Pros: Recently just out of beta stage, Avast 4.8 now offers a built in anti spyware and anti rootkit now giving it better detection then it's previous version 4.7. It seems to me that 4.8 uses less resources, though the Avast development team says there should be no change in memory usage. Avast also has an automatic update feature. Also i might at that Avast has a faster scanner then previous versions. Avast has also added a new self defense feature which stops Avast from being shut down by malware.
Cons: Avast currently has no heuristics scanner besides it's email protection. I have heard a couple complaints from people saying they thought Avast was slowing down their Internet speeds, i have tested several times to see if i could encounter this same issue and i did not see any difference in my download speed with Avast.
Pros: AVG has finally came out with a new version of AVG Anti Virus that now offers a built in anti spyware giving it too better detection of spyware. AVG 8 also seems to be a lighter anti virus on memory usage. The AVG developers have also added a new feature called "Link Scanner" which turns out to be a Web Shield detecting viruses that are actually embeded in websites. AVG 8 was one of the first anti viruses to detect the Alicia Keys myspace virus with Link Scanner.
Cons: This isn't to big of a con, but its updates download kind of slow. The heuristics engine is not that good on detecting unknown malware and viruses compared to Nod32 and others.
Pros: Avira Antivir offers a strong heuristic scanner to detect some of the newest and unknown malware and viruses based purely on the behavior. Avira also has a very fast virus scanner, they have also added an anti spyware feature to it's free version thus giving it too better detection of spyware and also better overall detection.
Cons: Myself and many others have come to the believe that Avira must put it's free version updates on some of the slowest servers, depending on the time of day it can take up to 3 minutes to even connect to the update server, even then it takes another 2 minutes to download the updates because the speeds tend to be around 2-7KBPS (this download speed could be an issue only with me and a couple others though). And it also has an annoying popup each time it updates asking you to purchase the premium version.
Pros: BitDefender 10 has a very sophisticated heuristic engine which will detect new malware and viruses that other Anti Viruses can not detect. It's paid for version has hourly updates which is a great thing for an anti virus. Another really good thing that i believe is a pro is that BitDefender uses virus signatures and a heauristic engine to detect viruses, spyware, malware and trojans.
Cons: BitDefender 10 is only an on demand scanner meaning, it will NOT give you 24/7 protection from viruses, it will only detect what is already on your computer. I suggest it should only be used as a second virus scanner and not your only anti virus.
Pros: ClamWin is an open source anti virus built by the open source community, it offers good detection of new and old viruses. ClamWin is built on ClamAV technology and has just recently reached 1 million signatures in it's database. ClamWin provides an automatic update feature that lets you know when your database is out of date and needs updated. It also has a nice feature that will allow you to scan your memory (processes that are currently running) for viruses and other infections.
Cons: ClamWin is only an on demand scanner meaning it will not detect if you download a infected file until you manually scan that file, just use it along with your every day real time anti virus.
Pros: Dr.Web Anti Virus is a very small anti virus with a very big punch, detecting some of the nastiest viruses in the wild to date. It is an on demand scanner for home use only, it also makes a great secondary virus scanner along with your real time protection anti virus. Dr.Web also has a fast scanner with low memory usage.
Cons: The only con i can really come up with at this time is that it is only an on demand scanner and will not protect you from viruses, only detect and remove them or even try to "cure" the infected file.
Pros: PCTools Anti Virus 4 offers realtime protection which will protect you from even being infected by alot of different viruses and types of spyware. It offers a good heuristic engine and also a signature based engine to compliment the heuristic engine, it also offers a very simple interface that even a new computer user would not have trouble with.
Cons: PCTools also is the owner of the famous "Spyware Doctor" Anti Spyware which used to be a great program till they started to turn it into bloatware that isnt as good as other anti spywares, why this is a con for their Anti Virus is because they could do the same to their Anti Virus and ruin another good thing. Right now it seems highly unlikely they are going to do any major changes to their anti virus which is good and bad, they also have a very slow scanner that takes a much longer time then alot of other anti viruses. (pro) But i know alot of people who say they like when they scanner takes longer because it could possibly mean it's doing a deeper scan.
