Make sure your devices have the best antivirus protection going...
The number of cyberthreats out there means keeping your PC protected is more important than it ever has been, but picking the best tools to keep you safe can be difficult . So, we've created this handy list of the best antivirus software to help.
And because our online lives are no longer exclusively carried out on home computers, some of the very best security software we've highlighted can also be used over a number of devices. That means your phone, tablet and multiple family laptops can all be covered by the same package.
Hackers are always coming up with new ways to gain access to your PC and other internet enabled devices, whether it’s cunning phishing scams, the latest ransomware encrypting all of your files or even hardware exploits, like Meltdown, Spectre and even AMD’s own hardware exploit, letting hackers control your machine – it’s incredibly important to have the best antivirus package for your PC or Mac.

You want to make sure you get a complete suite of antivirus tools that the best paid antivirus software can provide. If you’re looking for all-round protection against the latest cyber threats, then investing in the best antivirus software is the best solution you can hope for in 2018. That doesn't mean you have to start spending big money either.

Rock-solid and reliable protection
In a world packed with free security software, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018's annual fee may look expensive, but there's plenty of bang for your buck.
Bitdefender's engine is one of the most accurate and reliable around, for instance, loved by all the big independent testers.
Web filtering blocks access to malicious sites, a secure browser keeps your online financial transactions safe, and there's a password manager which auto-completes credit card details in web forms.
An excellent anti-phishing module alerts you to malicious links in your search engine results, and blocks access to dangerous sites.
There are one or two issues – it grabs more resources than average, and might conflict with some programs – but Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 is still a likeable package which offers excellent detection rates, great performance, and more than enough bonus features to justify the price.
Bitdefender Internet Security 2018 builds on AVP 2018 and triples the number of devices covered plus offers anti-spam, firewall, parental advisor, file encryption and anti-theft features.
Strangely, it's cheaper than the basic Bitdefender Antivirus Plus at the time of writing and for a little bit more you can purchase the Total Security 2018 edition. It adds all of the above and covers up to five PCs, Macs and Android devices (iOS is ‘coming soon’).

Great value protection that won't slow you down
Norton AntiVirus Basic 2018 is a top quality malware hunter which can automatically protect your PC all on its own - that's a given. But one of the main reasons we've boosted it to number two in our best antivirus software rankings is because it's also one of the very best value paid-for security software solutions on the market in 2018. You can get it at a rock bottom price.
Norton offers plenty of tweaks, options and settings for those who need them, as well as features like a handy URL blocker that keeps you away from malicious websites. If that misses something, an excellent file reputation service recognises suspect downloads immediately. And if malware still finds a way through, intelligent behaviour monitoring kills it at the first sign of trouble.
If you're a more hands-on type, you can easily run scans on demand. Maybe set up and save custom scans to check just the areas you need. Even schedule them to run at a particular time, but only if your system is idle, and it's not running on battery power.
There can be problems with some of the browser extensions. The bundled Norton Identity Safe is a capable password manager when it's running properly, but we've found the Chrome version sometimes stops working for no apparent reason. We've seen plenty of reviewers reporting similar problems, so there does seem to be a real issue here.
Still, you don't have to use Identity Safe at all, and Norton AntiVirus Basic's main functions deliver on all fronts: it's easy to use, has the configuration options experts need, comes highly rated by the testing labs, and is carefully designed to have the least possible impact on your system performance.

The most lightweight antivirus around
Just about every antivirus tool claims to be ‘lightweight’, but Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus is the only one to really deliver on this front. Installation takes seconds, the program files barely grab 2MB of your hard drive, RAM footprint is tiny, and there are no bulky signature updates to tie up your bandwidth.
There's no compromise on features, though. Along with the core antivirus protection, there's smart behaviour monitoring, accurate real-time antiphishing, a firewall and network connection monitor, enhanced anti-ransomware, and other interesting extras.
It's not easy to compare Webroot's accuracy with the competition, as the big testing labs rarely evaluate the company's products. But when they are reviewed, they generally score well, and our own tests show solid and reliable protection.
There's a lot to like about SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, and Webroot's 70-day 100% money-back guarantee suggests it's confident in the product, too. If you're tired of overly complicated and bloated antivirus engines, Webroot must be on your shortlist.

Expert-level antivirus for the more experienced user
If you judge an antivirus on the length of its feature list, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 2018 Edition might be a disappointment. There’s no firewall, password manager, file shredder, vulnerability scanner or any of the bundled extras you'll often find elsewhere.
This doesn't mean the package is short on power, it's just more focused on the antivirus fundamentals. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 2018 Edition comes with real-time malware protection, an anti-ransomware layer, exploit protection, URL filtering to block malicious websites, and modules to prevent attacks using PowerShell and malicious scripts.
A Device Control module limits the risk of infection from other devices by controlling access to USB sticks, external hard drives, optical storage media, even devices connecting by Bluetooth and FireWire. It's an unusual extra, but could make a difference if others are regularly plugging devices into your PC.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 2018 Edition isn't aimed at beginners. The interface is clumsy sometimes, some features are very advanced, and even the Help isn't always exactly helpful.
Experienced users will appreciate ESET’s power and configurability, though. Above-average protection does a good job of keeping you safe, and a lightweight design ensures the package won't slow you down.
One of the new features in the 2018 Edition is the UEFI Scanner which protects you from threats that attack your PC before Windows has even started.
ESET Internet Security builds on NOD 32 and triples the number of devices covered plus offers firewall, botnet protection, webcam protection, antispam and more.
Alternatively, you can purchase the
ESET Smart Security Premium edition for not much more. It adds all of the above as well as password management and secure data.

Nothing is easier to use
F-Secure Antivirus SAFE is a great collection of antivirus software tools, and while it's a bit more expensive than some of the other antivirus software on this best of list, the amount of features you get makes the cost worthwhile.
With F-Secure Antivirus SAFE, you get the brilliant antivirus software from F-Secure, along with banking protection for safe online shopping, family safety tools and a device finder that lets you track your lost Android or iOS device, and if needs be remotely lock or delete it as well.
The package typically receives maximum marks for protection from AV-Test, and generally scores highly with AV-Comparatives, too. They also say it can generate significantly more false positives than most of the competition, but how that affects you will vary depending on how you use your computer.
The interface is a major plus. It's extremely easy to use, lightweight, and for the most part you can just leave the app alone to look after your PC. The program has minimal effect on your system performance, and if you do need to intervene then you can generally solve any issues in a couple of clicks.
In 2018, F-Secure Anti-Virus SAFE remains an appealing package: fast, lightweight, and able to run alongside many other security tools without conflict.

Trustworthy security for beginners and experts alike
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2018 is a stripped-back security package which focuses on the core security essentials: web filtering blocks dangerous URLs, an accurate antivirus engine detects and removes threats, smart monitoring technologies track and reverse malicious actions, and that's about it.
Fortunately, what you do get works well. Very, very well. We've consistently found Kaspersky to be amongst the best at blocking malware, and removing it from an infected system, plus it's regularly top-rated at sites like AV-Comparatives.
The program is easy to use, too. A well-designed interface has just the right number of buttons and options – not too basic, but not complicated or intimidating, either – and there are plenty of on-screen instructions to explain how everything works. Even a beginner will be at home right away.
If you just need accurate, reliable and consistent malware protection, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2018 will serve you well.

A user-friendly and very well-featured antivirus solution
Real-time malware detection, speedy cloud-based scanning, URL filtering to block malicious websites: Panda Antivirus Pro has all the goodies you'd expect from the best antivirus software.
That's just the start. A simple two-way firewall helps to keep your system secure. An application control system can define exactly what runs on your PC, stopping even some brand new and undiscovered malware. A virtual keyboard helps you enter confidential data without it being intercepted by keyloggers. There's even a tool to build a bootable USB rescue disc, ready to remove even the most stubborn threats.
Some of these bonus features are relatively basic. The Panda firewall does its job and can make you more secure, for instance, but it doesn't compete with the standalone firewall competition. Experienced network users will probably want more.
The simplicity does at least keep everything very easy to use. Options are organised in a straightforward Windows 10-like interface, with all the main modules just a click or two away. Even the firewall doesn't need to know anything more than your current network location: Home, Work or Public Place.
There's not a lot of Panda test results from the independent labs around right now, but the figures we've seen show the company delivers above average protection, and overall Panda Antivirus Pro does a good job of keeping malware at bay.

Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security is a capable antivirus package that's simple to use with above average antispam and an effective ‘Folder Shield’ module to block ransomware.
How good is it? The top testing labs all rate it highly for protection, although there's some disagreement on the details. In particular, AV-Comparatives says it gives a high number of false positives, which could be a real nuisance. But AV-Test reports high levels of accuracy and no issues with false positives at all.
If there's a problem here, it's likely to be performance impact. PassMark's March 2017 Performance
report assessed 15 security products on various performance-related benchmarks, and Trend Micro came bottom of the list.
Our experiences with the product are a little more favourable: protection levels appear similar to Bitdefender, false positives are only marginally higher, and it doesn't slow down our system noticeably more than anything else.
We'd recommending running the trial for its full 30 days before you buy, then, to see if you notice any problems. But if you're unaffected, its high levels of detection and excellent bonus features make Trend Micro a good choice.

With so many free antivirus products out there, you may be wondering what’s the point of paying for protection. Just about every single major vendor out there offers a free version of its service, promising to protect you from all the cyberthreats out there.
By releasing a free version of their software, developers gain access to more devices from which they can collect data from and therefore improve their knowledge and security platforms. It also might tempt more users to upgrade. Therefore it’s not in their interest to reduce the amount of protection provided by the free version.
However paying for a premium service means you get more features, such as spam filters, parental controls, system scans and advanced firewalls. This makes them more suitable for power users, those who want a bit of extra security and anyone who wants their system to run as smoothly as possible.
It also means you avoid annoying pop-ups that try and tempt you to upgrade to the full version.

Turn any text document or web page into an audio file


In years gone by, text to speech software was rather expensive, but these days there are excellent options free of charge and we're here to help you find the very best tools that will make converting written documents to audio files as easy as possible.
Text to speech software can be enormously helpful for anyone who's visually impaired, or has a condition like dyslexia that makes reading on screens tricky. It can also help overcome language barriers for people who read a language but don't speak it, or are in the process of learning.
Text to speech software is also ideal if you want to listen to a document while doing something else, if you find it easier to retain information you've heard, or if you want to sense-check something you've written.
Here are the best free tools for reading text aloud – either individual paragraphs or whole documents.
1. Balabolka
Save text as a spoken audio file, with customizable voices
There are a couple of ways to use
Balabolka's free text to speech software: you can either copy and paste text into the program, or you can open a number of supported file formats (including DOC, PDF, and HTML) in the program directly. In terms of output you can use SAPI 4 complete with eight different voices to choose from, SAPI 5 with two, or the Microsoft Speech Platform if you download and install the necessary files. Whichever route you choose, you can adjust the speech, pitch and volume of playback to create custom voice.
In addition to reading words aloud, this free text to speech software can also save narrations as audio files in a range of formats including MP3 and WAV. For lengthy documents you can create bookmarks to make it easy to jump back to a specific location and there are excellent tools on hand to help you to customize the pronunciation of words to your liking.
With all these features to make life easier when reading text on a screen isn't an option, Balabolka is best free text to speech software around.
Balabolka
2. Natural Reader
Free text to speech software with its own web browser
Natural Reader is a free text to speech tool that can be used in a couple of ways. The first option is to load documents into its library and have them read aloud from there. This is a neat way to manage multiple files, and the number of supported file types is impressive, including ebook formats. There's also OCR, which enables you to load up a photo or scan of text, and have it read to you.
The second option takes the form of a floating toolbar. In this mode, you can highlight text in any application and use the toolbar controls to start and customize text to speech. This means you can very easily use the feature in your web browser, word processor and a range of other programs. There's also a built-in browser to convert web content to speech more easily.
Natural Reader
3. Panopretor Basic
Easy text to speech conversion, with WAV and MP3 output
As the name suggests, Panopreter Basic delivers free text to speech conversion without frills. It accepts plain and rich text files, web pages and Microsoft Word documents as input, and exports the resulting sound in both WAV and MP3 format (the two files are saved in the same location, with the same name).
The default settings work well for quick tasks, but spend a little time exploring Panopreter Basic's Settings menu and you'll find options to change the language, destination of saved audio files, and set custom interface colors. The software can even play a piece of music once it's finished reading – a nice touch you won't find in other free text-to-speech software.
If you need something more advanced, a premium version of Panopreter is available for US$29.95 (about £20, AU$40). This edition offers several additional features including toolbars for Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, the ability to highlight the section of text currently being read, and extra voices.
Panopreter Basic
4. WordTalk
An extension that adds text to speech to your word processor
Developed by the University of Edinburgh, WordTalk is a toolbar add-on for Word that brings customizable text to speech to Microsoft Word. It works with all editions of Word and is accessible via the toolbar or ribbon, depending on which version you're using.
The toolbar itself is certainly not the most attractive you'll ever see, appearing to have been designed by a child. Nor are all of the buttons' functions very clear, but thankfully there's a help file on hand to help.
There's no getting away from the fact that WordTalk is fairly basic, but it does support SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 voices, and these can be tweaked to your liking. The ability to just read aloud individual words, sentences or paragraphs is a particularly nice touch. You also have the option of saving narrations, and there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that allow for quick and easy access to frequently used options.
WordTalk
5. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader
A great choice for converting text from websites to speech
Despite its basic looks, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader has more to offer than you might first think. You can open numerous file formats directly in the program, or just copy and paste text.
Alternatively, as long as you have the program running and the relevant option enables, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can read aloud any text you copy to the clipboard – great if you want to convert words from websites to speech – as well as dialog boxes that pop up. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can also convert text files to WAV format.
Unfortunately the selection of voices is limited, and the only settings you can customize are volume and speed unless you burrow deep into settings to fiddle with pronunciations.
Additional voices are available for a US$25 fee (about £20, AU$30), which seems rather steep, holding it back from a higher place in our list.

It was once the world's most popular free video editor, but after many years of distinguished service, Windows Movie Maker has been laid to rest. Its installer is no longer available on Microsoft's website, and the software won't receive any security updates to fix newly discovered vulnerabilities.

But not to worry, there are some excellent alternatives available that are more powerful, just as easy to use, and completely free.

Here we've picked the best Windows Movie Maker substitutes that will enable you to create great-looking videos without having to master a drastically different interface.

The successor to Windows Movie Maker is easy and fun to use
The Fall Creators Update brought many fun and useful new features to Windows 10, including a video editor that's a direct replacement for Windows Movie Maker. Interestingly, it's tucked away in the Microsoft Photos app, but it's easy to use and very accessible for beginners.
Start by choosing your media files (photos and video) and arranging them in a sequence. You can then make some simple edits (like trimming video clips and applying filters), apply fun motion effects and titles, and set the whole thing to a lively soundtrack.
You don't get quite as much granular control as you did in Windows Movie Maker (you don't have separate tracks for video and audio, for example). but the effects and transitions are vastly improved, and it's much easier for a complete beginner to achieve good-looking effects. Once you're done, you can save the video to your PC or share it straight via Skype, YouTube or OneNote. You won't find a more direct replacement for Windows Movie Maker.

All the Windows Movie Maker features you love, with a familiar look
The first time you open it, Shotcut bears little resemblance to Windows Movie Maker, but hit the Playlist and Timeline buttons at the top and it starts to look familiar.
Open files to add them to your playlist, then drag and drop them onto the timeline to piece them together, just like you could in Movie Maker. Once you’ve got everything in order, hit the Filters button, then click the plus sign to apply transitions and effects. You can apply as many effects as you like, including coloured filters like those available in Windows Movie Maker, plus advanced options such as chroma key compositing for greenscreen effects.
There’s even a text option that lets you create titles and watermarks – and they look less cheesy than Windows Movie Maker’s equivalents.
Best of all, Shotcut is open source, so none of its features are hidden behind a paywall. If you miss Windows Movie Maker, Shotcut is a solid alternative.

A Windows Movie Maker alternative if you have a creative streak
VSDC Free Video Editor looks less like Windows Movie Maker than Shotcut, but it’s superb if you’re willing to try something new. Video projects are built from video clips, audio files and pictures. Once you’ve selected your source files and put them in order, you can add annotations, effects, cursors, notes, and charts.
There’s a lot to experiment with, but thankfully VSDC Free Video Editor includes wizards that walk you through the trickier parts. We particularly like the retro-style filters and animations, which really bring a video project to life.
Note that you won’t be able to export your project if you’ve used premium features like hardware acceleration, which is enabled by default. You can turn it off by clicking Options (in the top right), selecting Acceleration Options and unchecking ‘Use hardware acceleration for encoding video’.
VSDC receives frequent updates to add new features, and is an excellent alternative to Windows Movie Maker if you’re interested in getting creative.

A Windows Movie Maker replacement with lots of export options
If you only used Windows Movie Maker for basic video editing tasks,
Avidemux is well worth a look. It doesn’t offer a fancy interface or direct sharing to social media, but if you take a little time to peruse its menus, you’ll find it’s surprisingly capable.
There are preset profiles for different output devices, video and audio filters, fades, subtitles, and lots of customizable encoding options.
The main downside of Avidemux is that you can’t combine videos that are different heights or widths. This won’t matter if you’re putting footage all shot using the same smartphone or screen capture tool, but can be inconvenient if your media come from different sources. To get around it, you have to resize each clip separately, export it, then make a new project. It’s not a serious issue, but the developers are aware and it should be resolved in a future update.

A free video editor that layers new features on top of old
Of all the tools here, VideoPad Video Editor is the one that most closely resembles Windows Movie Maker. You’ll be up and running in seconds – just import your video clips, audio files and still images, then drag and drop them into the timeline at the bottom of the window.
In fact, VideoPad Video Editor resembles good old Windows Movie Maker so closely that some of its effects now look a bit cheesy, and its interface (a busy combination of icons, menus and ribbons) looks rather dated. It’s kept up to date with stereoscopic 3D conversion, direct sharing to social media, and chroma keying. VideoPad Video Editor also lets you export videos in 4K – a feature you’d normally only find in premium tools.
There’s also a premium version of VideoPad Video Editor, which adds support for extensions and an unlimited number of audio tracks, but the free edition offers everything else you could wish for.
Note that the main 'Download' link leads to a 30-day trial of the premium version of VideoPad. The link to the free version is a little way down the homepage, beside the subheading 'Get it free'.