best free anti virus program??

[RapidRampage245]

i looking for a free anti virus program i have McAfee but its about the expire and i dont want to pay for it anymore can anyone help?

[GoodBytes]

Depends on you, and what is popular.

- They are less aggressive anti-virus (A/V) which allows you to get the most of your system performance, and you have very aggressive ones which eats up a lot ressources. So it depends on the level of security you need and want.

- Popular A/V automatically becomes less good. When you have a popular A/V, the no life virus maker, will find tricks to by-pass detection of popular A/V solution.

- Going free, means the A/V solutions virus algorithm won't be completly changed every year as you expect form paying, you'll still get weekly definiton updates, but not change the entire algorithm as this is costly.

- Going free means no support.

Your choices are:

-> Microsoft Security Essential (built-in Windows 8 as Windows Defender (not to be confused with Windows 7/Vista Windows Defender which is different)). This is popular choice, but not an aggressive one. If you use safe web practices, and you have UAC turned on (default behavior of Windows), and use smart thinking like: why a picture requires elevated credentials?, then you know it's not a picture. Microsoft Security Essential is non intrusive to a point that feels like you don't have an anti-virus, until it detects something.

-> AVG Free-Edition. It used to be not an aggressive one, but now is.

-> Avast (I haven't tries it recently)

-> Avira

-> Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition

-> Comodo Antivirus 6

-> Panda Cloud Antivirus Free 2

My recommendation is Microsoft Security Essential. If you have Windows 8, it's built-in and will activate back once you uninstall McAfee at 100%.

[garbeth]

I use zone alarm and AVG they are free and as far as i know they work pretty good, never had a problem

[LogicalDrm]

Avast is light and good for gaming. It has some annoying notices and popups but they can be disabled. Works fine and is usually ranked top at protection tests.

[AndrewReaganM]

I use AVG and love it. You can set how much system resources you want it to use while scanning, so like: User Sensitive> Low Priority> Medium Priority> High Priority. I've never had a virus while I've had it and it is Windows 8 compatible. It's also very fast especially if you have an SSD.

[GoodBytes]

Every A/V has CPU usage limiter. Anti-Virus doesn't avoid you in getting viruses. for saying "you never had any virus", doesn't make your anti-virus good. It's just mean that you don't need one, or that AVG can't detect anything that you have :)

If you say, every week AVG detects a virus on your computer, then this is amazing, as that means that AVG can detect a wide variety of viruses and avoid an infection :)

[egibbys]

Used AVG for years but currently using Avast. Go with Avast and just disable all the popups.

[1superheld]

I'd pick comodo, it some more advanced and it is a all in one suite. A firewall, antivirus and sandbox for unknown applications.

[Rug34]

Ive been using Avast for the last 2 years, and its good. since i have plenty of browser plugins that prevents unwanted scripts from running, i never had any virus issues, the only problem is u should tweak it a bit to make it less annoying. other than that its solid.

[joshuamurphy]

fyi linux doesn't have viruses but for windows i heard that anti malware bytes or something like that is quite good. also some site like bestfreeantivirus dot com has a good one i heard not sure of its exact name

[jellybeanbandit1]

i use microsoft security essentials. i would highly recommend it because it reports everything that is wrong. it also updates with windows updates, so you never forget to update. it also reminds you to scan for viruses,malware,and system errors.

[Sfobrien52]

If you're going free I would recommend microsoft security essentials. Its extremely lightweight and is very not annoying about updates, popups, etc.

 

Some of the other free programs can come with bloatware or be hell to uninstall. I had AVG for a while and when I went to uninstall for a switch to norton (got it for free) it kept coming back. Took me a week of troubleshooting to finally uninstall it from my computer.

 

P.S. I did use the AVG removal tool, had to do an advanced scan with Revo uninstaller to get it out

[BroKenFingers]

I have used Comodo and prefer it to most of the other free scanners.  I currently have Kaspersky and love it, but I also still use Comodo fire wall with Comodo Dragon for the virtual mode it ofers. 

[urworstnit3m3r]

I do not recommend Microsoft security essential, in testing it does not do very well at detecting things, don't believe me just Google it below is pcmag review of it.. If you want free look at something like Avast, or panda cloud av, avg. personally I use avast and panda and have never had issues although I am a "smart" user.

 

http://www.pcmag.com...,2403986,00.asp

http://www.pcmag.com...5,295149,289051

[PsychoClan]

Avast

[leipero]

Avast

+1 :)