Free AntiVirus?

[Night Flight]

Avast and Firefox along with several malware removal tools.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[jlmdlm]

This one comes highly recommended. I switched to it last year and it has worked very well for me.
Free antivirus - Avira AntiVir

[Tally XD]

I agree with Avira AntiVir. It has been the best of the free ones for me. It works and you don't even know its there. It never bogs my system and never interferes with email sending.

I chose it after my computer locked up and became nearly useless when using the new AVG.

Also, stay away from Commodo. It sux.

[Rmac58]

I find it impossible to get AVG completely out of my computer.
Stop Sign allowed something in, I don't use them anymore. I currently use PC Tools, no issues, yet.

[Hopyard]

Bear in mind that 99% of malicious code is specifically written to exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft products. If at all possible, please try to refrain from relying solely on Microsoft for your security soft ware. There is nothing out there that will catch everything, but AVG is decent, also, check out MalwareBytes. It does not scan automatically, however the free version does scan on-demand and seems to be able to remove most of the nasties I have come across.

Ultimately, if you want to be virus free, you will need to either spend beaucoup bucks on premium AV software, or move to another OS, like MAC OSX, or one of the many flavors of lynux out there. I am considering Mac myself.

One other thing, you get alot less exposure to viruses and trojans and worms if you self police your internet activity.

1) Do not open email from anyone you do not know. Do not even have a preview pane up, that is all that is necessary for embedded code to be run on your unexpecting PC

2) I am not saying that you look at adult websites, however, they do encompas something like 75% of the intetnet, therefor, it stands to reason that this is the place where the majority of infections begin. especially on any pages that advertise to be free... It isn't worth it, go to the shop at the corner and get it the old way... if that's your thing.

I appreciate the intent of your remarks. No email program running on my own machine. No opening of suspicious e-mails.

I only visit a limited number of websites--particularly here, and one site that I admin/moderate.

In addition to using Microsoft's Live One, I run Threat Fire from PCTools.

I've tried other AV stuff. Norton bogged my machine down badly. PCTool's AV bogged my machine down. Microsoft's program seems to get the job done. It is however a bit buggy from time to time.

Nothing is 100% including of course the other operating systems.

[Broken]

This one comes highly recommended. I switched to it last year and it has worked very well for me.
Free antivirus - Avira AntiVir

This one here is good!
I use Spybot Search&Destroy and Ad-Aware by lavasoft

[BigFish]

I'm not a "Windows guy" but I do work in IT. AVG Free is the best I've tried. I've never had a problem with viruses on any computer I've installed AVG Free on.

Oh, and its not free, but avoid McAfee. When you pay for software like this you expect it to make your computer better, not worse. We use that at work and have all sorts of issues. Symantec/Norton is a little better but I'd still recommend AVG. Their free edition does everything a home user needs, though I do run a seperate anti-spyware as well on the kids computer.

[Ram Rod]

Is there a free anti-virus program out there you'd recommend? (Not trial but totally free)

If you have one you like - can you copy and paste link to it's download in your reply?

Thanks in advance.

AVG. Best one out there IMO. Free too!

This one here is good!
I use Spybot Search&Destroy and Ad-Aware by lavasoft

Spybot S&D for one on a Windows platform quickly eats up space and constant updates and so on. I've been down the road with the Ad-Aware as well. Running 2000xp for as long as I can. Years ago, I relied on Symantec and the Norton A-V costly programs. Never again with AVG. Spyware terminator is a good supplement for the A-V IMO and another freebie. AVG caught a lot more crap off my computer after I switched from Norton and quit paying for junk and updates. If you're not running AVG, then you're risking a lot IMO. You can always see what's up and what's out if you go to cnet.com, and find what you want.

[borglyn]

AVG free is good for me. Norton slowed my computer to a crawl. Just like zacii.

[Glock40Texan]

I recommend Avast Free Edition along with COMODO firewall (much better than the internal Windows one).

[Broken]

AVG. Best one out there IMO. Free too!



Spybot S&D for one on a Windows platform quickly eats up space and constant updates and so on. I've been down the road with the Ad-Aware as well. Running 2000xp for as long as I can. Years ago, I relied on Symantec and the Norton A-V costly programs. Never again with AVG. Spyware terminator is a good supplement for the A-V IMO and another freebie. AVG caught a lot more crap off my computer after I switched from Norton and quit paying for junk and updates. If you're not running AVG, then you're risking a lot IMO. You can always see what's up and what's out if you go to cnet.com, and find what you want.

Why are you running spybot constantly? maybe we are using different programs, with Spybot I normally just search my computer for mal-ware and then close it after deleting the bad stuff. to the best of my knowledge it is not a running program, maybe you have it set to auto update?

[Tala]

This one comes highly recommended. I switched to it last year and it has worked very well for me.
Free antivirus - Avira AntiVir

I also switched to Avira free version this year Anti virus for Linux, Windows and more with firewall, antispam, recovery security - Avira AntiVir at the recommendation of my programmer/hacker friend. It updates itself daily, the only downside is that after it's daily update it throws out a pop up advertizing the paid version, but to me that's a small price to pay.
It doesn't noticibly slow my computer, but it is still protecting as long as the umbrella is up. I have had it block several things while I was surfing.

My husband swears by Avast, but guess which one of us is the one who gets viruses? (although it might have something to do with the types of websites ....nevermind)