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Top Antivirus Software

BitDefender, McAfee, and Kaspersky Lab top our chart, showing excellent ability to detect both known and unknown malware.

Narasu Rebbapragada

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Standard 9 PCW Rating: 92.0PCW Rating: 92.0PCW Rating: 92.0

Last Rated: January 25, 2006

1. BitDefender Standard 9

Performance: Superior, Ease of Use: Very Good, Features: Very Good, Price when ranked: $30,

Bottom Line: Inexpensive product received excellent scores in our performance tests, although its scan speed was sluggish.

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VirusScan 2006 10.0 (Full Product) PCW Rating: 87.0PCW Rating: 87.0PCW Rating: 87.0

Last Rated: January 25, 2006

2. McAfee VirusScan 2006 10.0 (Full Product)

Performance: Superior, Ease of Use: Very Good, Features: Very Good, Price when ranked: $40,

Bottom Line: Relatively good heuristics help VirusScan provide solid protection. Phone support costs $3 per minute.

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Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 (Full Product) PCW Rating: 85.0PCW Rating: 85.0PCW Rating: 85.0

Last Rated: January 25, 2005

3. Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 (Full Product)

Performance: Superior, Ease of Use: Good, Features: Good, Price when ranked: $40,

Bottom Line: Program had the fastest response to new malware outbreaks. Interface is clean but not exceptional.

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Anti-Virus 2005 (Full Product) PCW Rating: 83.0PCW Rating: 83.0PCW Rating: 83.0

Last Rated: January 25, 2006

4. F-Secure Anti-Virus 2005 (Full Product)

Performance: Superior, Ease of Use: Good, Features: Good, Price when ranked: $40,

Bottom Line: Solid performer responded quickly in tests and provides best breaking news on malware outbreaks.

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Norton AntiVirus 2006 (Full Product) PCW Rating: 80.0PCW Rating: 80.0PCW Rating: 80.0

Last Rated: January 26, 2006

5. Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2006 (Full Product)

Performance: Good, Ease of Use: Very Good, Features: Very Good, Price when ranked: $40,

Bottom Line: Veteren utility offers solid threat detection and a nice interface. Phone support costs $30 per incident.

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PANDA SOFTWARE Titanium AntiVirus 2005 ( Windows ) PCW Rating: 79.0PCW Rating: 79.0PCW Rating: 79.0

Last Rated: January 26, 2006

6. Panda Software PANDA SOFTWARE Titanium AntiVirus 2005 ( Windows )

Performance: Very Good, Ease of Use: Good, Features: Very Good, Price when ranked: $50,

Bottom Line: This former Best Buy performed well, but not exceptionally, in our newest nonspyware tests.

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AntiVir Personal Edition 6.32 PCW Rating: 78.0PCW Rating: 78.0PCW Rating: 78.0

Last Rated: January 25, 2006

7. AntiVir AntiVir Personal Edition 6.32

Performance: Good, Ease of Use: Good, Features: Fair, Price when ranked: Free,

Bottom Line: AntiVir performed the best of the free programs, although it failed to clean several old macro viruses.

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Avast! Home Edition 4.6 PCW Rating: 77.0PCW Rating: 77.0PCW Rating: 77.0

Last Rated: January 25, 2006

8. Alwil Avast! Home Edition 4.6

Performance: Fair, Ease of Use: Very Good, Features: Good, Price when ranked: Free,

Bottom Line: Free product has a slick media-player-style interface that hides some features. Scan speed was slow in tests.

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PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 Home Security Pack Single User PCW Rating: 77.0PCW Rating: 77.0PCW Rating: 77.0

Last Rated: January 26, 2006

9. Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 Home Security Pack Single User

Performance: Fair, Ease of Use: Superior, Features: Good, Price when ranked: $50,

Bottom Line: Former Best Buy performed poorly in heuristics and zoo tests but has the best interface of the bunch.

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AVG Free Edition 7.1 PCW Rating: 73.0PCW Rating: 73.0PCW Rating: 73.0

Last Rated: January 25, 2006

10. Grisoft AVG Free Edition 7.1

Performance: Fair, Ease of Use: Fair, Features: Fair, Price when ranked: Free,

Bottom Line: Free program has subpar heuristics and one of the clunkier interfaces among the products we tested.

Full Review • Test Report • Vendor's Website

HOW WE TEST: We test rewritable DVD drives under Windows XP Home on PCs with 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+ processors and 512MB of DDR SDRAM. To test each drive, we use the bundled DVD video authoring, mastering, and packet-writing software; we use vendor-supplied media or Verbatim media. Tests conducted by the PC World Test Center. All rights reserved.

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