I offer this thread from another forum as a starter. Please let me know your thoughts. http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/77ry2/whats_the_best_free_antivirus_software_why/
I swore by AVG for years but I had to change recently. My wife was working a job that required her to visit a lot of untrustworthy sites. She ended up with several viri that AVG failed to stop. I did some research and at that time, many people were recommending Avast! as a top free antivirus. I installed that on her computer and her machine was virus-free for the remainder of her assignment. Since then, I went ahead and installed in on my own machine. Neither of us have encountered any problems with the software, and we've remained virus-free.
Comodo has a free anti-virus software for windows 2000 and XP. Don't know how effective it is. http://antivirus.comodo.com/
She should have been running a GNU/Linux distribution such as Kubuntu or OpenSuse instead of Microsoft Windows. Or at the very least using the Firefox web browser instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer. I know, some workplaces refuse to allow anything other than Microsoft products so it can be challenging to remain protected from infections. However, since you wife had to visit untrustworthy web sites she was in a catch-22 situation.
Linux is an operating system - not many home users will want to switch to it due to familiarity with wind/b/lows. I have been using Avast for some time and have been quite pleased; I also run Spybot S&D in the background and of course NoScript is worth its weight in gold
Doesn't that mean NoScript is worthless? Scripts are weightless! Definitely use Firefox, I've heard a lot of good buzz about Avast as well.
It looks like Avast it is I'm going to install (or more likely my wife) Avast on my new netbook. Sounds like Avast has received rave reviews!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks everyone!!!!!!!! Abner
Most people don't realize that often your cable internet provider (like Comcast or Cox) provides Norton or McAfee as part of your service. You just have log into your account and download it. Also, if you are student somewhere (even online) often you can get a copy from your university IT department. I'm also a big fan of Microsoft Security Essentials.
IMHO, even if offered for free, don't bother with McAfee or Norton. 10 years ago they were good, no so much anymore. Bloated and totalitarian, they often end up causing a lot of problems. I'd install Microsoft Security Essentials, free from MS. If you really need something more than that (ie, you often go to sketchy and possibly illegal websites) then get more protection, but for most MSE is probably good enough.
Yep, the CC I attended for years is now providing a copy of MS Forefront to students, as is UIS. Still don't know if I'd install it, as we run it on the job and we're continually finding infected PC's that FF either was disabled on or it didn't detect the infection. For malware, I'd recommend MalwareBytes. Kaspersky also has some free virus scanning tools that I utilize a lot and have been pleasantly surprised with.
I'm dredging up this old thread in order to post a link to a recent review: The Best Free Antivirus Software | PCMag.com
