Here is a list of best free lightweight antivirus software for Windows. These antivirus software work just like any standard antivirus software that protects a system from viruses, malware, trojans, etc. Although unlike standard antivirus software, they are very lightweight and do not consume too much system resources.
These antivirus software offer protection against both active and hidden viruses and malware. To find and remove active viruses, they offer real-time protection that detects any running or active virus or unwanted program and removes it. On the other hand, these antiviruses offer traditional scanning methods to find hidden viruses namely Quick Scan, Full Scan, and Custom Scan. The quick scan method intelligently scans only those areas of a system that are prone to viruses. The full scan method scans the entire system to flush out all possible viruses. Unlike other scanning methods, the custom scan lets its users manually specify system areas that they want to scan. After the scanning process, you get a list of detected viruses that you can permanently remove or send them to quarantine.
In some software, you also get cloud protection to scan files and data on their clouds to avoid using system resources. Plus, cloud protection also enhances the chances to detect the newest viruses and malware. These antiviruses also carry multiple additional features such as app manager, scan scheduler, VPN, etc. Go through the list to know more about these software.
My Favorite Lightweight Antivirus Software For Windows:
Immunet is my favorite software because it offers cloud scanning and real-time protection. Plus, it is effective against a wide range of active and hidden viruses, trojans, and malware. It also does not put much stress on a system.
Immunet
Immunet is free lightweight antivirus software for Windows. Using it, you can protect your system against viruses, trojans, spyware, worms, etc. Although the main advantage of this antivirus is its cloud-based scanning that scans the suspicious files and data on its cloud. It also offers real-time protection to quickly detect all active viruses and malware. Besides this, it also provides the traditional fils and directory scanning methods to find and remove hidden viruses. Now, check out some of the main features of this software.
Main Features:
- Scan Now: It offers three types of system scanning methods to find hidden or inactive infections and viruses namely Flash Scan, Custom Scan, and Full Scan. The Flash Scan method only scans selected areas of a system in which viruses and malware usually hide. The Custom Scan method lets you manually select areas of a system that you want to scan. The Full Scan method thoroughly scans every part of a system to flush out all the active and inactive viruses.
- Settings: Using it, you can enable or disable various protection shields provided by this antivirus such as monitor program install, monitor program start, cloud detection engines, clamAV detention engines, etc.
- History: In it, you can view the names of malware and harmful programs detected by this software during the previous scans.
- Quarantine: This software automatically sends viruses and malware to quarantine when they cannot be completely removed by this software to make them ineffective.
Final Thoughts:
It is one of the best free lightweight antivirus software as it processes files on its cloud and offers real-time protection against active viruses.
VirCleaner
VirCleaner is a free portable and lightweight antivirus software for Windows. You can directly use this software without the installation. This antivirus offers real-time protection to detect and remove active viruses and malicious programs. Apart from active viruses, it can also be used to find and remove hidden viruses. To remove hidden viruses, it offers traditional system scanning methods. Another good thing about this software is its ability to work with other antivirus software without causing any problem. Let’s take a brief look at the main features of this lightweight antivirus.
Main Features:
- Real-Time Protection: This antivirus provides real-time protection to protect your system against currently active viruses and suspicious programs.
- Scan: It lets you scan your system to find inactive and hidden viruses at different parts of a system. To scan a system, it offers two scanning methods namely Quick Scan (it scans only selected locations of a system that usually contains viruses) and Custom Scan (it lets you manually decide which parts of a system that you want to scan). This software will automatically remove detected viruses during the scanning process.
Final Thoughts:
It is another capable lightweight antivirus software that you can use to protect your system from a variety of viruses and malware. Plus, you can also use it with other antivirus programs to enhance virus protection.
Panda Dome
Panda Dome is free lightweight antivirus software for Windows and Android. It offers advanced protection against various types of viruses, malware, trojans, and potentially unwanted programs. To protect a system from viruses and malware, it provides real-time protection, USB protection, and traditional system scanning methods. By signing in to the Panda account, you can even track and adjust the protection level across multiple devices. Now, check out its main features.
Main Features:
- USB Protection: This feature automatically scans a USB storage device as soon as you connect it with your system.
- Scan: This section offers multiple system scanning methods namely Critical Areas, Full Scan, and Custom Scan. The critical areas scan method scans memory, currently running processes, cookies, etc., areas that usually work as the hiding spots for viruses. On the other hand, the full scan method scans the entire system and the custom scan method lets you manually scan any specific system area. After the scan, you can view a list of detected viruses that you can permanently remove or send to the quarantine.
- Settings: It lets you manually enable or disable various protection features of this antivirus such as behavioral blocking, behavioral analysis, detect PUPs, scan compressed files, etc.
- Process Monitor: This feature monitors all the URLs and links accessed by different processes to protect your system from dangerous websites.
Additional Feature:
- VPN: This antivirus also contains an inbuilt VPN to lets you anonymously browse the internet and access region-specific services.
Final Thoughts:
It is a very capable yet lightweight antivirus software that offers all-around protection for your system from viruses and malware.
Little Intelligent Antivirus
Little Intelligent Antivirus is another free lightweight antivirus software for Windows. This antivirus can be used alone or with another antivirus software as it does not cause conflicts. In it, you get real-time protection to detect active viruses. Plus, it also offers good protection against hidden system viruses and malware. To scan viruses, it offers a dedicated scan feature that lets you manually select files and folders that you want to scan for viruses. Now, check out the main features of this lightweight antivirus software.
Main Features:
- Scan: This feature lets you scan entire local drives, a folder, or a file at a time. After selecting what you want to scan, you can initiate the scanning process. After the completion of the scan, it offers a list of viruses if it detects any. By default, it automatically removes detected viruses during the scan. However, if you want to manually delete detected viruses, then go to settings and enable Ignore them option.
Additional Feature:
- Update: This software does not automatically update the virus definition, thus you need to use this update feature to look for new virus definitions and update this software.
Final Thoughts:
It is a simple and lightweight antivirus software through which you can scan and remove both hidden and active system viruses.
Kingsoft Antivirus
Kingsoft Antivirus is yet another free lightweight antivirus software for Windows. This antivirus offers a wide range of protection to block viruses and malware from entering your system namely web defence, USB defence, and download shield. Besides this, it also offers suggestions to protect your system against hackers. A more traditional system scanning method is also offered by it to find and remove hidden malware and viruses. Let’s take a brief look at some of the main features of this lightweight antivirus software.
Main Features:
- Virus Scan: To scan hidden viruses, it offers three main scanning method namely Full Scan (to scan every file and folder of a system), Quick Scan (to intelligently scan those areas of a system that are known to carry viruses), and Custom Scan (to scan a specific file, folder, or directory). After the completion of the scan, you can view a list of detected viruses that you can permanently delete.
- Defence: It lets you manually enable or disable various protection settings such as Web Defence, IM Defence, Video Defence, Download Shield, and USB Defence.
- Anti-Hacker: It scans your system and shows every vulnerability that a hacker can take advantage of. A Fix Now button to fix detected vulnerabilities is also present in it.
Additional Features:
- AppMan: It is similar to task manager in which you can view all the running processes.
- Schedule: It is a handy feature through which you can schedule the scanning process.
Final Thoughts:
It is feature-rich lightweight antivirus software that offers a wide range of protection against viruses and hackers.
Amiti Antivirus
Amiti Antivirus is a free lightweight antivirus software for Windows. This lightweight antivirus offers protection against viruses, trojans, worms, and various types of malware. You can also scan files, directories, or your whole system using it to find hidden viruses and malware. To scan the system, it offers four scanning methods namely Quick Scan, System Scan, Full Scan, and Custom Scan. After scanning your system, you can remove all the detected viruses and other malware. Let’s take a brief look at some of the main features of this lightweight antivirus software.
Main Features:
- Scan: In this section you get four scanning methods to find and remove harmful infections and malware from your system. The first scanning method is Quick Scan that only scans those areas of a system that are known for hiding the viruses and malware. The Second scanning method is System Scan that scans the program installation and Windows system files to find viruses. The next Full Scan method scans the entire system to find almost all the malware and viruses present in a system. The last Custom Scan method lets you manually select the areas of the system that you want to scan.
- Remove: After detecting viruses and malware, this software shows them in this Remove section from where you can remove all infections or send them to the Cage (Quarantine).
- The Cage: In it, you can view all the quarantined viruses and malware. From this section, you can either permanently delete all detected viruses or restore them if needed.
Additional Feature:
- Keep List: In it, you can specify all the software that you want to exclude from the scanning process.
Limitations:
- In this free version of this antivirus, you will face multiple limitations such as disabled real-time protection, disabled premium support, disabled anti-spam and phishing protection, etc. To remove all the limitations, you need to purchase the premium version of this software.
Final Thoughts:
This lightweight antivirus software offers good protection against viruses, worms, and malware.
Smadav
Smadav is the next free lightweight antivirus software for Windows. It is simple antivirus software that offers protection against hidden viruses and malware. In addition to that, it provides an auto USB scan feature that automatically scans the USB device as soon as you connect it to your system. However, unlike most other antivirus software, it cannot be used as the primary antivirus software. You can only use it as the secondary protection against viruses as it does not offer any active protection features. Although the traditional scanning feature to find and remove hidden viruses is present in it. Now, check out the main features of this software.
Main Features:
- Auto-Scan USB Flashdisk: This feature automatically detects a USB drive when connected to a system and starts scanning it to find and remove viruses and malware from it.
- Scanner: It offers two scanning methods to find viruses present in your system namely Quick Scan and Full Scan. The Quick Scan method only scans those areas of a system that are known as viruses and malware hiding spots. The Full Scan method scans every file, folder, and directory of a system to find all the hidden viruses of a system. Although, it takes a lot of time to scan the system compares to the quick scan method.
- Reports: In it, you can view the number of detected viruses that you can permanently remove by pressing the Fix All button.
- Quarantine: If this software is unable to remove some viruses and malware from a system, then it sends it to this quarantine area to make them ineffective.
Limitations:
- This software can only be used as a second layer of protection.
- Many features of this free version of Samadav are also locked such as active protection, smart lock, etc. To unlock all its features, you need to purchase the pro version of this antivirus.
Final Thoughts:
It is decent lightweight antivirus software that you can use with another antivirus software to provide a second layer of antivirus protection over a system.