton SystemWorks 2005 suite. It guards against malicious code in ActiveX controls and Java applets as well as against worms, Trojan horses, and password stealers. The application's key features include automatic checking for and updating of virus definitions; pop-up messages if virus definitions become dangerously out-of-date; automatic scanning of program and document files as they are downloaded; compressed file-scanning; automatic scanning of e-mail attachments before the user saves, launches, or otherwise accesses the attachments; an enhanced interface that integrates an e-mail/Web status panel for easy configuration; and a bootable CD providing easy recovery after a virus emergency.
Norton AntiVirus 2005 adds expanded threat detection alerts which alert you to non-virus threats, such as spyware and keystroke logging programs, and scans compressed file archives before you open them and risk infecting your computer.

Norton AntiVirus 2005 ranks 3rd with only 417,116 votes.

But popularity by basing the number of people who downloads it is not enough to justify it’s reliability. Based on experience, I download a seemingly great product because of it’s glowing description but end up uninstalling it the moment I saw it. Ahh.. The power of Marketing. If I’m going to rank the three products below based on experience, I’ll rank them as follows

1st McAffee
2nd Norton
3rd AVG

Why? McAffee and Norton generally have good graphical user interface which is extremely user-friendly. I’m not saying that Grisoft’s AVG Antivirus software has a crappy GUI. Heck no. But comparing AVG to Norton and McAffee, it’s interface is quite inferior.