5000 per year. Yet you can also take advantage of a variety of decent free programmes.
Anti-Viruses
Microsoft Security Essentials.
Launched earlier this year, Microsoft's security essentials package has gone from
strength to strength since coming out of beta testing. The package is completely free to
users of 'genuine Windows machines' - ie it'll verify your copy - and three versions are
available, for XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
Avira Antivir.
The free anti-virus software of choice for techies, Antivir's won many tech publications'
free antivirus round-ups by providing both the most thorough software protection and the
fastest. Yet the reason it doesn't top our list is that it's slightly less user-friendly than the
Microsoft offering, with some of the settings requiring some technical knowledge to get
right. Yet if you've the knowhow, it'll do everything you want it to.
Avast! 4.8 home edition.
Alwil's Avast! home edition offers great detection of known malware, but it's usually
beaten by Antivir in tests. The latest version's a good all-rounder, providing all the
features you'd get with a paid-for program, but its interface still isn't the best on offer.
AVG Free.
AVG has a long history, and has been through loads of modifications to provide a better
service on its way to the current version, AVG 9. It's protection is reasonably thorough,
though it doesn't offer any real tech support.
Firewalls
If you want better protection, are having problems with Microsoft's firewall, or just want more
flexibility, consider these free firewalls too:
Outpost Firewall Free edition.
Agnitum's Outpost Free Edition offers the ideal combination of top protection and good
user-friendliness. It's a totally free product so there are no nag screens to contend with,
and it comes highly rated by numerous tech sites.
Online Armour Personal Firewall.
Publisher Tall Emu's Online Armour firewall has been proved very efficient in tests, even
outperforming some big-name commercial equivalents. It's light on resources, and heavy
on security, so well worth checking out.
Comodo Personal Firewall.
It's totally free to use but you will need to register and activate the licence by e-mail within
30 days of installation. Whilst Comodo outperforms many similar offerings, it can be
pretty intrusive, especially if you just want a firewall that does it's job no questions asked.
Tech support is available via email, but not by phone.
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