Your top choice of Anti-Virus.

[Mr.Mike]

Yep, spot on. Avast Free is for non-commercial use.

MSE doesn't directly scan inbound/outbound email. Mind you, this may not be an issue if the user only uses web-based email.

Notice he said "Paid version for commercial".

It's probably not that he likes features of the paid version more...but the reason would be, it would be illegal to use the free version of Avast (as well as AVG) in a business. It is against their licensing. They are only free for home users, they are not free for businesses. MSE is the only free antivirus that I know which states in its license that you can use it in a business...as long as the business is only up to 10x desktop PCs (cannot be used on a server).

Understood. I've been using avast almost exclusively for my in-home clients by downloading it for them and showing them how to use it. At present, I usually just keep the paid versions that business clients already have in their systems. I haven't had reason to change their protection software choice so far;I simply update them.

 

[desertbabe]

Free Virus protectors

But isn't it true that the free virus protectors don't give you the protection that the paid versions do since programmers have to be hired to create the software to block the viruses that are appearing in program form and somebody has to pay for it?

 

[Cybjun]

I only sell AVG Anti-Virus right now (I don't care if anyone else doesn't like it)

My acceptable Anti-Virus list:
AVG Anti-Virus
Kaspersky Anti-Virus
Microsoft Security Essentials
NOD32 Antivirus 5
Norton Anti-Virus
Trend Micro Titanium™ Antivirus +
Avast! Anti-Virus

I do not recommend:
McAfee
any internet security suites
bitdefender
webroot
zonealarm

I have my reasons for not recommending these brands but if I client wants them installed I will install them without issue.

 

[MobileTechie]

But isn't it true that the free virus protectors don't give you the protection that the paid versions do since programmers have to be hired to create the software to block the viruses that are appearing in program form and somebody has to pay for it?

Not really. The engine is normally the same. However sometimes the updates don't come as frequently and this can make a major difference in new attacks. E.g. Kaspersky updates every hour or even more frequently on ocassion I believe. Others are daily. Some provide cloud analysis for suspicious objects on on their paid products. Other differences exist too.

I know other techs swear MSE is just as good as the top paid apps but several of the lab tests I've seen just don't support this belief. Recent AV-test.org results rated MSE as 2.5 for protection. Kaspersky gets 6.0. This takes into account the all-important real-world, zero-day attack tests (which appear to be best for trying to measure the sort of fake-AV droppers we come across the most). MSE got a pretty poor 68% whilst Kaspersky gets 100%. That's a major difference. Avast gets 93% which is also significantly better. AV Comparatives also tested MSE alongside other AVs and whilst it did better than it did at AV-Test it still wasn't in the top tier. Plus the tests for which MSE was included does not include the real-world tests they did recently. Kaspersky was in both sets and was scored in the top tier for both. To put it in perspective Webroot was in those real-world tests at both sites and did very badly which should come as no surprise to any tech. What might surprise you is that it didn't score much worse than MSE for protection at AV-test.org!

 

[PhillTheChill]

For free I think you cant beat MSE, especially when used with the paid version of Malwarebytes. For a paid solution I always use or recommend Nod32 but only the Antivirus NOT the security suite which in my opinion is not needed in Windows 7 as its built in Firewall is pretty good.