Most important features to Look for While Considering a Free Antivirus

Normally Free antivirus lacks features compared to its paid successors. What features are more important to you while considering a free AV ?

1. Company reputation (Test Result)
2. Personal Experience
3. Update Frequncy
4. Cloud Technology
5. Heuristic/Generic Detection
6. Protection Layers
7. Scan Time
8. RAM, CPU, I/O usage
9. Look of GUI
10. Customization
11. Ease of Use
12. Smallest Difference with Paid Version
13. Other (Please Write)

 

I limited myself to pick 3 choices. So i picked:

-RAM, CPU, i/o usage
- Look of GUI
- Heuristic detection.

 

I haven't used a real-time AV for quite some time. Nevertheless, personal experience and RAM, CPU, I/O usage are the among the most important factors for most of the software I use. Company reputation may involve more than just test results so I didn't vote for that in the poll.

All it boils down to is that I like and trust the software and that it does the job efficiently without bogging down my machine.

 

Company reputation and personal experience, among others

 

Heuristics and generic detection, followed by CPU, RAM, and especially disk I/O.

However, there are not that many free AV choices last I checked, and anyway I haven't used an AV in a while.

 

Another important feature that I missed in the options is " Advertisements".

 

1. High stability (no crashes, freezes, BSOD)
2. Good heuristic detection
3. No bloatware, toolbars, or ads

 

+1

The same goes for me.

 

1. No slowdowns of the comp
2. Protection
3. Cloud

 

1, Ease of Use - the most important, what is the point of the AV for the average user, if it keeps asking all the time? Install and forget is the right way to go.
2, RAM, CPU, I/O usage - if it takes too many resources, user will just get rid of it once you leave his apartment and he will install something like WinAntivirus 2012.
3, Cloud - the last but not least the detection, nothing will provide better detection without any user intervention than cloud based AV. Heuristic is just too bothersome.

Therefore I prefer Panda Cloud, if it can not be installed for whatever reason then AVG Free without Linskcanner and with email scanner disabled.

 

RAM CPU I/O are most important and common requirement for both advanced and notice users. For advanced users 2nd requirement is company reputation (consistent average results in AV tests for several years) while for novice users the 2nd most important requirement is easy of use.

 

I usually choose the AV depending on what machine i'm going to install it, if it's a fast machine i don't worry about RAM/IO/CPU but if it's a less capable machine i do take a look at the performance impact.
Anyways, this is what i look for:

*Heuristic and Generic Detection
*Protection Layers
*RAM/CPU/IO
*Ease of use for people that are not really geeks which is almost everyone i know

 

RAM, CPU and I/O usage is one of my most important.
Detection rate is other of them.

AV-Comparatives have both performance tests and detection rate ones.

 

Company reputation (Test Result)
Heuristic and Generic Detection
Look of GUI

 

Well, I never trust a free AV. Sorry.

 

And why not? Can you add facts to your opinion?

 

-Company reputation (Test Result)
-Heuristic/Generic Detection
-Update Frequency
-Cloud Technology
-Protection Layers