The simple fact that a company's product shows up in the results is a vote of confidence, of sorts. We take the results reported by independent antivirus testing labs very seriously. It doesn't appear in this roundup of commercial antivirus products, naturally. The combination of good lab scores and a great score in our hands-on malware protection test was enough to bring it up to 3.5 stars. However, Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center is looking better and better lately, with some very good scores from independent testing labs. These commercial products offer protection beyond the antivirus built into Windows 10 the best free antivirus utilities also offer more than Windows does. If you have malware, one of the products listed in this article should take care of the problem. Out of that extensive field we've named four Editors' Choice products, honored others with a four-star rating, and bestowed 3.5 stars on several more. As noted, PCMag has reviewed more than 40 different commercial antivirus utilities, and that's not even counting the many free antivirus tools. Modern antivirus utilities handle Trojans, rootkits, spyware, adware, ransomware, and more. Ransomware and data-stealing Trojans are much more common, as are bots that let the bot-herder rent out your computer for nefarious purposes. Malware these days is about making money, and there's no easy way to cash in on spreading a virus.

We call it antivirus, but in truth it's unlikely you'll get hit with an actual computer virus. We’ve put more than 40 antivirus tools through hands-on testing and evaluation to help you choose one that best suits your situation. Doesn’t that feel good? Don’t put off resolving this task just because you don’t know which antivirus to use. Eat better? Go to the gym every week? You have to keep those up all year! Resolving to install antivirus protection (or check the status of your existing protection) is a lot easier. Some resolutions for the new year are well-nigh impossible to keep.

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