If you have been wishing silently for a strong, lightweight and effective, yet free antivirus software, this holiday season, then your wish is being fulfilled. BitDefender has released a free edition of its antivirus tool – BitDefender Free Antivirus edition. Over the years, BitDefender has improved greatly in its virus detection and removal capabilities and recently has been showing great results in different tests.
UPDATE: Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition is likely to be retired soon. You might want to take a look at some other free antivirus software for your Windows PC.
BitDefender Free Antivirus for Windows PC
BitDefender, the developers of Bitdefender Internet Security say that the free edition of its antivirus tool uses one of the world’s most effective antivirus engines, ICSA Labs certified scanning engines found in other BitDefender products for free. Thereby allowing you to enjoy basic virus protection for no cost at all. It includes a Real-time Shield. The real-time shield is designed to protect access to the entire system. This means that files are scanned as they are accessed or copied.
The tool is a little over 200 MB in size. It checks files as you access them, runs occasional system scans when your PC is idle, and cleans up any infections all on its own. You can also scan files and folders on demand by right-clicking them and choosing ‘Scan with Bitdefender’. The program has the least impact on your overall system performance.
BitDefender Free Antivirus Edition features no bulky desktop gadgets, no complex console or multi-tabbed Settings dialog. You won’t even see any alerts and you get anti-phishing protection too, thus preventing you from getting trapped by malicious sites.
Although, Bitdefender Antivirus Free looks very promising and provides a good basic level of protection, remains exceptionally easy to use, it resists getting installed alongside another antivirus tool/product such as Norton Internet Security. It likes to be used as primary antivirus tool and not as a second line of defense – but then I suppose, that is to be expected. Apart from this, no issues!
Features in a nutshell:
- Virus Scanning and Removal: Apart from offering real-time scanning it also offers on-demand & on-access scanning, detection and removal of all malware.
- Advanced Threat Detection: It uses behavioral detection to closely monitor your active apps. When it detects anything suspicious, it takes action.
- Anti-Phishing: It detects and blocks Phishing websites
- Anti-Fraud: It warns you whenever you visit websites that may try to scam you, such as casinos, money loan schemes, etc.
Please note that when you install the product on Windows, it displays a dialog box which says “You need to register your Bitdefender installation to continue using this product after the expiration period” and there is a “x” days left to login. It is essential that you register with Bitdefender (create an account) to use it after that the product is as promoted ( free).
If you have tested BitDefender Free Antivirus Edition, let us know your reviews in the comments section below. It can be downloaded here.
UPDATE: It now also includes a Quarantine function that prevents malware-infected files from doing harm, warns you if a web page you plan to visit is dangerous, and more.
Thanks for the information.
Bitdefender has a very high detectionrate so this might be a good free alternative.
But the userinterface is very limited, there are just 2 settings:
1. Relatime-protection On/Off
2. Automatic scanning On/Off
And i really don´t like the following text in the usermanual:
“When an infected file is detected, Bitdefender tries to disinfect it by removing the
malware code. If disinfection fails, Bitdefender alerts you that the infected file
could not be disinfected. Files that cannot be disinfected are quarantined in order
to contain the infection.”
An antivirus-program that thinks it “knows” what to do when it detects something….
This can lead to loss of important files !
Be warned !
Hi hackerman1! thanks for highlighting this key point.
Hi there,
In our attempt to design Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition as a minimalistic, set-and-forget solution, we went all the way, and automized the product 100%. But following your feedback, we are now introducing some basic functionalities so you can also tweak security to your needs:
– The new Threat Control now allows you to add exceptions to items which Bitdefender considers suspect, but which you would still like to use. Simply right-click the file in listed in the Threat Control tab and the option will appear in a menu.
http://www.hotforsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Gonzales_quar_EN.png
– If you want to access a webpage that Bitdefender considers dangerous, you can now continue at your own risk to that page. The option will also be remembered by the product for the current session, to ease your access.
– Other important updates include additional security levels added, compatibility with Comodo Firewall, and more frequent updates.
For more details, check this blog post: http://www.hotforsecurity.com/blog/bitdefender-antivirus-free-adds-quarantine-ability-6213.html
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us on the HotForSecurity blog.
I started using this about 3 weeks ago 8/27/14 and it is great, just what I was looking for, I also have the free malwarebytes installed and run it manually if I think it’s needed for any reason.
MI TROVO, BENISSIMO, CON BAIDU ANTIVIRUS, INTERNET SUITE…2015 E, COME SECONDA LINEA DI DIFESA…USO KINGSOFT ANTIVIRUS 2015. – ESSI LAVORANO IN PERFETTA COMPATIBILITA’ SIA SU W-8 PRO, CHE SU W 8.1,..PRO,64 BIT- LI USO, DA OLTRE 1 ANNO,SENZA ALCUN PROBLEMA O RALLENTAMENTI- LEGGI, SU GOOGLE ITALIA.,..” LEX UNIVERSI ET ARCANA MUNDI ” CIAO DALLA SVIZZERA. DR. ADAMO ADAMAS KADMON
PERO’ DEVO AMMETTERE CHE HO NOSTALGIA DI WINDOWS DEFENDER, CHE SECONDO ME E’ UN ANTIVIRUS TRA I MIGLIORI…SOLO CHE MI DA FASTIDIO SCARICARE,OGNI GIORNO, CON UPDATE….GLI AGGIORNAMENTI..LA MIA CLASSIFICA E’ : 1 WIDNOWS DEFENDER- 2 BAIDU ANTIVIRUS SUITE-3 KINGSOFT ANTIVIRUS SUITE.- 4 RISING ANTIVIRUS. IL RESTO DEGLI ANTIVIRUS CONTANO POCO. BAY-ADAMAS-
And what would you like your antivirus program to do? Leave the infected file as it is?
You should up-date this review. A few days ago Bitdefender has made a major up-date to their Free Version which I consider exceptional. What I like is that this software is an “install and go” antivirus with no tinkering with different options or set-up decisions to make. It’s does it’s job without me having to break my brain thinking what to do next. It’s completely automatic… I have been using it for a few years and haven’t had any issues what so ever. Hope you can take a look at it soon….. enjoy
That’s why it’s move to the “quarantined file”… it won’t hurt your PC there.