Free antivirus?

[flamea]

As my Avast Premier licence ended I was just wondering are there any free options ?  Or is Windows defender enough? 

[Crunchy Dragon]

I personally just use Windows Defender and common sense.

 

I've seen Malwarebytes recommended, but don't have any personal experience with it.

[Guest]

Protegent!  

Actually malwarebytes is really good.

[DrAwesome821]

malwarebytes all the way. also avast has a free option

[Paddi01]

26 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

common sense

Best antivirus out there.

[captain_to_fire]

You can just use Windows Defender and enable Controlled Folder Access for ransomware protection 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/windows-defender-exploit-guard/enable-controlled-folders-exploit-guard. 

 

Or if you want you can try Kaspersky Free https://usa.kaspersky.com/free-antivirus what’s good about this is that it won’t give you nagging notifications to upgrade to paid 

[Blebekblebek]

Malwarebytes is not antivirus, and the free version doesn't do real time scanning.

Windows defender is decent, but it automatically enabled windows firewall.

 

I'm using opensource clamav for windows.

http://www.clamwin.com/

 

[kirashi]

9 hours ago, flamea said:

As my Avast Premier licence ended I was just wondering are there any free options ?  Or is Windows defender enough? 

9 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

I personally just use Windows Defender and common sense.

 

I've seen Malwarebytes recommended, but don't have any personal experience with it.

9 hours ago, DrAwesome821 said:

malwarebytes all the way. also avast has a free option

As an IT Consultant, I stress to my clients that the best AV is CommonSense™ combined with the built in security of your OS and MBAM Premium, since MBAM free does not actively scan. Also good to note is that @Blebekblebek is correct that MBAM is not technically an antivirus in a traditional sense as it only does behavioral and heuristics based scanning of active processes and memory values. This isn't a bad thing though if you have CommonSense™ since you won't be clicking on suspicious links anyway, so definition based file scanning isn't really needed. However, if you (or your clients) are missing CommonSense™ (which cannot be purchased), then I'd recommend Kaspersky Free (or paid, if you want to buy something decent) or ESET Smart Security for an AV suite.

 

[JoostinOnline]

9 hours ago, flamea said:

As my Avast Premier licence ended I was just wondering are there any free options ?  Or is Windows defender enough? 

Avast free is just as good. It does come with some crap like the browser and Safe Price though. Just do a custom install. I consider myself to have plenty of common sense, but it's saved me a number of times.