best free antivirus for windows to use free

[Repear76]

so i need a antivirus for windows which is absoulutely free which can be use without any licesnce key and that is good

[jaslion]

The built in windows defender.

[Mojo-Jojo]

Microsoft Defender is one of the leading AVs according to av-test.org. It doesn't contain any bloat either.

[Needfuldoer]

Microsoft Defender works fine.

 

I've been running Sophos Home for years. You just sign up with an email address.

https://home.sophos.com/en-us

[Wh0_Am_1]

Otherwise if you want a second opinion AV I find that AVG which is owned by Avast does a pretty good job, it's saved me on multiple occasions they have the best behavioral shield. I have been using them for years w/o a subscription.

[191x7]

4 minutes ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

Otherwise if you want a second opinion AV I find that AVG which is owned by Avast does a pretty good job, it's saved me on multiple occasions they have the best behavioral shield. I have been using them for years w/o a subscription.

It's all Norton Lifeguard. They own Norton, Avira (and thus Bullguard) and Avast (meaning also AVG). The only thing worse is McAfee.

20 years ago I liked Trend Micro, and a fey years later Eset Nod32 was the best.

The recent years Kaspersky and Bitdefender own the top. Add F-Secure and maybe Bullguard. Those 4 are probably the only ones better than Defender.

[manikyath]

if you're not gonna pay for an antivirus, windows defender is probably the most reliable choice.

 

defender's only real problem is that it really doesnt like you whitelisting false positives, and if you deal with VERY old software, chances are you're gonna bump into false positives occasionally.

[Wh0_Am_1]

6 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

It's all Norton Lifeguard. They own Norton, Avira (and thus Bullguard) and Avast (meaning also AVG). The only thing worse is McAfee.

20 years ago I liked Trend Micro, and a fey years later Eset Nod32 was the best.

The recent years Kaspersky and Bitdefender own the top. Add F-Secure and maybe Bullguard. Those 4 are probably the only ones better than Defender.

Well not own, they appear to be in the midst of a merger. Even still AVG still tests quite well and has been recognized time and time again for their security and behavioral shield, to compare the to McAfee is like comparing MKHD to the The Verge.

[DreamCat04]

5 minutes ago, manikyath said:

if you're not gonna pay for an antivirus, windows defender is probably the most reliable choice.

 

defender's only real problem is that it really doesnt like you whitelisting false positives, and if you deal with VERY old software, chances are you're gonna bump into false positives occasionally.

For me, Windows defender flags the FileZilla installer as positive even though I got it from the legit site and not some random file dump. I had McAfee pre-installed on my dell G5 and just let the 30-day free trial run out and then continued with windows defender after uninstalling McAfee

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, DreamCat04 said:

For me, Windows defender flags the FileZilla installer as positive even though I got it from the legit site and not some random file dump. I had McAfee pre-installed on my dell G5 and just let the 30-day free trial run out and then continued with windows defender after uninstalling McAfee

didnt filezilla come with some potential adware in the installer at some point?

 

probably just a silly remanent of that..

[xAcid9]

Kaspersky Security Cloud and Windows Defender gets my vote. 

[mariushm]

Sourceforge made custom installers for popular projects and bundled  promotional offers / toolbars with the installer. 

That's why on filezilla's website there's an "other download options" on the page, where there's direct download link to official un-abused installer without Sourceforge offers.

 

Anyway back to the question ... yeah, the Microsoft antivirus is fine. 

I got used with Avira antivirus ... can't say it's the best, but I'm satisfied with it. It's free, but once a day it shows a notification with some "upgrade to pro" message or some ad for their products, which can be easily dismissed. 

 

[DreamCat04]

55 minutes ago, manikyath said:

didnt filezilla come with some potential adware in the installer at some point?

 

probably just a silly remanent of that..

I don't know to be honest. It could be the case but for me it wasn't a bundled installer with adware in it. I had one program, maybe it was even FileZilla that had adware in the installing process where it was just like "do you also want to install program xyz?" and you could say no luckily. But if you just rapid-clicked through the installer like I normally do, you'd have ended up with mcafee and some other program

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, manikyath said:

didnt filezilla come with some potential adware in the installer at some point?

 

maybe, but apparently its clean now

 

3 hours ago, Repear76 said:

so i need a antivirus for windows which is absoulutely free which can be use without any licesnce key and that is good

Defender + Malwarebytes (free trial)

 

 

[IcyByte]

I use MS Defender and use VirusTotal if I need a 2nd opinion