It isn't a straightforward job for many customers to choose the right antivirus software for Windows. Each antivirus software or solution has its attributes, and this is why people usually struggle with how to get the right thing in lots of candidates. These products are different from each other, even on their core features: scan and remove viruses.

In general, we can compare anti-virus products in 3 main aspects:

If an anti-virus product has any defect in reliability, it's useless. Many reliability issues are due to conflict with other software installed on the same computer, which blocks further running of scan or killing some virus or malware. It means that some known viruses can survive in your computer even if you intentionally run an anti-virus protection software. Another circumstance is much worse: you somehow install a cheater that seems to be an antivirus product but does as malware. It may indeed clean some viruses. However, its quality is deficient, and the real purpose is to run spyware or adware on your computer.

To get reliable solutions, we need a smart way to choose excellent vendors and only download the original producers' installation packages.

Usability is the second important factor, especially for ordinary home users who usually lack experience and patience to manage complicated software. Even if the product has the perfect feature to deal with any security risk, the users may give up running it because they want to simplify their jobs. In some cases, if the anti-virus software is too difficult to run, the user may disable it easily.

Theoretically, all antivirus products will offer protection. Although they may have different behaviors in both comprehension and quality, for most use cases of home computers, security isn't as important as usability. However, for business or enterprise users, their points are changed. These organizations usually hire people to offer computer services. Usability isn't essential anymore. Instead, they hope for stronger protection for information security, for example, higher frequency and regularity of updates and better ability to remove infections.

As an important information product, antivirus tools have obvious differences between home and business users. Some developers offer for both areas; the others may just work for home or business users.

Producer	Name	Country
AVG Technologies	AVG Antivirus	Czech
Baidu	Baidu Antivirus	China
BitDefender	Bitdefender Antivirus Plus	Romania
BullGuard	BullGuard Antivirus	UK
Comodo Group	Comodo AntiVirus	USA
ESET	ESET Nod32 Antivirus	Slovak
Faronics	Faronics Anti-Virus	Canada
Filseclab	Filseclab Twister Antivirus	China
Ikarus	Ikarus Anti Virus	Austria
Iolo Technologies	System Shield AntiVirus	USA
Kaspersky Lab	Kaspersky Anti-virus	Russia
Panda Security	Panda AntiVirus Platinum	Spain
Qihoo	Qihoo 360 Antivirus	China
ThreatTrack Security	VIPRE Antivirus	USA
TrustPort	TrustPort AntiVirus	Czech

Producer	Name	Country
Fortinet	FortiClient	USA
Kaspersky Lab	Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Servers	Russia
McAfee	McAfee VirusScan Enterprise	USA
Microsoft	Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection	USA
Panda Security	Panda Endpoint Protection	Spain
Quick Heal Technologies	Quick Heal AntiVirus Server Edition	India
Sophos	Sophos Endpoint Security and Control	UK
Trend Micro	OfficeScan	USA

In the view of computer security, malware isn't identical to a virus. When we say a program is a computer virus, we think it has an abnormal behavior: copy itself from one place to another silently. Malware, this word is short for malicious software, doesn't focus on how it is copied or distributed. Instead, it is a program that runs on your computer but out of your control. In general, malware has a wide range to include, such as spyware, adware, worms, Trojan horse. A virus is also a type of malware.

After getting the definition of malware, you may answer questions like why I need anti-malware or how I deal with malware efficiently.

If you are a business or enterprise user, usually you have to consider antivirus and anti-malware together. Most business-level antivirus products cover full features to anti-malware. So only if you choose a proper antivirus product for your business, the whole information security should be under the same umbrella. You don't need extra anti-malware effort.

As for home users, the decision is a little bit tough. All home versions of antivirus products can also clean spyware, adware, or other types of malware. But the protection isn't as reliable as business versions. Why won't home antivirus handle all types of malware?

The answer is there. New spyware and adware are released every day. To trace and clean all malware, we have to update the anti-malware products so frequently that trading off usability or even performance. It is why home antivirus products usually aren't keen enough to deal with all types of malware.

In the market, a few antivirus products also offer more or less anti-malware features. However, for ordinary users, usability is always a huge challenge to run complex software efficiently. Although choosing a stronger antivirus product probably is a better solution for most home users, we believe lots of options, like home level anti-malware or business level security products, are available for various use cases.