Tekiboi's Guide to Free Anti-Virus Software

Free Virus Scanners
Virus scanners operate by searching your harddisk(s) for files which might be infected by a virus. This method is never 100% secure, since only known viruses (or known virus patterns) are detected. If an infection has been detected in a certain file, the virus scanner might be able to clean the file, but very often this is not the case. In that case, you can try another scanner to clean the file, you can try to replace the file or - as a last resort - delete it.

However, if many important operating system files are affected, it might be the best solution to reformat the harddisk and install the operating system from scratch.
There are even viruses can not be cleaned by mere hard-disk reformatting. E.g. so-called boot-viruses infect the boot-sector of disks, and will very often not be removed by simply reformatting the harddisk. In this case you will need to repair the boot-sector, a good utility for this can be found in Norton Utilities (not free).

Antidote Super Lite version Freeware lite version of the commercial Antidote program. It utilizes the same virus database as the commercial version.

Avast! Anti-virus program for Windows. The home edition is freeware for noncommercial users.


AVG Free edition Free edition of the AVG anti-virus program for Windows and Linux. Tested and recommended by Freebyte.com.

Avira Antivir Free anti-virus software for Windows, Linux, Free BSD and Solaris. Detects and removes more than 50,000 viruses. Free support.

BitDefender Freeware virus scanner for Linux.

Clam AV Freeware, GPL, Linux. Clam AntiVirus is a GPL anti-virus toolkit for UNIX. The main purpose of this software is the integration with mail servers (attachment scanning). The package provides a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner, and a tool for automatic updating via Internet.

ClamWin Freeware, open-source anti-virus program for Windows.

Comodo Anti-Virus Free anti-virus program for Windows.

Cyberhawk Protects against viruses, worms, trojans and other spyware, designed to be a complement to your current anti-virus software. Cyberhawk does not need to know anything about a virus before it can protect you against it. This is because Cyberhawk looks at the behaviour of an infected program (instead of the contents of the infected file). The basic version is free.

Note from the editors: after testing Cyberhawk we found that it generates a lot of false alarms on legitimate software. Nevertheless we think that this program can be useful provided you know how to interpret these alarms.
FProt Free anti-virus software for Linux, FreeBSD and DOS (personal use).

Evaluation version for Windows.
HandyBits Free for personal use. Virus 'scanner integrator'. After performing an auto-search for installed virus scanners, it will scan your files using all found installed virus scanners. This can be useful, since some antiviral programs are good for one type of viruses, other programs for other viruses.

PC Tools AntiVirus Free anti-virus program + firewall for Windows.

Free Online Virus & Trojan Scanners
The virus and trojan scanners in this section do not need to be downloaded or installed, they run from inside your Webbrowser.

VirusTotal Freeware online malware scanner. You can upload a single suspicious file which will be scanned by around 30 well-known virus scanners.

GFI online
Trojan Scanner Freeware online Trojan scanner. This program runs in your browser (Internet Explorer only, Windows), no explicit installation is required.

McAfee's Virusscan Online Online virus scanner by McAffee

Panda Active Scan Ffree tool for detecting and eliminating viruses from your computer. Installs as an ActiveX control in your Web browser (Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher).

PC Pitstop A large number of online computer and Internet related tests, including a virus scan and spyware test. The free virus scanner installs itself as an ActiveX control inside your Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher.

RavAntivirus Online scanner which can also remove viruses.

Symantec Security Check A number of online tests (run in your Web browser), including a virus scan. Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher required.

TrendMicro HouseCall Free virus scanner which runs directly in your Web browser (Windows only).

Non-free Virus Scanners
The programs below you can try out for free for a certain time. During this trial period they can be very helpful. You need to spend a little bit of money should you decide to use them beyond that period.

Command AntiVirus Useful 30-day trial versions for Windows, Linux, Netware, DOS, Exchange, Lotus Notes
eSafe Anti-virus software for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP.

InVircible Detects viruses, Worms, Trojans, Hacking tools, backdoors, etc. utilizing generic methods: without needing a virus-pattern database. An example of a generic virus-detection method is: detecting code installing itself to be activated at system startup or 'shell open'. InVircible uses many different generic methods simultaneously.

Solo Detection and removal of viruses. The system integrity checker protects against Internet Worms, Backdoor programs, malicious VB and Java scripts. 30-day anti-virus trial versions.

McAfee 30-day anti-virus evaluation versions.

NOD32 Anti-virus evaluation versions for Windows.

Protector PLUS 30-day anti-virus evaluation versions. Versions for Windows (all flavours), DOS and Netware.

QuickHeal 30-day anti-virus evaluation versions.

Kaspersky 30-day trial versions available for: Linux, DOS, Windows. Protects against: trojans, backdoors, logic bombs, macro viruses, etc.

Norman Anti-virus and firewall trial versions for Windows, Linux, Novell, OS/2.

Norton Anti Virus Anti-virus trial versions.

Panda Software Anti-virus trial versions.

Principal AntiVirus Scans for viruses, trojans, worms, backdoors, adware, spyware and any other type of malware. For Windows.

Sophos Anti-virus trial versions.


Free Firewalls
Firestarter Freeware open-source firewall for Linux with graphical user-interface.

Kerio Limited free edition For Windows home users, Kerio Personal Firewall 4 is available in two flavors - the full edition and the limited free edition. More information.

Omniquad Personal Firewall Freeware Free personal firewall for Windows created by Omniquad.

Outpost Firewall FREE Free firewall for Windows. Created by Agnitum. The PRO version (non-free) has a number of additional features.

Comodo Firewall Free firewall for Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2.

Premidius Firewall Lite Free firewall for personal use. Windows.

R-Firewall Freeware firewall for Windows, with many features.

SensiveGuard Free firewall for personal use. Windows 2000, XP.

x-Wall Series Non-free security software package, but the firewall component is free.

AppArmor Security suite for Linux, freeware, open-source. AppArmor is also very useful for preventing scripts and programs running on Webservers from being hacked and exploited.

Zone Alarm
(Basic version) Free basic PC desktop firewall for Windows.
Home PC Firewall Guide Independent reviews of Internet security and privacy-related products.