I recently came across an interesting article in PC Pro (one of the better PC magazines out there) where they performed a group test of some of the more popular domestic antivirus products. I wont go into too much detail here because you really need to buy the magazine (Issue 155, September 2007) but the following table is a very revealing extract from it. It basically shows the annual renewal price and percentage of viruses that were detected by each of the antivirus packages when placed under test conditions.

*test results from PC Pro Issue 155 (September 2007)

(It should be noted that this is just an extract. You really need to look at the article for full information on costs, etc. because I haven't gone into detail about what you get for your money.)

To pay or not to pay?

Obviously in real life its almost impossible to test which particular antivirus system will save your data on the one critical day when you need it but I do find PC Pro's tests to be reasonably scientific and this was no exception. However even if you do take the stats as only being a vague indication I think it still quite clearly shows what I have been saying to friends and family for years; its simply not worth going out and spending huge amounts of money on antivirus software when you can get free products which are not only as good but often perform better than the ones you pay for. In fact Norton Antivirus, one of the most expensive products out there, was actually one of the least effective!

Decisions decisions...

Choosing an antivirus product is a difficult one. Not only does it have to interface with your systems at a very low level (which if not done properly can cause untold damage) but hackers continually invent new ways to ruin your perfectly good PC meaning it has to be continually evolving. I remember when Panda was the product to have receiving rave reviews all over but looking at the table above it shows just how easy it is to let this position slip.

Now I don't like to take sides on which product is best but I'm often asked by friends and family which product I recommend. Its not an easy question to answer - especially as I don't want to be responsible for someone losing their data no matter how indirectly, but if its a choice between recommending something which I believe is good and having someone see a PC World advert on TV and going and buying Norton I feel moral obligation to intervene.

Whats wrong with Norton? I could go on for hours and hours ranting about how much of a truly abysmal product it really is but I wont because it would probably end up being nonconstructive. What I will say though is the table above quite clearly shows how inadequate it is at preventing viruses and this website quite clearly shows there are people out there so desperate to remove it they will actually pay money to get it off their computer! The fact that it doesn't just uninstall like any other program should give you an idea of what you are dealing with here.

So what should they buy? Well they shouldn't buy anything and I guess thats the point of this article. Personally I've always been a big fan of the free version of AVG by Grisoft. It consistently does above average in many types of tests and even though the interface can be a little obscure to work around, it gets the job done, is unobtrusive and doesn't have annoying nag boxes asking you to buy the premium version. In fact after recommending AVG for many years it was quite reassuring to seem them in the upper half of this table. ...oh and unlike Norton I've never heard of anyone having a problem with AVG screwing up their system or not going away when they wanted to get rid of it.

Conclusions

Antivirus is a tricky product to master. We have shown above how a badly designed product can leave your computer crippled enough to make you want to pay money to remove it and we have also shown how even the best products can become the worst over time. Parting with your hard earned cash for a product which doesn't do the job or makes the situation worse is not a proposition most of us look forward to...

However all is not lost!

The answer is simply, don't part with your cash because you really aren't gaining anything anyway. Why bother buying a product for £40 when there are free products out there that do the job just as well if not better? At the end of the day the decision is yours but remember antivirus isn't the solve all problems solution its made out to be. Even the best product in PC Pro's test only got 98% and with the number of Windows viruses, trojans, worms, etc approaching the millions education is often the only real solution.

Posted by Daniel: 21:39, Mon 16th Jul 2007