Once again Kaspersky Anti-Virus earns our Editors' Choice as the best standalone antivirus application we reviewed this year. But, as the performance charts below show, the competition is knocking at the door.
In particular, we call out BitDefender Antivirus for making the most gains over the previous year. And while we think Norton Antivirus 2008 offers comparable antivirus protection, it weighs in at 300MB, six times the file size of either Kaspersky or BitDefender on your hard drive. Again, Trend Micro and McAfee hold their own this year, neither rising nor falling with respect to the competition and CA continues to struggle with its place in the consumer market.
To find out how we test antivirus software, see CNET Labs' How we test: Antivirus software page. To see how a given antivirus app performs when stopping malicious code, we recommend viewing the latest test results published by independent antivirus testing organisations AV-comparatives and Checkvir.com.
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CA Anti-Virus Plus CA Anti-Spyware 2008
CA Anti-Virus Plus CA Anti-Spyware 2008 holds the middle ground this year, featuring faster code but lacking any compelling "must-have" features.
Norton AntiVirus 2008
As we await final code and therefore test results on the overall performance of this year's version of Norton AntiVirus, the new interface and features alone do not suggest an automatic KO in our latest antivirus roundup of 2008 products.
Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2008
Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2008 offers a variety of features designed for the home and small office.
BitDefender Antivirus 2008
BitDefender Antivirus 2008 has greatly improved since last year; we'd like more access to configuration options beyond simple enabling and disabling features.
Avast Antivirus 4.7 Home Edition
Avast Antivirus 4.7 Home edition works fairly well for a free antivirus protection.
McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008
McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008's protection keeps up with the changing threats on the Internet, but the product doesn't excel, burdened by a user experience that's basically unchanged from last year.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7 
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7 continues to outshine its competition with its ease of use combined with thorough antivirus protection.
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ipohmali
17/04/2008 06:50 PM
i recommend kaspersky as the best av...
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ganeshkarki1
12/07/2008 02:13 PM
I also think kaspersky is best for single pc . and thanks cnet for that kind of nice report.
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MaDcAt
08/08/2008 04:48 PM
Max Secure Software's Max Spyware Detector... Do we know anythng about this software??? Is it worth the hype and cost??
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