With the release of the retail version of Windows 7 in October 2009, I did a round of research on the latest opinions and reviews of anti-virus software and in the end I settled on the free Microsoft Security Essentials (PC only), which combines anti-virus and anti-spyware and malware protection.

I knew it had been available for quite a while, although not too heavily marketed by Microsoft, but this was the first time I would personally try it. And I’m going to stick with it for now. It integrates nicely and seamlessly into Windows 7 and since I would like to think of myself as pretty safe and vigilant against threats in the first place, I feel safe enough.

Microsoft Security Essentials has also become  my default choice of security software to install on my friends’ and families’ computers. Previously, I would have installed the free version of AVG (still highly recommended) and while some may argue it provides better security because of virus detection rates, I would rather have a computer illiterate person use a piece of Microsoft software that they’ll automatically feel comfortable with. I bet that some of my friends might not even recognize AVG a day after I install it and accidentally disable.

However, just before my recent switch to Microsoft Security Essentials, I had been using the free version of Avira AntiVir. I switched to it in late 2008 after AVG’s free version started getting a bit too bloated and resource intensive. AntiVir turned out to be better because of it’s tiny footprint and much better real-time virus detection (it was great at detecting potential threats from torrents, even if it meant a few false positives). There was an annoying daily pop-up advertising the premium version, but that could easily be disabled.

So in summary, my top 3 picks for free anti-virus software on the PC:

• Microsoft Security Essentials – Combines virus, spyware and malware protection. Seamless and foolproof integration and automation into Windows.
• AVG – Can’t really go wrong with this popular free choice. Virus detection might be better than Microsoft’s app, as long as the computer user lets it run it’s routine scans and updates.
• Avira AntiVir – Recommended if you have little memory because of its tiny resource footprint or for those doing a lot of file sharing and/or downloading lot of torrents, cracks, warez, etc.