Free Anti Virus Recomendations

[Hyper Threaded]

Considering that intelligence is the best antivirus out there, using software only accounts for 10% of the job. MSE and some decent advice should yield a clean PC.

[SpeedCrazy]

Considering that intelligence is the best antivirus out there, using software only accounts for 10% of the job. MSE and some decent advice should yield a clean PC.

This is very true, but i am not the only one who uses my pc, and i can't account for all of their web habits as i am not always home when it is 'borrowed'.

 

Wev, i downloaded panda, it is very light weight and fast. It turned up some tracking cookies and adware that AVG had missed, and had a clear process for dealing with them. But unfortunately it doesn't have a scheduled scan, and for me that is a deal breaker because i want something that will check the system even when i forget to, and it can't do that. But i would highly recommend it for someone who likes to run their stuff manually.

[wevsspot]

Yes, I can understand the "safety blanket" of scheduled scans.  I'm the same way.  Technically Panda (since it runs in real time / is always on / always updated) shouldn't ever need a scheduled scan, but I guess I'm still a bit old school and like to see that automated scan once a day  

 

Pretty much why I keep on using MSE.

[Fight Game]

I had to get rid of avg again today.  I used it years ago, until it turned slow.  Then I went to avast.  Then, during a fresh windows install, I heard about AVG being good again, so I've been using it for about a year, but have noticed it recently being really slow to update, and wanting to update every single time I turn on the computer.  I've went into the settings and told it only to update at 2am and not to update when I turn the computer on, if the update was missed, but it still does.  And for some reason that simple download process, whether there was an actual update or not, would slow my computer to a crawl.  I'm also tired of it changing my home page, installing tool bars, etc.

So I took the advice here and trying MSE now.

[VaporX]

I have used nothing except MSE and common sense from the time Windows 8 released and have not gotten any kind of malware on my system. My wife's computer that is using Norton and she demands I pay for it so she feels safe has been infected 7 times this year already. AV software is important but I do not care what AV you use, if you do not use common sense and not agree to every update and download pop up, you can keep your system clean.

[Bosco]

I have used nothing except MSE and common sense from the time Windows 8 released and have not gotten any kind of malware on my system. My wife's computer that is using Norton and she demands I pay for it so she feels safe has been infected 7 times this year already. AV software is important but I do not care what AV you use, if you do not use common sense and not agree to every update and download pop up, you can keep your system clean.

 

Ya a lot of it comes down to paying attention and watching what does in your systems. Attention goes a long way nowadays when it comes to computers lol

[dr_bowtie]

I've had no issue with MSE. got rid of AVG myself for the same reasons as FG..... 2 years ago

[wevsspot]

I'm still using MSE on all of my rigs except for the Vent/FTP server and my HTPC.  On both of those I switched over (again) to Panda Cloud Free.  They have added scheduled scans now  

[SpeedCrazy]

ME too, got fed up with the other s and switched back.... I occasionally run other stuff, antimalware anti spyware etc and I never have anything more than a tracking cookie or two so i guess they work. But then i never do anything sketch on the internet either.

[l1il]

I treid three solutions, of which two are paying solutions. Norton for one, is a complete suite. I can select which programs can communicate and look for intrusions. The latest versions aren't as effective for spywares in Firefox, as opposed to their marketing. It is completely transparent on my system, doing only full system scans during my idle time.

 

I also have MSE on another computer, which is mostly spotless except for one successful hijack from a ransomware. As soon as I rebooted, the ransomware took over my computer and threatening me to wipe my HDD within 60 days. While starting Windows in Safe Mode with command prompt allowed me to run MSE and clean the offender, I lost at least one hour in the process.

 

My other computer is a laptop with McAfee I.S.  This feels a bit cumbersome, as it scans whenever it wants, has thousands of stupid prompts (your other computers has no virus protection, reminders of all sorts) which takes control of your pointer, stopping you from navigating. It catched one or two viruses as within 6 months of use (I am not the most concious user).

 

The main software which helps me the most with crap of all sorts is Firefox with NoScript. It can be really cumbersome, having to allow pages individually, sometimes even if "allow all of this page" is checked, some parts won't load. You can allow main web site by default, and it has a list of notorious sites that are automatically blocked.

 

So, to me, there is no perfect solutions if you keep going around unknown sites. Only use links that OverclockersClub (lol at the link) provides in their news section, and stay away from cat videos and NSFW content.