Best free antivirus for commercial use

[Nick_White]

Currently, at work, we have no antivirus solution on our Windows Vista notebooks.

When a colleague's computer began to behave strange, we downloaded Avira Antivir Free and scanned our computers. At least two viruses were found. Scanning also with Spybot Search & Destroy and BitDefender online scan, we found further threats.

Unfortunately, Avira is free only for non-commercial use so we can't use it legally. What solution can we adopt?

So far, I have found 3 possibilities:

a ) ClamWin:

- free and open source

- no on-access scanning

- not a great detection rate

- slow on-demand scanning

b ) BitDefender Free Edition:

- no on-access scanning

- better detection rate

- slow on-demand scanning

c ) PCTools Antivirus:

- buggy

d ) Comodo Antivirus:

- not a great detection rate

- still in beta stages

e ) Online scans only:

- no on-access protection

- depends on a working browser (in most cases, Internet Explorer) and a fully working Internet connection

Edited October 2, 2008 by Nick_White

[cluberti]

Those are pretty much it when it comes to free A/V that doesn't come with the personal use only tag. The real question is, would one of those free products meet your needs? If not, you'll have to pony up for something more substantial.