CNET 2007 antivirus performance test scores

For the first time in nearly two years, we have an Editors' Choice winner for antivirus protection. Of the products we've tested and reviewed thus far, we think Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 offers the best value and performance. Norton AntiVirus 2007 improved some over last year, but McAfee VirusScan Plus 2007, despite adding a firewall, failed to move up. New this year is Eset NOD32, an excellent application, but one that's best suited for more advanced users. Look for additional reviews for CA Anti-virus 2007 and BitDefender 10 within the next few weeks.

How we test
Testing done by CNET Labs focuses on how a given antivirus scan affects the performance of a few real-world tasks. For example, in the Apple iTunes 6.0.1 test, we time how long it takes to convert 19 WAV files to 192Kbps MP3 files. To see how a given antivirus app performs when stopping malicious code, we recommend viewing the latest test results published by independent antivirus testing organizations AV-comparatives and Checkvir.com.