Authored by Pug Smelters in Computer Software
Published on 12-18-2008

It is hard to find a truly free antivirus software program. Every antivirus, spamware, malware, spyware software out there gives you a free edition, but the free edition does not fully protect you from the bad guys on the internet, unless you actively use it. Basically the difference between their free and paid versions is the free version means you must manually scan your computer everyday, and the paid version will do this automatically. The paid version will also act like a watch dog, with real time scanning and protection of the computer.

The problem with these paid versions are they are popular, so popular that the hackers out there quickly find exploits in the antivirus software and can actually infect you without you even knowing it. One time I was hit with a logic bomb, a type of virus that lays dormant until you perform an action. In my case I uninstalled Net Nanny (because it didn’t work), and instantly my computer was infected with a nasty morphing trojan virus that could only be fixed with a fresh reformat of the hard drive (meaning I lose all my software).

To our rescue comes ClamWin, a truly free antivirus software that is proactive. Ever since I got infected with the logic bomb I’ve been running ClamWin, and feel fully secure and protected. The software is updated daily, works on Windows 98 through Vista, and has some of the following features:

• High detection rates
• Scheduled scans
• Automatic updates to the Virus database (updated daily)
• Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer
• Removes infected email attachments immediately

So if you are looking for a free alternative to AVG, AdAware, and the million other antivirus software out there claiming to be free, but not living up to the hype, then you should definitely check out ClamWin.