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Clamwin's effectiveness is poor, much worse that McAfee and it is slow.

http://www.virus.gr/portal/en/content/2008-06%2C-1-21-june

http://www.virus.gr/portal/en/content/2008-06%2C-1-21-june
avg
antivir
avast
all free all ranked high and above norton:)

No, just fairly certain.

We use Kaspersky for Windows systems at work (and ClamAV on Linux for mail, though that might change to Kaspersky as I believe we have a license for it). When employees ask if they can use our licenses for their personal machines, I point them at Avira AntiVir because it's about as good and it's FREE FOR PERSONAL USE (although the free version has less spyware detection). It blows AVG out of the water.

Here are some useful links from my research, which included the above site:

• Wikipedia:Antivirus software's external links are very useful.
• Top 9 Windows Antivirus, a review at About.com, ranking Avira, Kaspersky, BitDefender, and McAfee as #1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.
• Virus.gr measured detection rates of tweaked settings, ranking in order: G DATA, F-Secure, TrustPort, then Kaspersky.
• AntiVirus Software Review 2009 - TopTenREVIEWS, ranking in order: BitDefender, Kaspersky, ESET, then AVG.
• Virus Bulletin's latest test results (no direct ranking).

From the Wikipedia links and other research that I didn't bother to note to my colleagues (who were also doing this research), I determined that Kaspersky's software was among the most efficient and CPU-friendly. It's only downside was a less-than-optimal user interface, especially on the administrative side for the corporate product. We didn't mind its UI flaws in the free trial period, so we purchased it. We're still happy with it several months later.

The main arguments for our switching from Trend Micro were that it was slow, had poor performance, missed several viruses, we wanted to boycott it, and we were tied to a very old version (since it out-performs the newer ones in reviews). Arguments for switching to Kaspersky included: it doesn't feel bloated (remember when that was the norm?), great performance, well received across the board in reviews, dirt cheap (new licenses are 70% the current renewal cost of Trend Micro, which is an ever-growing target), we liked the UI that prevented reviewers from giving it a perfect score, and it's the de-facto number one scanner in Russia and surrounding area (you know, where all the viruses come from?). Kaspersky is also growing rapidly in deployments; you can now get computers installed with it.

Not really; sites such as av-test.org and virus.gr are constantly testing malware detection, and while coverage is spotty on average, the products do tend to keep pace with new malware.

The Virus GR site is much more informative, you can download the test results in a rar format. They also cover viruses, have forums, and recommend products among others.

http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/

8. AntiVir Personal version 6.32.00.51 - 86.55%
15. AVG version 7.1.371 - 77.97%
17. Avast version 4.6.744 - 76.93%

It doesn't appear that there is any free AV higher than Antivir, with the possible exception of the toned-down Bitdefender8 Free Edition (which I have never used).

I've recommended AntiVir to a number of family and friends. The usability increases with each iteration, and gives you options to schedule automatic updates. The only downside is during updates, it sends up a single advertisement for thier full-featured product. So far, I've installed it for my girlfriend, sister, mother, and grandmother. No one has yet had a virus breakout - of course, the promotion of Firefox to Default Browser(TM) and a little user education goes a long way.

As a sidenote, check out the Anandtech Consolidated Security Thread for great commentary on a slew of security products. As of version 6, (now version 7) AntiVir is rated at a 84.5% detection rate.

As for myself, I just use good ol' common sense and a router.

and I don't run a realtime scanner either.

Antivirus tested