What's the best free antivirus programme?

Joaquin223

Panda does the job for me

PropJoe10

White Heart Loon wrote: »

No it doesn't, the free version does not offer any protection at all. The free version needs manual scans to remove malware and spyware after you've already got them, no protection

Would you not consider manual scans to be within the capabilities of a general computer user? You are just being pedantic at this stage. Not everything requires realtime protection. Anyone with half a brain should be able to run a Malware scan every week or so.

White Heart Loon

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Would you not consider manual scans to be within the capabilities of a general computer user? You are just being pedantic at this stage. Not everything requires realtime protection. Anyone with half a brain should be able to run a Malware scan every week or so.

I'm curious add to how removing malware after you've already got it is a form of protection, please explain

beauf

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Would you not consider manual scans to be within the capabilities of a general computer user? You are just being pedantic at this stage. Not everything requires realtime protection. Anyone with half a brain should be able to run a Malware scan every week or so.

The vast majority of users will never do this.

Also its a computer, as a point of principle, you shouldn't need to do manual jobs.

uncle_sam_ie

beauf wrote: »

The vast majority of users will never do this.

Also its a computer, as a point of principle, you shouldn't need to do manual jobs.

Thats most of the problem. People think all thats needed is to install some software and they're good to go. I have a pain in my head from telling friends and family to update, back up, be careful what you install and open up, use a good password manager, but they never listen. I just get handed the mess and asked to fix it.

PropJoe10

White Heart Loon wrote: »

I'm curious add to how removing malware after you've already got it is a form of protection, please explain

What I am saying is that for the regular home user with half a brain, a free antivirus program plus regular Malwarebytes scans are more than enough to secure your system. For businesses its a different matter but unless you are completely going to town on dodgy websites and cant be bothered running Malwarebytes (in which case you really only have yourself to blame) then I really dont see the point in spending money on an antivirus/malware package. Its a matter of personal choice, but thats just my opinion on it. If a user cannot be bothered interacting with a program once a week, then really they only have themselves to blame if their computer gets badly infected.

Plus, spyware and viruses dont seem to be nearly as prevalent on Win 7/8 than they were on XP, in my own experience. I personally dont see the point in spending money on Norton/McAfee for a home user, but again, its a personal choice.

Molester Stallone

PropJoe10 wrote: »

What I am saying is that for the regular home user with half a brain, a free antivirus program plus regular Malwarebytes scans are more than enough to secure your system. For businesses its a different matter but unless you are completely going to town on dodgy websites and cant be bothered running Malwarebytes (in which case you really only have yourself to blame) then I really dont see the point in spending money on an antivirus/malware package. Its a matter of personal choice, but thats just my opinion on it. If a user cannot be bothered interacting with a program once a week, then really they only have themselves to blame if their computer gets badly infected.

Plus, spyware and viruses dont seem to be nearly as prevalent on Win 7/8 than they were on XP, in my own experience. I personally dont see the point in spending money on Norton/McAfee for a home user, but again, its a personal choice.

Stop reading after your first comma.
The average home user doesn't have a clue.
They believe that music, movies & downloads are all free with no chance of infection. When they come in to ask why their laptop is slow, has the garda virus etc, they can't understand how or why their machines infected.
I don't care, more work for me & long may it continue

zenno

BloodBath wrote: »

Zenno stop trying to sell people crap they don't need.

Avast hands down is the best AV solution I've ever used including compared to paid services.

Combined it with the odd scan with Malwarebytes and the use of Adblocker and you're covered. Don't expect the programs to completely make up for ignorance.

AVG, Norton and MSE are complete bollocks in my experience.

In regards to your comment above, you really don't seem to understand what I was trying to explain. I'm not selling anything, I'm just telling folk that those free anti-virus products are not capable of the job, and this is true. I done the tests and they are nowhere near as good as the two top products for sale at the moment.

Telling people that the freeware anti-virus products are great and enough is a bold statement, they are no good, but I suppose... better than using nothing at all.

beauf

zenno wrote: »

...those free anti-virus products are not capable of the job, and this is true. I done the tests and they are nowhere near as good as the two top products for sale at the moment.....

I think you are missing the point. The free products are not meant to compete with paid products. They are meant to give a minimum level of protection. That's exactly what they do. At least for MSE. The commercial ones are intended to lead you do the better products. Hence the ads.

If you want something better, you go buy something better.

All the free versions have pushed the AV companies to up their game. Look at Norton it used to be dire beyond belief.

zenno

beauf wrote: »

I think you are missing the point. The free products are not meant to compete with paid products. They are meant to give a minimum level of protection. That's exactly what they do. At least for MSE. The commercial ones are intended to lead you do the better products. Hence the ads.

If you want something better, you go buy something better.

All the free versions have pushed the AV companies to up their game. Look at Norton it used to be dire beyond belief.

I understand your point, but I'm not talking about competition. What I'm only saying is why would anyone want to compromise their system by using free low-grade products. And in my opinion Norton is still terrible, serious bloatware, not much better than McAfee. "A minimum level of protection" is not a good idea to be using. People need to attempt to block as many back-doors and keep their protection high, Not a minimum level of protection.

White Heart Loon

seligehgit wrote: »

Would you recommend the use of a password manager?If so any recommendations?

Lastpass, it's multi platform and it has plugins for all browsers and even smartphone apps and plugins

seligehgit

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

Thats most of the problem. People think all thats needed is to install some software and they're good to go. I have a pain in my head from telling friends and family to update, back up, be careful what you install and open up, use a good password manager, but they never listen. I just get handed the mess and asked to fix it.

What recommendations would you have for a password manager?

Used many different free anti viral softwares over the years,found McPhee very poor.AVG excellent.
No experience of Avast,although heard very good reports.Using MSE and malwarebytes plus adblocker on Windows 8,find it excellent.Used it on Vista too.Run a manual scan once or twice a week.

uncle_sam_ie

seligehgit wrote: »

What recommendations would you have for a password manager?

Lastpass is what I use.
https://lastpass.com/

biko

Use sandboxie, no need to worry about virus then - almost
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FAQ_Virus