Top antivirus lifehacker

According to many of its users, Avira is the go-to freeware app for detecting viruses and other malware that other antivirus apps miss. Like several of its peers, Avira is available in both freeware Personal and shareware Premium versions, and most people find the freeware alternative plenty to suit their needs. One downside to Avira on install is pop-up ads enabled by default adware, anyone?

Kaspersky also boasts an extremely quick response time to new viruses, earning it a special place in the hearts and system trays of its users. Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser. This week's honorable mention goes out to ClamWin , the only open-source option featured in the bunch. If you've got more to share, whether your antivirus-app of choice made the list or not, let's hear more about your favorite in the comments.

Make sure you trust an application before you install it and test it in a safe environment if you need to. The more you can spot malicious software before it ends up on your computer, the less your antivirus programs have to clean up. The A. About Lifehacker Advisor Lifehacker Store. By Eric Ravenscraft.

Wyze Cam Spotlight. Tech Apps. Kaspersky promises that their smaller, more regular updates will help protect your PC from known threats, but also keep you safe from OS exploits and holes in software you may not have been able to update or patch yet.

The tool also comes with a resource-light "gaming mode," that will let you play in peace, anti-phishing protection, and more. Kaspersky's nominations thread was full of the back-and-forth we mentioned earlier. Some of you praised it for being complete and well-rounded, and taking a proactive approach to internet security. Others noted that it's one of the more heavy products in the roundup and felt bloated and slow on your computer.

Unlike many of the other contenders, Kaspersky makes no lofty claims about its resource utilization or lightweight install. However, it does offer complete protection from threats, and depending on what you use your PC for, that may be more important.

Avira is another tool that ranked among the top of AV Comparatives' list of great antivirus tools as well as AV-Test's rankings , and offers a suite of features beyond traditional on-access and on-demand scanning, completely for free. It also offers anti-malware protection, anti-spyware protection, and browser protection.

It's not brimming with features, but the important ones are there, and they perform well. Avira also prides itself on its cloud-based scanning, meaning instead of waiting for updates to the application, the program can upload suspicious files to Avira for scanning against more recent threats.

Avira earned some solid praise in the nominations thread, with a few people noting they've used it for ages back when it was called Avira AntiVir without issue, and the general note being that if you want something a bit more complicated than BitDefender but don't care for Avast!

Like many others on the list, it's also cross-platform, and if you upgrade to the paid version, you get even more features. Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to an all out vote to determine the Lifehacker community favorite:.

The honorable mentions this week go out to Comodo Internet Security. Comodo Internet Security earned high praise in the nominations round from those of you familiar with Comodo's strong firewall product, and you pointed out that Comodo Internet Security is the full package of their products—a great on-access scanner and antivirus utility, along with an on-demand malware scanner and a firewall should you need one.

We should also highlight AVG Free , which turned up in the nominations round late, but still earned some substantial support. It's free, cross-platform, and offers complete on-access and on-demand scanning, as well as special tools for speedy scans and unobtrusive scans like the app's "speed scanner," gaming mode, and "smart scanner".

It even comes with anti-spyware protection and secure file deletion tools. We should note that AVG is the only entry in the roundup that was tested by AV Comparatives but didn't make its top products list. Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list?

Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below. The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five.