Free virus protection or w/e

[Tacoeaterguy]

Norton Security just ran out of subscription on my computer, so I need a good, free virus protection program. Any suggestions?

 

[PvtRyan]

Common Sense (TM).

Or just Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

[Dinnesch]

Since Avira became shit, Avast is the next best solution.
Also, Norton is terrible and easily outperformed by a lot of free scanners.

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

Yeah I assumed that since it's made for people who like seeing a giant check on the security program, and then having it tell you 'YOU'RE A OKAY', for a false sense of protection.

I don't really download anything off the internet, or go on any sketchy sites, so think I'd be fine for now?

Edit: Actually I downloaded something called Malwarebytes a while ago. Is that any good?

 

[bam23]

What's wrong with Avira?

Also, Malwarebytes free is excellent, but it's a manual scanner and only removes malware AFAIK. Not viruses.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

What's wrong with Avira?

This. I know they got around the ad pop-up disable, but I've used it on several PC's I've rebuilt for family / friends. My favourite to work with for sure.

 

[63]

Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Your casual attitude toward virus protection (as seen in your thread title) sounds like a reflection of your problem to begin with

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

What do you mean, my problem to begin with? I need a new virus protection program, and I'm asking for suggestions on which one is the best of all the free ones.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

No just making a joke about the "or whatever" at the end of your thread title. Oh wait, you don't actually have a virus. Eating my words.

 

[giant384]

Avg Free, spybot S&D, and CCleaner is all you need to have a clean pc.

 

[Dinnesch]

What's wrong with Avira?

With recent updates(like 6 months ago) I noticed it got a lot slower, especially on my old PC.
Also it refused to update very often, or even to start. And then you have the annoying adware after each update...

I just found Avast to be much less annoying, it never bothers me unless it finds a virus.

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

No just making a joke about the "or whatever" at the end of your thread title.

Oh haha, yeah I forgot I put that in the title. I think I meant to put in "Or one that is cheap", but I just put w/e.

Btw, At&t gives free McAfee software. Is that any good? I assume it's just like Norton.

 

[bam23]

With recent updates(like 6 months ago) I noticed it got a lot slower, especially on my old PC.
Also it refused to update very often, or even to start. And then you have the annoying adware after each update...

I just found Avast to be much less annoying, it never bothers me unless it finds a virus.

I did notice the updates to be somewhat problematic (mostly because they downloaded soooo goddamn slow), but not to the point of annoyance. The popup after update can still be disabled. Also, it's pretty annoying when it catches a false positive. The alert popup will keep popping up even though you tell it to ignore. But I guess that's a fair price to pay for how good the detection is.

Avg Free, spybot S&D, and CCleaner is all you need to have a clean pc.

lol avg free is crap in every sense of the word.

Oh haha, yeah I forgot I put that in the title. I think I meant to put in "Or one that is cheap", but I just put w/e.

Btw, At&t gives free McAfee software. Is that any good? I assume it's just like Norton.

Just use Microsoft Security Essentials. It's integrated well into windows and it's easy to use. It's getting better all the time. Or Avast. Or Avira. Anything is better than Norton/McAfee/AVG imo.

 

[Sedako]

Here's another vote for Microsoft Security Essentials. Very light weight and performs superbly.

 

[Ravioli]

Right now im running:

Avira Antivir Personal - For scanning everything i open and occasional deep hard drive scans.
Trojan Remover - Scans all the current services, programs, keys etc etc that are running.
SuperAntiSpyware - When scanning for spyware/malware etc
Comodo Firewall - For live scanning and protection on all connections and processes.

People say you shouldnt use more than 1 tool at a time, but this works flawlessly and i feel safer than ever. If something suspicious is happening, i just run Trojan remover to make sure nothing weird is running. Then i run a scan with all the programs while i check the latest events with Comodo.

 

[Escaep]

Common Sense (TM).

Where can I download some of this Common Sense.

 

[63]

Where can I download some of this Common Sense.

Go to any website that is ***, click on the first megaupload link you see.

 

[Escaep]

Go to any website that is ***, click on the first megaupload link you see.

Ok thanks I trust you.

 

[FrostedxB]

Avg and CCleaner are awesome.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware is pretty decent as well.

 

[Dr.Demento]

Emsisoft Anti-Malware. It'll probably clean-up the rest of Norton too since it's basically malware in the first place.

 

[YROC]

MSE or Eset

I'm using MSE. Hasn't failed me yet.

 

[No Limit]

Common Sense (TM).

This is a myth. No longer is common sense going to protect you from a computer virus. All it takes is going to the wrong website with flash or adobe reader installed. You will get no confirmation no prompt, your browser will simply start eating a crap load of memory then hang and there will be no turning back.

For anti virus I would ditto Avira. But in addition to that you will want to run as a limited user account, never run as an administrator. If you have vista or windows 7 they do have UAC but even then you should only run as a limited user, UAC will then make it really simple for you to perform administrator functions.

For me personally I just run as a limited user and don't run anti-virus because I find antivirus programs annoying. But I have to take great care to make sure everything is updated and that acrobat, flash, and other programs are configured properly to prevent a virus from infecting my local profile which can still happen if you run as a limited user (removal then is really simple, login as administrator, run malware bytes, then hijack this under the limited profile, and just like that the virus is gone).

 

[Acepilotf14]

This is a myth. No longer is common sense going to protect you from a computer virus. All it takes is going to the wrong website with flash or adobe reader installed. You will get no confirmation no prompt, your browser will simply start eating a crap load of memory then hang and there will be no turning back.

Been working pretty well for me for the past two years.

 

[No Limit]

Been working pretty well for me for the past two years.

Get back to me in another 2.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Avast recently redid their anti-virus program. I've tried Avira, but pop-ups every time you update is no good. Sure it can be disabled, but why encourage such things?

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

 

[VirusType2]

This is a myth. No longer is common sense going to protect you from a computer virus. All it takes is going to the wrong website with flash or adobe reader installed.

You can use Firefox and some add-ons.

FlashBlock: (blocks flash by default and has a whitelist (for example, allow YouTube), or, click anything you want to view to unblock it (until the page is left).

NoScript: same as above, but for JavaScript

Then there's Adobe Reader alternatives, like Foxit reader. You can also block certain content from executing in your Adobe Reader options.

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

There's also AdBlock Plus which works for 99% of the ads out there (many of which are malicious).

I don't know about common sense but knowing what to trust helps a lot. I can spot malware almost every time just by what the file is, what it's named, or where it is found.

If you aren't sure, there's http://www.virustotal.com/

Firefox also maintains a list of reported attack sites, and it will [by default] block them, though you can still persist if you want. I'm sure other web-browsers have this feature as well.

 

[No Limit]

All very good advice, I don't think blocking ads is moral but that's for another discussion.

I just want to emphasise that it is important to remember that if you don't take a lot of the percautions that you posted (most people don't) you can get a virus from any typical website that looks perfectly legitimate without having to click on any download links.

 

[Schall]

Avg Free, spybot S&D, and CCleaner is all you need to have a clean pc.

This.

 

[Raziaar]

I used to use AVG, but ever since they changed it to be more bloated and a resource hog, i stopped using it.

I'm an avast pirate now. Avast! ye matey

 

[VirusType2]

I am also a former AVG user. Too ****ing fat and overzealous. Everything's a ****ing virus when you use that thing.

 

[Druckles]

I've been using AVG for years. As long as I've had a computer. I've uninstalled it and am now trying out Avast.

Never had that much of a problem with it. Got on my nerves once or twice. Ignored the time my computer got mangled and AVG sat there and did nothing. I guess I figured nothing could do better. Been meaning to get around to try something new for a while, I guess.

Edit:

Claims it wants me to register in 30 days or else. It also just shouted at me "Virus database has been updated" in a somewhat annoying voice with an overly sized pop-up.

On the other hand, it seems pretty customisable, and once I'm familiar with the interface, we'll see.

 

[CyberPitz]

Digging this up from the grave. I'm tossing AVG, even after defending it with my life...the 2010/2011 whatever version is just so...fat. it's no longer the AVG of old. So, I'm transferring over to Microsoft Security Essentials. I've heard a lot of good about it, so I'll see what the hooplah is.

/kicks AVG out the door.

 

[PvtRyan]

AVG was in the news the other that, that for the second time already, a false positive caused it to remove critical system files, making PCs unable to boot up. Yeah, no AVG.

 

[Lucid]

I've been using Avira and it seems to be quite good.
Gets a little false positive crazy sometimes but it's not too bad.

 

[VirusType2]

AVG was in the news the other that, that for the second time already, a false positive caused it to remove critical system files, making PCs unable to boot up. Yeah, no AVG.

I read about that today!

I switched from AVG about 3 years ago. It was always too suspicious of random images. I think one I had made in Paint, even. The false positives were crazy.

I've been using Avira, and haven't had any problems with that at all. At some point a few months ago, I had problems getting connected to the updater; I'm not sure what that was all about. I haven't had the false positive problem that a few of you have. Put it this way, if Avira thinks it's infected, in my opinion, the file isn't worth taking a chance. I'll delete it and get it somewhere else. The telling thing is when you get the exact same file somewhere else (for example, from a mirror site), and this time, Avira doesn't throw the flag.

 

[CyberPitz]

I never really had false positives from AVG for some reason. I guess I was lucky