Best Free Antivirus.

I personally use a combo of AVAST and malwarebytes.

Huh, my post got deleted. Whatever.

I recommend Malwarebytes, it's free, easy, and fast.

I also use AVG, but they limit a lot of the features so you buy the pro version, so that is probably why it didn't work for you.

Ive used avast for a few years, its great at stopping and removing viruses or other adware/malware. Its free and simply needs your name an email (To which you will never receive an email from them) once a year. As an added bonus you can set its overlay voice to Pirate Talk.

I've used earlier Dr Web. But now I am using Avast.

Tom's Guide editors recommend Avira:
http/www.tomsguide.com/us/best-free-pc-antivirus,review-2210.html
See Avira review here: http/www.tomsguide.com/us/avira-free-antivirus,review-2207.html

If you read the PC Mag link I posted, they found that Avira scored pretty low. While this may be the Tom's HW forum, I trust PC Mag on this.

EDIT: I do realise it was an overall score that was low, and the AV portion scored a 4.5, but it isn't much better than Bitdefender in the AV areas. Also, Bitdefender is basically an install and forget it kind of software, which is nice for everyone... unless you're like me, and want to tinker with the AV settings.


Go ahead and reply! I obviously don't mind it... I'm on here as it is.

+1

Of course they get paid to say that.

You should think of an antivirus as stain remover. There are many brands out there and they'll say anything to get your attention. And they all work, but it depends on the type of stain.

However, it is best to stay away from stains, uhm viruses. You can get those usually from shady places (strong dc, torrents, illegal porn sites). It's easier to avoid them than to remove a virus after you got it on your computer. If you HAVE to download something suspicious, make sure not to open it before scanning it. You can use virustotal.com to scan suspicious files. Also, don't download email attachments if you don't know the sender. That's a really common way of spreading a virus.

If you can protect yourself, all you need is a light antivirus software which comes with a firewall. I've been using Avast for a few years and never had a problem with it. But if I have to run something that might contain a virus, I'll run it sandboxed or I'll use a virtual machine. If it is indeed a virus, at least it won't be able to spread.

That's kind of a "duh" statement haha. Of course, software companies will pay reviewers/zines to say something good. From my experience, I've seen more problems with Norton than any 'neutral' reviewer has claimed... so I just overlook certain wares when I look at results. The rest of them I'll just take with a grain of salt.


First off, Avast has a pretty poor success rate; at least, when you give the computer to someone who sucks with computer security. My rule of thumb: if it isn't idiot proof, it isn't worth using. The protection provided by Avast is okay, but there are other free, and far superior, options available.

Secondly, straying from "shady places" is not going to do a thing for you. And no, it isn't easier to avoid viruses than to remove them. Common misconceptions, mate. I've been torrenting over a decade now, with ZERO infections due my my torrent/file-sharing activities. How do I know? I occasionally run scans with quality software, and I've not once come up with anything other than false positives (I challenged). If I've ever acquired infections over the years, they were ones that the security software couldn't find (ie: they weren't public knowledge, so there was no way to detect it). If a virus isn't publicly known, and there's no means to prevent/destroy the infection, then your security software isn't going to do a thing to protect you... because it can't. Also, plenty of viruses come from "safe" places all of the time. They can come from your ads on your favourite news site, click-jackers, or even from an attachment in an email that was sent from your friend/family member. Computer viruses are likely to be anywhere, but people don't seem to care.

I don't have any known viruses because I've learned what not to do. I rarely use email for anything other than website registrations, I scan remotely suspicious attachments, I avoid programs, like Outlook, that download your emails (the best way to threaten your computer's security with email), I use Iron and Aviator as my web browsers, I use AdGuard for advertisement blocking, I clean my system's temp files/cookies/everything at least once a week (every two weeks if I'm slacking), I clean out the registry just as often, I disable various things like the Windows Event Log (the best way for someone to key log you without using a key logger)... I'm a very paranoid user. There're a lot of misconceptions out there that many professionals purport because they don't care to challenge them properly.

Avoiding computer viruses would mean never connecting your computer to the internet, never sharing data with another computer (by any method), and only installing software that is bought on a retail disc. That's the cold, hard fact that nobody wants to admit; and I think it's because it makes the internet seem more scary than it really is. I blame the lack of proper education.

I didn't say that he should stay away from torrents. I just think that with proper knowledge, any antivirus software is good enough. You explained that in a lot more detail, though you are kinda paranoid. I only got two viruses in the last 10 years: one that would send yahoo IMs (it was unknown at that time and my antivirus didn't detect it) and another one, a long time ago, when I downloaded and executed a picture with .jpg.exe extension (I know, that's stupid) which duplicated itself and filled up my HDD. Since then I ran into a number of viruses, trojans, keyloggers when looking for hacks for different games or pretty much stuff that's not very legal. But I knew when a file looked suspicious so I found them before it was too late.

And my rule of thumb: If you're looking for something that's idiot proof, then you need to pay for it. There are other free and better software, but if you download and install everything you run into, none of these will help. You know how some cracks or key generators work only if you disable your antivirus? Well, at that point, it's all about your knowledge and experience. It could very well be a false positive. Or maybe a real keylogger.

Actually, there are a number of AV wares that don't trigger false positives for software cracks. However, this is beside the point, and we're starting to get into territory that is not really relevant to the topic.

It should be mentioned that I'm not talking about a foolproof system for pirates; I'm talking about foolproof for anyone who simply uses their computer for basic tasks, like emails/facebook/etc.. I've had to fix plenty of computers that are never used for sketchy activity (it's easy to tell), and they get viruses all the time. One of the most common forms is selling a bogus software; another is obtaining a file or free/opensource program from a software host that is untrusted. Since many people do not do proper research before downloading/installing software, even if it's something simple like downloading CCleaner, they could likely be installing malware/trojans with a legit software.

I think one of the primary reasons people get computer viruses is their attitude towards computer security. They either trust something too quickly, they dismiss their AV software's warning because they "know" who sent the file, or they have an AV software that gives them too many false positives, and they get conditioned to accepting most files that get flagged. It's kind of like a computer ego, but it isn't... it's just bad security measures. The weakest link is always going to be the end-user, but there are many steps that AV software companies can take to help educate consumers in a passive way (instead of the current "Do you trust this file?" method, which is failing).

I don't know how things work at PC Mag, but I can tell you the writers at Tom's Guide don't get paid to favor one product over another.

Personally, I would recommend Bitdefender Antivirus Plus as the primary AV solution -- it's worth paying for, and you can find it for a lot less than the $60 MSRP -- and then maybe tack on the free version of Malwarebytes Anti-Virus as the backup.

You don't want to use Malwarebytes alone. Despite what its makers say, it's not good enough to be used as the only solution. But it is well designed to complement "real" AV software.

I use AVG free along with malwarebytes (free) and use adblocker+ (free) and haven't had a threat get through in as long as I can remember, as far as popups adblocker+ free even clears the annoying things from IE (which I seldom use anymore)

How can you be sure nothing got through? Many forms of malware try to stay hidden from the user.

I have a PC repair business & 20 + years experience with computers (º¿º)