Avira Free Antivirus was developed to be a reliable solution that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs.

Avira places two links on your desktop. One is for the main program interface, and the other is the Avira Launcher, which allows you to manage your (optional) Avira account, computers, devices, and upgrades. It also offers other Avira apps, including Browser Safety, System Speedup, Phantom VPN (Virtual Private Networking), Scout Browser, and Safe Search Plus. You can strengthen your web browsing security by using one, or all, of these tools.

We counted six different Avira processes running using anywhere from 12-30 megabytes of RAM while mostly idle. This is a more than reasonable memory footprint in today's world of computers with 4 GB of ram or more.

Avira remains full-featured yet still relatively easy to use and understand. By right-clicking on the tray icon, you can enable or disable protection, manage antivirus, scan your computer, update, and more.

You are presented with many program options from the main window, including real-time protection, scan system, last updated, firewall, web protection, mail protection, and even a game mode. The game mode is typically where the antivirus does not interfere with predefined games, allowing them to run better. There are also links to their support forums, scheduler, reports, and more. These can all be found in the top tabs as well.

You can also download the Avira Rescue CD, get Android protection, and more.

Avira features the Avira Protection Cloud, which promises to strengthen your security and enables them to deliver promised detection rates of 99.99%. This is optional.

The competition in free antivirus is fierce. There are plenty of useful, free antivirus apps, and Avira Free Antivirus has done an excellent job setting a high standard. I was more than happy with the interface, ease of use, additional programs, and small footprint.

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