There are many security programs on the internet but I only stick to ones that I know have the capabilities of protecting and removing malware from a computer.  The newest program that I have added to my arsenal is A-squared anti-malware.  About a month ago, I had a chance to get a free one-year trial of A-squared and I jumped at the chance to test it out.  I am extremely glad that I did.

A-squared was created by Emsisoft and has a free and paid version.  A-squared scans your PC for infections of trojans, viruses, spyware, adware, worms, bots, keyloggers and dialers.  A-squared uses two scanning engines, the A-squared anti-spyware and Ikarus anti-virus engine.  According to a test done in October by the famous Malware Research Group, A-squared scored a 99.8% detection rate and was the top product out of 21.  The results can be found here at Anti-Malware Reviews.

A-squared has a laundry list of features and instead of listing them I have provided a link that compares the various versions and can be found at A-squared features.  A-squared has a nice interface and is easy to navigate.  Here is a screenshot of the interface.

A-squared Interface

One of the most important things about an anti-malware program is updating.  A-squared is constantly updating the virus signatures and there have been times that it updated around 4-5 times in an hour.

A-squared has four types of scans, quick, smart, deep, and custom scan.  The quick scan was completed in less than two minutes.  The smart scan took an hour and twenty minutes to finish and the deep scan finished in two and a half hours.  The scan times can vary depending of memory installed, hard drive, and if the computer is infected or not.

One thing that really stood out to me was an article I read about Malwarebytes versus A-squared.  The article was written by Donna Buenaventura of Bright Hub and Calendar of Updates, she tested Malwarebytes and A-squared against 100 positive malware samples.  Malwarebytes was able to detect 58 out of 100 malware samples while A2 Free detected 92.  The article can be found here at Bright Hub.

I haven’t tested A-squared against any malware but I like the software.  I have been considering conducting tests again to determine how good security program is but don’t have the time right now.  The best thing about A-squared is it uses an anti-virus and anti-spyware engine so I don’t feel the need to install a standalone anti-virus.  If you have been considering A-squared, you can’t go wrong.  The detection rates are among the best and the program is lightweight.  I am glad that I had the opportunity to get a one-year trial of A-squared.