Though the introduction of Windows Vista has introduced Wintel users to a stricter sense of security, it hasn't quite reduced the number of trojans and viruses floating around. If anything, virus writers have become more sophisticated, often employing unique social engineering methods and newer techniques of cloaking viruses to harm PCs.
In such a scenario, the market for antivirus products has remained as robust as ever. With quality offerings from Symantec, McAfee, Eset and Microsoft itself, there has never been such a huge choice available to the customer. However, this has had two drawbacks. Firstly, these software suites have become extremely bloated, as they seek to integrate everything but the kitchen sink. And this leads to the second problem – the cost of these suites can easily be as much as Rs 7,000.
While prices like these do tend to indirectly promote piracy, it also raises the question: what are the alternatives available? Thankfully, the answer is simple. There are enough freeware AVs out there which offer some very good features. Here are three of the best.
Avast!
Name: Avast! 4 Home Edition
Publisher: ALWIL Software
File Size: 26309 kb
License: Freeware
OS: Win (All)
Download Link: Link 1
Avast! has been around a long time and is considered the standard for other free AVs to emulate. The latest iteration (4.x Home Edition) offers an IM scanner, an email scanner, a P2P shield and a comprehensive file scanner. Its virus database is updated daily, and scanning speeds are good. The software requires you to register for a year. The signup procedure is very smooth.
avast is only free demo 
