Antivirus Ware was started by a group of computer professionals who saw the need for reliable and unbiased Antivirus Reviews. Through our reviews of Antivirus programs, along with our in-house Performance Testing, we try to help you pick the program that best suits your needs.
Constantly Updated Reviews - We are continually updating our Antivirus Reviews. So, if you are wondering why things have changed from the last time you were on our website, it's because we are constantly updating the Reviews to give you the freshest information available.
Ratings - Some people wonder how we score each Antivirus program. Each Antivirus program is rated in 6 different areas - the ratings are a reflection of how each Antivirus program performs against its competition. We rarely give out 5/5 Stars for any area since no Antivirus program is perfect, so 4.5/5 is about as good as it gets in the Antivirus world.
The Overall Rating of an Antivirus program is determined by the combined score of all 6 tested areas - with added emphasis given to "Features & Ease of Use", "Performance Testing", and "Effectiveness". Since Effectiveness is so critical it's given the most emphasis in our ratings.
Included Programs - How do we choose which programs we review each year? We first take a look at the major Effectiveness tests each year - especially AV-Comparatives.org. We review the Antivirus programs that score the best in these tests, along with a few programs that we review due to their overall popularity (thus allowing people to see how their favorite Antivirus program rates).
Why no User Comments? - User comments/reviews for software programs are often abused - plus, it's important to get opinions from those actually using the program, not those who used it in the past. We are currently developing a system to get reliable user comments for each program we review - comments from people that are actually using the program. We hope to have this rolled out in mid-2010.
Performance Testing - Included in our Antivirus Reviews are several Performance Tests - these tests are chosen since they give a good feel for how each program will impact your computer system. These tests are all performed on the same computer under similar conditions (using Acronis True Image to create a backup image and to restore from).
How long does each Review Take? - Our reviews take approximately 3-5 days to perform the testing. Each Antivirus program is installed on several computers and used in our day-to-day activities to get a better feel for the program.
What is our relationship with various Antivirus companies?
We are Affiliates of most of the Antivirus software companies that we review, however, that is as far as our relationship goes - despite several attempts from various Antivirus companies to try to "purchase" higher ratings on our website. These requests are forwarded to our "Junk Mail" department - we do our best to provide unbiased reviews. To this end we try to have minimal or no contact with the various Antivirus companies.
When you click the "download" link for an Antivirus program you are taken to the software vendor's website where you can purchase the software. We get a small % of each sale which helps cover our costs. Overall, it's up to you which Antivirus program you purchase - we provide you with our review of each program, and you're free to dissect said info as you wish.
Want to know more about our Review Process? Watch this video...
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