Avira Antivirus 2016

From the main window of Avira Antivirus 2016, you can quickly launch a scan or check for updates. A left-side menu offers access to other features, some of which are grayed because they're reserved for the Pro edition.

Clicking the Avira icon in the notification area brings up the Avira Launcher. From here you can install and control other Avira products, most of them free. You should definitely install Browser Safety.

The antivirus scan component retains the droll name Luke Filewalker. In testing, it took longer than most recent products to complete a full scan.

Avira's Browser Safety component earned the highest score ever in our hands-on malicious URL blocking test. Note, though, that it only works with Chrome and Firefox, not with Internet Explorer.

When Avira detects malware, even an inert not-yet-executed threat, it gives you the choice to remove it or get details. If you choose the latter, it halts after gathering malware traces and lets you choose whether or not to remove them.

Whichever button you click in the Security Alert window, Avira runs a mini-scan and displays progress in a mini-window. In my testing, this typically took more than a minute, sometimes as much as two minutes.

Phishing sites try to steal your passwords and other secrets. Avira's Browser Safety blocks these too, but in testing it didn't do nearly as well as it did against malware-hosting URLs.

The Browser Safety component also blocks spying ads and other tracking elements on websites.