free antivirus

Feel free to make jokes at my expense, as I await the answer.

PC? Microsoft Security Essentials

Joe(A2kers taught me this)Nation

Avast is my choice.

Avast, ya swab. Is it always free, or just introductory.

I will cheek it out.

Always free.

LINK to review.

Thanks. Gizmos is recruiting, by the way.
It is late so I will do the actual checking tomorrow afternoon.

Avast free is good for one year.

Hi there, edgar.

You might be interested in this thread, where I asked pretty much the same question:

Free antivirus program for Windows XP?..... Advice, please.:
http://able2know.org/topic/177705-1

I'm sold on Microsoft Security Essentials but our IT geek at work uses AVG.
None of these programs are foolproof, one must use common sense on line.
Oh, and I also use W.O.T.(Web Of Trust). It's a program that rates internet sites for safety. Red means don't open. Green means Go!

It's free forever, not just one year.

I used to use AVG, but like Avast better. I also use W.O.T. I have Panda running too. Never had a virus. <knock>

I was asking for my wife. We will go over the responses here and the final say will be hers. Thank you all for helping.

I had a heck of a time trying to delete AVG from my computer. It controls your computer - which I hate. I have a note to myself:

I like Avast (so far).

LINUX.

In the windows world closest to it is the FSF's "clamwin" package but in real life, if you have to deal with the windows world, you're far better off using Prevx. That, to the best of my knowledge, is the best.

The free one is always free, but you can also buy their premium software.

Hello Community,

Antivirus software provides an essential layer of protection from a multitude of virus, trojan, worm, spyware, adware, dialer, keylogger and rootkit infections. Traditionally antivirus programs just detected viruses and spyware removers just detected spyware, but nowadays the boundary between antivirus and spyware removers is unclear. Most current anti viruses have at least reasonably good detection rates of all forms of malware. Malware includes viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, dialers, keyloggers and rootkit threats that perform malicious activities on a computer. With the huge increase in malware, antivirus software cannot keep up with detecting all of it. But using more than one real-time antivirus uses much more system resources, can cause conflicts and even reduce protection. So I recommend you only choose one antivirus for real-time protection. Instead, you can increase your protection using other security software.

Best Regards,
Stephen Jones

Hello Friends,

Panda Cloud Antivirus is Panda's successful attempt to jump on the free antivirus bandwagon. Along with MSE, it is an excellent choice for average users with a simple interface and completely automated features with automatic updating and removal of malware. The detection level is generally very high, but according to the latest test data, detection of zero day threats is slightly lower. PCA uses 'cloud' technology to provide for a much quicker release of updates as all definitions are stored in the cloud and thus the moment Panda updates their blacklist all users of PCA with an Internet connection are protected from it. Panda Cloud Antivirus has a behavioural blocker and web protection, which will certainly increase your security. However as you can simply use one of the other free AV's with a separate behavioural blocker (for further details see our Security Wizard) to achieve possibly even better protection, this is not necessarily an advantage. One minor reservation I have is that PCA seems to erroneously detect certain browser/system-related applications, for example VideoCacheView, and because of the automatic quarantine this made it a fraction bothersome.

Best Regards,
Agili Ron

Hello Members,

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is a decent choice for a free anti virus. Although this venerable anti virus has had some shaky results in detection in the recent past, it now offers a high level of protection. This is probably due to the inclusion of a fully-fledged behavioral blocker that is the "Identity Protection" protection. This provides a very important additional layer of protection on the other hand, though a similar protection level can be achieved by using one of the free anti virus above alongside a separate behavioral blocker. Unfortunately, AVG free has grown considerably in size, has very slow scan speeds and also advertisements.


Best Regards,
Tony Mccallum