What's the best free antivirus programme?

Mad Bull

Hi guys, I just wanted a bit of advice on what free anti virus software I could install.??
Thanks

Tokyo

Avast or AVG would be at the top of my personal list...

PropJoe10

AVG is my favourite, does what it says on the tin and keeps the annoying popups to the minimum.

White Heart Loon

mike_ie wrote: »

Avast or AVG would be at the top of my personal list...

AVG was good about 4 years ago, it's now bloated and detection rates are crap. Avast and Avira are what I recommend these days of the free ones.

byte

Avast seems to be well regarded nowadays.

Got good review on PCPro for latest version too:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/software/387166/avast-free-antivirus-2014

I thought AVG had bettered itself in recent times, though I'm not sure, as I haven't used it in years, due to it becoming bloatware as White Heart Loon said.

yawhat!

Install Adblock as well on your browser if you havn't allready!

rolliepoley

I have been using Avira for a long time with no problems.

http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus

Boskowski

I simply put Microsoft Security Essentials on all my windows boxes and never had any issues

White Heart Loon

Boskowski wrote: »

I simply put Microsoft Security Essentials on all my windows boxes and never had any issues

It's detection rates are crap, have you ever had it pop up and warn you? Thought not

GarIT

Avast and Comodo are the only decent ones, you still won't get more than 90% protection with any free product unless you are an expert using Comodo.

Boskowski

White Heart Loon wrote: »

It's detection rates are crap, have you ever had it pop up and warn you? Thought not

True but that doesn't mean much. I had PCs since the beginning of PCs and I had 3 viruses in all these years.

P.S. I found the best free anti virus software is Linux.

percy212

Do not put avg on your computer. Its an octopus -and I am fairly sure that a combo of a windows update and an avg update corrupted my boot sector. Danger danger.

Molester Stallone

There's a reason you have to pay for antivirus software.
The free versions will be ok to a point, but any half way sophisticated spyware or malware is going to walz right through it. But, as has been said already, avira, comodo, avg & avast are all ok as freebies, with avg & comodo imo probably being slightly out In front

lucy1

Def AVG Free

GarIT

Molester Stallone wrote: »

avira, avg are all ok

Stop right there, letting in 50% of threats is not OK. What everyone needs is Norton internet security, it goes for €20 every now and again in argos.

If you are doing anything with money, banking or shopping, you absolutely need Norton.

GarIT

lucy1 wrote: »

Def AVG Free

AVG lets in about 50% of threats and has sent up computer breaking bugs in their updates 3 times in the last 5 years.

SilverScreen

Been using Avast for a few years now and it does the job nicely.

White Heart Loon

Molester Stallone wrote: »

There's a reason you have to pay for antivirus software.

Nonsense, the free ones are fine, but the best security is common sense. An adblocker is essential to.

TitianGerm

You can buy a cd key for Norton at www.g2a.com for €14.50. I've bought fifa 14 off them and the code was sent in 15 minutes and worked perfectly.

mobby

Avast for me too.

White Heart Loon

emmetkenny wrote: »

You can buy a cd key for Norton at www.g2a.com for €14.50. I've bought fifa 14 off them and the code was sent in 15 minutes and worked perfectly.

If you're going to buy one get Kaspersky or Nod32. There are plenty out there making a living from removing Norton, although it's not as bad as it used be. This thread is about free ones though

GarIT

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Nonsense, the free ones are fine, but the best security is common sense. An adblocker is essential to.

I have studied computer security and tested most security products and I can assure you they are not fine. Most free products offer less than 70% protection. To be fair the average user comes in contact with approx 5 pieces of malware each year but where shopping and banking is concerned I rather be properly protected.

GarIT

White Heart Loon wrote: »

If you're going to buy one get Kaspersky or Nod32. There are plenty out there making a living from removing Norton, although it's not as bad as it used be. This thread is about free ones though

Kaspersky is decent, detection rates have declined in the last few years. Nod 32 is useless, it has reasonable malware detection but that it's there are no extra security features. Norton has always had the best detection and prevention rates by far but a few years ago they released a string of terrible products. Norton antivirus is rubbish, Norton 360 offers no extra protection and will slow your computer down so much but Norton internet security is the best product out there by miles. The only thing that can compete with Norton is Comodo on paranoid mode with you being an expert and making all the decisions for yourself.

GarIT

emmetkenny wrote: »

You can buy a cd key for Norton at www.g2a.com for €14.50. I've bought fifa 14 off them and the code was sent in 15 minutes and worked perfectly.

Its only €9 for me. It's well worth it https://www.g2a.com/norton-internet-security-1pc-1-year-multilanguage-cd-key-1.html

alphabeat

bit defender free is very good , but if you do alot of banking / shopping etc , better off with linux

Molester Stallone

GarIT wrote: »

Stop right there, letting in 50% of threats is not OK. What everyone needs is Norton internet security, it goes for €20 every now and again in argos.

If you are doing anything with money, banking or shopping, you absolutely need Norton.

I presume you read my whole post where I stated that they are all going to be bypassed
You know as well as I do that people won't always pay for a net program.
You can advise them, explain the pitfalls & when they decline the benefit of your advice & knowledge just wait until they come back a few months later to pay you to remove the infections & then put a proper protection package onboard

Molester Stallone

White Heart Loon wrote: »

Nonsense, the free ones are fine, but the best security is common sense. An adblocker is essential to.

It's not nonsense, to suggest otherwise is incorrect. But, it keeps me employed, so I'm not too bothered

TimeToShine

Get Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes anti-malware and Ccleaner and
you'll almost definitely never run into any problems.

For visiting "dodgy" websites I strongly recommend Sandboxie; It's basically an isolated version of your browser that sandboxes and eliminates all information/data (including any viruses) the second you close the window.

GarIT

Molester Stallone wrote: »

I presume you read my whole post where I stated that they are all going to be bypassed
You know as well as I do that people won't always pay for a net program.
You can advise them, explain the pitfalls & when they decline the benefit of your advice & knowledge just wait until they come back a few months later to pay you to remove the infections & then put a proper protection package onboard

I don't disagree with your post, I'm just saying that avg and avira are not longer comparable to avast. Avast is the only reasonably good free security product left.

GarIT

TimeToShine wrote: »

Get Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes anti-malware and Ccleaner and
you'll almost definitely never run into any problems.

For visiting "dodgy" websites I strongly recommend Sandboxie; It's basically an isolated version of your browser that sandboxes and eliminates all information/data (including any viruses) the second you close the window.

You do know Microsoft have asked people not to use Security essentials as anything other than a backup to help your real antivirus? Malwarebytes will only help you if you scan with it regularly and Ccleaner won't do much for you at all.

When the person trying to get you to use their product has to say that it wont do what you want it to you know the product isn't good enough, whats worse is when the product is one of the best of all the free products.

Molester Stallone

GarIT wrote: »

I don't disagree with your post, I'm just saying that avg and avira are not longer comparable to avast. Avast is the only reasonably good free security product left.

Personally not a fan of avast, have seen it bypassed a little too easily at times. But I'm sure you have the same issue with avg