Sophos is a well known name in the field of computer security. They create security software products for Mac, Linux, Windows, Android and iOS. Until now this UK based security firm was offering free antivirus for Mac and Linux computers for free. Now they have released the same Sophos Antivirus Home edition absolutely free for the Windows users as well. The Home edition of the antivirus product offers strong protection against malware and phishing web sites.
For some inexplicable reason, they have made it a little difficult to download and install the software on your PC. First of all, you have to register for a free Sophos home account by visiting https://home.sophos.com/reg. After confirmation of the message sent to your email address, you are taken to the Sophos Dashboard from where you can add your computer (you can add up to eight devices to one Sophos home account) and then download the Sophos Antivirus setup file.
During the Sophos Antivirus Home edition installation process it further downloads more files from the internet. The installation is finally finished after 20-25 minutes but perhaps it might finish sooner if you have a faster internet connection (I have a 4Mbps ADSL connection).
You can right-click on the Sophos notification area icon to update it or to show the main window. In the main window, there are not many options to set which makes it very easy to use antivirus product. You can toggle the real time scan, web protection and PUP (potentially unwanted programs) detection. You can also run a full system scan of your PC to detect any possible malware.
Sophos Home antivirus also adds itself to the right-click context-menu of the Windows File Explorer so that you can manually scan any files you feel suspicious about.
Verdict: Other than the unnecessarily tedious installation of the antivirus product, Sophos Home antivirus is a great choice for the Windows users. It offers effective and all around protection for Windows computers without putting any extra load on the system resources.
You can get Sophos Home edition antivirus from https://home.sophos.com/.
I purchased this for one of my computers at my 2nd home and thought you said I could add it to my main home. bobraney2000-AT-yahoo.com Purchased Sept 7, 2017 . Can’t seem to add this to my main home computer. Why? Hearing issues at 70 years old so email best.
You should contact Sophos Antivirus for help from http://bit.ly/2Dlqatu
Click on the “Support Chat” blue button near lower-right corner and they will surely help you.