Any good, free virus software?

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mobster011

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The trial software on my laptop just ran out. Are there any trustworthy, free virus software out there or should I just stick with Norton and pay for it?
 
I've been using Avira AntiVir Personal for years - I love it. Reminds me a lot of the good parts of Norton, without the bloat, activation, high cost, etc. It's so good I've converted my parents and multiple of my friends, too :)

www.free-av.com
 
For me a combination of AVG and common sense (the most important factor often missing) works just fine.

I haven't tried Avast, but I've heard pretty good things about it.
 
The correct answer is: Avira AntiVir like ducttapeBigSexy said.

I use that or NOD32, which is not free...
 
I use ClamWin. It has no monitoring agent, which I don't really need. But it's open source and has definition updates daily, so when I do need to scan an individual file or my entire system, it's just right.
 
I third Avira. Think it's supposed to be the best, but I haven't really heard anything bad about the other two either.
 
Thanks everyone. I downloaded Avira, but it says it expires 7/1/09. Am I going to have to uninstall and reinstall every 6 months so as not to pay?
 
I'm not sure hot that works yet. That may just be a mechanism so that you've got an up to date version, that they don't have people running years old versions or something. (Mine also had that expiration date even though I downloaded it in August.)

I wouldn't worry about it, we'll find out what to do in July I guess. Plus Microsoft is apperently going to start giving away anti-virus software sometime after the second half of this year. (In theory that's bad 'cause of antitrust stuff, blah blah blah, but I'm terrible-I love having all these utilities built in to the OS! I love Windows Defender, I love having free disk tools, etc.)
 
I'm an AVG fan. Along with Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware, my PCs have been running fine and free.

Never heard of avast. May have to check that out for my friend whos teens keep infecting their comps w/ pr0n.
 
I use AVG for what it's worth.

What I would really like to add is a recommendation for using Firefox with the NoScript add on. This will help prevent drive by infection from sites you hit accidentally or get suckered onto via a search result. It is easy to whitelist sites that you visit regularly.
 
I don't care what anyone says....if you got comcast or almost any other cable internet provider...you can probably get McAfee entire suite for free!

I'm big chilling with it...it does the job with light resources involved. To me, you really don't NEED super advanced antivirus products unless you are going into areas of the internet that require such products....if you get what I'm saying.

And free is free....

Other than that, I install avast on everyone's computers that can't get it.
 
[quote name='mobster011']Thanks everyone. I downloaded Avira, but it says it expires 7/1/09. Am I going to have to uninstall and reinstall every 6 months so as not to pay?[/quote]

As long as you do the Internet update (not the manual update), it'll automatically download a new license for you. Honestly, I don't know why they even have it - maybe so people worry it's going to expire and just upgrade to the pro version? Either way, it'll take care of itself :)
 
I used to use AVG but since HSBC started being generous, ive been using McAfee free. It's so much better at detecting viruses than AVG.
 
Bah... I ended up with a worm virus on my home PC. Removed by using AdAware, but I keep getting firewall warnings and my programs aren't responding.

Oh, it was from an email I swear!

Any help/advice on repairing the damage? I can't use system restore either.
 
Your safest bet is to start from scratch, completely wipe the drive, and don't expose your reinstalled system until it's completely secured-totally patched up AND has AV and anti-malware software running.

Security experts like Steve Gibson say it's impossible to ever really trust a compromised system at this point. You'd spend far more time trying to track down any issue then it would take to reinstall, and you'd still never really know. Malware's REALLY sophisticated now.
 
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