Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

The Malwarebytes Free edition offers users the option of installing a trial version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a surprisingly effective freeware antimalware tool. It's a relatively speedy malware remover, with the quick scan taking about 8 minutes even with other high-resource programs running. The heuristics engine proved on multiple computers during empirical testing that it was capable of determining the difference between false positives and dangerous apps.

The app has some nice features rolled in, too. It supports multiple drive scanning including networked drives, context menu options including a scan-on-demand for individual files, and the FileAssassin option under the More Tools section for removing locked files. The interface is simple, but pleasant-looking and well-organized. 

Advanced SystemCare Free

Advanced SystemCare Free 4 wants to be it all when it comes to keeping your system clean. It gives you a wealth of tools, rolling many of parent company IOBit's better-known system utilities--or at least those utilities' engines--into one convenient package.

The program's Quick Care option includes the ability to clean your Registry, perform a rudimentary malware scan, fix and remove broken shortcuts, delete junk files, and erase browsing tracks. It's no accident that to make the process even faster, with even less of a need for user input, that you can configure it to run on system start-up.

Ad-Aware Free Internet Security

The bottom line: One of the first applications built to find and remove malware and spyware, Ad-Aware's reputation has been well-justified. The latest version adroitly addresses some user concerns, yet performance-based annoyances remain.

Review:

Ad-Aware 9.5 continues the development progress that publisher Lavasoft began in version 8. No longer content with offering only malware protection, Ad-Aware now includes antivirus protections licensed from Sunbelt, the makers of Vipre, as well as interesting in-house improvements.

Lavasoft first started changing Ad-Aware's protection engine more than a year ago in version 8.1, when it introduced Genotype. This heuristics-based technology identified identical snippets of code across multiple threat mutations. In version 9, Genotype received support from what Lavasoft calls "Dedicated Detection." This tech looks inside files, analyzes the code, and creates a loose pattern for finding families of related malware. The company touts that a single dedicated detection signature can detect hundreds of thousands of threats. More importantly, Lavasoft expects that dedicated detection will lower false positive rates by creating more points of comparison.

Norton 360

The bottom line: Norton 360 version 5 maintains the Norton brand's recent strong performance record and introduces some useful new features, bringing recent improvements to Norton Internet Security 2011 to the more expensive 360 while also improving the program's feature set. Symantec believes Norton is the premiere security product around, so don't be surprised at Norton 360's price tag

Review: 

Over the past few years, Symantec has completed a course reversal for its Norton consumer Internet security suites. The massive package of security tools works better than it ever has before, with an impressive set of features, some useful new tools including the free Power Eraser, and third-party security efficacy benchmarks that are nothing short of remarkable. Meanwhile, CNET Labs' performance benchmarks indicate that though Norton doesn't leave the smallest footprint on your system, users should see a minimal impact overall.

FreeZ Online TV

While we love the idea of free TV (who doesn't?), it never seems to be quite what we hoped. FreeZ Online TV is no exception. The channel selection is unimpressive and user guidance is nonexistent.

The most confusing things about the program are the links that appear on the initial screen when the program is opened. We mistakenly believed they might provide more guidance for the program but instead directed us to two different sites promising free online TV. Both require additional downloads, and weren't related to FreeZ Online TV.