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.
