Microsoft Defender is improving, but you still shouldn't rely on it by itself. That doesn’t mean you have to pay extra, though. We’ve tested the top free antivirus apps so you can protect your PC for free.
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free offers full-scale malware protection along with some suite-level features. It gets superb scores from the independent labs, and it won't cost you a penny.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus takes perfect or near-perfect scores from all the independent testing labs, and it aced our hands-on ransomware protection test. It remains an antivirus Editors' Choice.