A-Squared Free Anti-Malware Software Review

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The market for anti-virus software is fairly large. There are a few different vendors out there, including McAfee, Norton, AVG and so on. A lesser-known but quite effective anti-virus product is Emsisoft Anti-Malware. If you don’t recognize the name, it used to be called A-Squared at some point, but the company decided to change the name.

There’s both a limited freeware version and a paid version for $39.95 that includes some additional features, as well as professional support. Both versions allow you to do the basic tasks of scanning and cleaning, but there’s a bit more to it if you’re willing to pay.

Features

Perhaps the biggest feature of Emsisoft Anti-Malware is the fact that it’s efficient. One area in which other anti-virus vendors tend to fall short is with resource consumption. Many of them will take up quite a bit of CPU and disk time, leaving your regular applications feeling a little bit slow as the anti-virus software scans in the background. The remarkable thing about Emsisoft’s offering is that it has a dual-engine scanner that doesn’t take up any additional resources. Bottom line, here, is that it’s designers have concocted anti-virus software that won’t bog you down.

But the fact that is uses little resources won’t help you if it can’t detect any malware. This is why up to three layers of protection are offered. Emsisoft’s “surf protection” prevents you from accessing websites that are known to be fraudulent or are infected with drive-by malware attacks. It prevents you from connecting in the first place so that nothing ever hits your machine.

The next layer of protection is the real-time file guard. This layer automatically scans files on your disk, as they are used/downloaded and prevents any access if it finds something wrong. This feature can be used in both the paid version and the 30-day free trial. The freeware version won’t give you real-time protection, but it still allows you to scan and disinfect.

Lastly, the Behavior Blocker analyzes the inner workings of your running programs and alerts you of any suspicious activity. This can be especially useful when a new malware attack is released into the wild and Emsisoft’s software doesn’t yet have that specific virus in its database. The software will still be able to detect familiar malware patterns and nip it in the bud.

Other Services

Emsisoft also offers a paid protection plan that utilizes cloud services and cloud computing in order to allow your files, folders and data to be scanned in-depth, where it would otherwise bog down your system or take forever.

Final Thoughts

Emsisoft Anti-Malware is a solid, inexpensive offering that acts as a complete anti-virus solution. Having to pay $39.95 for all of the features might throw off some, but the basic functionality of scanning and cleaning is still available for free. For a lot of people, that might be plenty. For others, the protection offered by real-time tracking and cloud services might be worth it. Overall, it’s a solid package and is highly recommended.

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