Six Clicks: Free antivirus and anti-malware scanners for Windows

A product with a heritage going back over a quarter of a century, avast! Is use by more than 200 million people.

The free tool comes with:

- Antivirus protection, including DynaGen technology

- Antimalware protection, including anti-spyware and anti-rootkit technology

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Microsoft Security Essentials is a free, easy to use security tool that helps guard against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. It provides real-time protection and updates in the background automatically.

It's a no-nag, no hassle solution for anyone running Windows Vista or Windows 7.

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Rootkits can be hard to detect, but aswMBR from avast! Uses a number of clever tricks to root out and remove TDL4/3, MBRoot (Sinowal), Whistler and other rootkits.

Don't be fooled by the command line interface of this tool – it's a powerful and very effective anti-rootkit tool.

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Comodo Cleaning Essentials (CCE) is a set of powerful security tools designed to help users identify and remove malware and unsafe processes from Windows computers. Designed as a portable application, the software requires no installation and can be run directly from removable media such as a USB key.

CCE features:

- KillSwitch - an advanced system monitoring tool that allows users to identify, monitor and stop potentially unsafe processes that are running on endpoint systems. 

- Malware scanner – fully featured malware scanner capable of unearthing and removing viruses, rootkits, hidden files and malicious registry keys hidden deep within a system.

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Looking for an industry-leading scanner detects and removes malware like worms, Trojans, rootkits, rogues, spyware, and more, for free? Look no further!

The free version features:

- Antimalware and antispyware protection

- Anti-rootkit technology

- Advanced malware removal

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Think there's nothing that Bitdefender can bring to the table that isn't covered by one of the alternatives? What about:

- Optimized for Windows 8

- Game Mode that pauses system scans while you are playing

- Auto-configuration, so no options and checkboxes to mess with

- Uses a combination of Cloud scanning and behavioral analysis to detect new or unknown threats

More info.