best free antivirus?

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DarkDonut

Limp Gawd
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I was using avast! until I just formatted my new harddrive, wondering if it is still my best option for a free antivirus?
 
Microsoft Security Essentials is my personal favorite. Works great, is pretty transparent and has caught a couple things for me. Best of all, its free.
 
If this is for YOU..Avast does better than MSE for detection/cleaning.

However, free version of Avast..you mind the nags to upgrade to pro version?
Does it still require re-registering?

For "clients/friends/family/neighbors/all computers in my house"...I use MSE. Lower footprint than Avast (so less system slowdown), nag-free, reliable, decent detection/cleaning, no re-registering.
 
Avast and AVG are too bloated these days. MSE is what I run. I have converted all of my clients/family/friends from Avast, etc. over to MSE.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
If this is for YOU..Avast does better than MSE for detection/cleaning.

However, free version of Avast..you mind the nags to upgrade to pro version?
Does it still require re-registering?

For "clients/friends/family/neighbors/all computers in my house"...I use MSE. Lower footprint than Avast (so less system slowdown), nag-free, reliable, decent detection/cleaning, no re-registering.
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This. ^^

I use Avast on my systems. So far I haven't seen any nags but it still requires yearly registration.

As pointed out in YeOlde's post - MSE is less resource intensive, so if you have an older system or you just want a straightforward AV - go with it.
 
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Avast has decent detection rates, but is slow as shit. MSE is what I recommend. If you want to pay, get Kaspersky.
 
+1 for MSE.

After that (and more importantly) focus on securing your web browser, then educate yourself on security practices.
 
MSE as well as SpywareBlaster and Spybot Search & Destroy .. and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware on standby for extra scans whenever I get the urge ..
 
I've used avast.. not bad. Doesn't always remove viruses. My favorite "antivirus" is using Vmware player to run a virtual copy of win7 & i explore the internet that way & download stuff that way.. if i get a virus I just delete the partition that was being virtualized
 
MrWizard6600 said:
citation needed.
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There are a couple out there. Here is one.

Though for different reasons, I do the same. I use Avast on all my machines at home because it is more configurable and I don't mind the yearly registration. For friends and family, I recommend MSE because there is nothing to do, nothing to tweak....and nothing to screw up.

HHowever, somewhere in the back of my mind, I believe that if a virus writer wanted to find a way into a machine, they would exploit MSE before all others. It is the modern day Norton Antivirus, and being the largest, probably the most likely to be thwarted.
 
Valnar said:
There are a couple out there. Here is one.

Though for different reasons, I do the same. I use Avast on all my machines at home because it is more configurable and I don't mind the yearly registration. For friends and family, I recommend MSE because there is nothing to do, nothing to tweak....and nothing to screw up.

HHowever, somewhere in the back of my mind, I believe that if a virus writer wanted to find a way into a machine, they would exploit MSE before all others. It is the modern day Norton Antivirus, and being the largest, probably the most likely to be thwarted.
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Years ago, targeting/being able to knock out pre-determined AV programs was common with viruses/worms. Back in the Win9X and earlier XP days we saw tons of bugs that had the ability to knock out/disable SymantSuck, McCrapee, AVG, some other common brands. However, these days....the mechanism is via rootkits....bypass the entire OS so the AV doesn't matter. And coming in via outdated web players instead of the OS (Java, Flash, PDF reader, etc).
 
Valnar said:
There are a couple out there. Here is one.

Though for different reasons, I do the same. I use Avast on all my machines at home because it is more configurable and I don't mind the yearly registration. For friends and family, I recommend MSE because there is nothing to do, nothing to tweak....and nothing to screw up.

HHowever, somewhere in the back of my mind, I believe that if a virus writer wanted to find a way into a machine, they would exploit MSE before all others. It is the modern day Norton Antivirus, and being the largest, probably the most likely to be thwarted.
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http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/marapr-2012/

Here is another. MSE is performing horribly with third party comparisons recently. I'm going to switch over to Avast.
 
Are you kidding me? MSE? That is a pile of shit, absolute garbage. *shakes head* Bitdefender, Kapersky, G-data are the 3 you should look at.
 
ferby said:
Are you kidding me? MSE? That is a pile of shit, absolute garbage. *shakes head* Bitdefender, Kapersky, G-data are the 3 you should look at.
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Thread title is "best free antivirus?".

Reading comprehension FTW.
 
MSE is very good.

Used to swear by Avast, but it is way too damn bloated these days.
 
Exploder87 said:
Interesting how well AVG Free Edition has been doing lately. I'm starting to think maybe people's view on AVG is severely outdated.
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No, AVG still sucks. It seems their rootkit detection is non-existent, it's slow as heck and hard to fully uninstall (I.E. requires removal tool in 90% of cases). The 2012 version is way better than 2010/2011, but I'd never recommend it.
 
ferby said:
Are you kidding me? MSE? That is a pile of shit, absolute garbage. *shakes head* Bitdefender, Kapersky, G-data are the 3 you should look at.
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That was a very useless post. Do you have anything to base that opinion on or just microsoft hater?
Free antivirus in title as already stated by others.
Reading comprehension=fail.
 
If you want the thing that offers the best protection, its actually available for as little as $10.

Get Free AV + MBAM Pro (thats the paid version). Malware is the issue these days, and virus scanners are basically garbage in RE to Malware. Traditional download and .exe viruses are not the issue for 90% of infections these days.

Another option is Free AV + Hitman Pro paid. Again, $20 for a year of protection, cloud based scanner, loves to hunt rootkits.
 
For free, I go with MSE. But, I recommend Avast as an alternative to MSE if you don't want Microsoft.

For paid: Kapersky, no doubt.

I also run weekly scans using Malwarebytes (bought full version for $15 at Newegg sale). I've been clean so far, but I'm a bit paranoid.

NO AV is 100% perfect. There will always be something that can get around it's detection. So, safe surfing and computing is #1. Wear a rubber, but don't go around screwing every slut you come across thinking your fully protected. You're not.
 
Avast > MSE
More shields, better detection rates.

I've seen at least 4 fully updated MSE machines come in hosed with rootkits, trojans, SmitFraud, Alureon etc. They leave with Avast Free installed.
I find it humorous that MSE being updated to v4 (when the recent comparison articles were running v2.1) is the reason people all the sudden think it's any better at detection. The core app itself hasn't been changed much; it still has the same bells and whistles, and uses the same definitions. Just because it went from 2.1 -> 4 doesn't mean all the sudden it gains +10% detections.
 
saturnine2 said:
No, AVG still sucks. It seems their rootkit detection is non-existent, it's slow as heck and hard to fully uninstall (I.E. requires removal tool in 90% of cases). The 2012 version is way better than 2010/2011, but I'd never recommend it.
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Interesting. Do you have any links to support your claim? Wouldn't it be strange for such a program to receive such high scores from av-test if it couldn't give even a basic protection against rootkits?
 
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Exploder87 said:
Interesting. Do you have any links to support your claim? Wouldn't it be strange for such a program to receive such high scores from av-test if it couldn't give not even a basic protection against rootkits?
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No, just my personal experience working on 100+ infected computers protected by AVG free 2012.
 
You guys remember around a year ago when these threads were popping up every 3 days?

It always turned into a pissing match between the MSE and whatever else guys.

Fact is, MSE integrates so damn well and leaves you the fuck alone with NO configuration and is MADE by the guys who built the OS.

Just install it and stop debating it!
 
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