They are capable of doing a variety of things, from taking over hard disk space to getting access to your private information or draining your CPU. There are many anti-virus programs available to shield your devices from such issues. It is important to choose one that will have a minimal impact on the performance of your system. Each of our antivirus programs is tested against this factor. The results are based on the length of time it takes each product to complete an operation. For example, Kaspersky Security Cloud Free had an impact on the background of 6% while performing a full scan, and ESET had a slightly greater impact of 12 percent.
Germany-based Avira is well-known in our tests and consistently performs above 90% in all three categories – Performance, Protection and Usability (False Positives). The user interface has a wealth of functionality as well as a smart “firewall” and a variety of privacy tools. Avira subscriptions are priced monthly rather than for a fixed three-year period. This makes it much easier to cancel the subscription or change the terms at anytime.
Essentware was formerly known as PCKeeper it is a new name for our tests. It utilizes the Avira Engine underneath the hood. Overall, it scored well. Its performance and user interface are both user-friendly however, there are a few issues with stability such as scan jobs freezing up which have reduced the score. However, the business deal process tool detection was satisfactory and a flawless run through the certification sets earned it the VB100 award.