where can I find a free anti-virus program?

S

szdpd

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 10, 2008
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Does anyone know if such thing exists? A free trial should do.

(I already use windows defender but I'm not sure that's enough)
 
Because MSE came out after Windows 7 was released, that's why.

But the even more prevalent reason: if Microsoft includes their own AV software with the OS, you can be sure Symantec, McAfee, AVG, ESET, and every other maker of antivirus software whether it's free or not will raise a stink never before seen that's even smellier and more stupid than the old IE "monopoly" bullshit from year's past.

Sad, but true. The point is: MSE works, it's based on their Forefront server products and security which is extremely well received and highly regarded so, there's no reason realistically not to be using it.

Nobody knows more about Windows than Microsoft itself, which is why MSE is my AV software of choice nowadays. Since they know more about it than anyone else, they would obviously be in a position to best be able to protect it given their knowledge of the inner workings while all the "competition" out there is still just guessing in the long run.
 
Bahamut said:
http://microsoft.com/security_essentials

/thread ;)
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Yuppers!

Avast and AntiVir are 2 other decent alternatives, prior to MSE being released last year they were the 2 good choices.
Quite frankly...AVG stinks...it's blind as a bat. Of the computers that we clean in our shop that come in..infected...if they had an existing free AV program on them..it's usually AVG they had, which fell asleep at the wheel letting them get infected.
But since MSE came out, I like it better...and I have far fewer problems with return clients or rigs getting infected once they have MSE on it.
AntIVir free has those prompts to upgrade to Pro which people don't like being bothered with, and occasional update issues. Yes there are ways around the avnotify process but it returns once a program update comes in.
Avast had that re-register process...so end users would forget that. Although I heard they got rid of it. Also with Avast I had too many complaints from end users about the machine getting slow and taking forever to bootup.
MSE...no registration, wonderfully simplified interface, automatic update, quietly handles malware with minimal prompting, not a bad system performance hit, and it performs very well in testing at av-comparatives.org
 
szdpd said:
if it's free how come it doesn't ship with windows?
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At one point MS was going to include their av with windows but a few other companies went off saying how it was anti competitive. They do nothing and people bitch, they release free software to fight virus' and people bitch.
 
I am not sure I will be able to use windows security
 
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szdpd said:
I am not sure I will be able to use windows security. that's all I will say but if someone can tell me how to do it please PM me.
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you'll need a registered (legit) version of windows
 
Actually Windows Vista and 7 did come with an anti-virus program, Windows Defender. Security Essentials replaced Defender though. Essentials is a godsend. It's not intrusive and uses virtually no resources whatsoever and catches just about everything out there.
 
Azhar said:
Actually Windows Vista and 7 did come with an anti-virus program, Windows Defender. Security Essentials replaced Defender though. Essentials is a godsend. It's not intrusive and uses virtually no resources whatsoever and catches just about everything out there.
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Windows defender is not an anti-virus. It's an anti-spyware/malware.
 
szdpd said:
if it's free how come it doesn't ship with windows?
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microsoft pulled a lot of stuff out of windows that you now have to download. for people with legitimate licenses it is not an issue. For people without them, its an incentive.
 
If you install MSE, Windows Defender is automatically disabled. If you install anything else, then disable Windows Defender since it won't be needed anymore and just takes up resources.

MSE, Avast 5 and Avira are all good free AV products. I do not suggest AVG because it's bloated and has lower detection rates compared to what I (and others) have listed here. If you want the absolute most lightweight scanner, use Avast 5. If you do a custom install and only choose Web filter and File Scanner, the combined service/UI is only around 20MB. MSE is around 60-80MB and does not include the web filter. Also, according to av-comparatives.org, Avast 5 has better detection rates. MSE though is one of, if not the best, at having the least false positives. Microsoft has always taken pride on that. Considering that, MSE does a damn fine job at finding Malware with almost no chance of picking up something legit.
 
bigdogchris said:
If you want the absolute most lightweight scanner, use Avast 5. If you do a custom install and only choose Web filter and File Scanner, the combined service/UI is only around 20MB. MSE is around 60-80MB and does not include the web filter.
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Nortons AV product, last year, and this year, is under 10 megs. Default install. ;)
However, IMO, unless you're running some prehistoric system with like...256 or 384 megs of RAM, memory usage of an AV shouldn't be a concern. And memory consumption of an AV is not an accurate representation of the system impact it will have on a PC. MSE uses more RAM than Eset, but time after time after time I've found MSE feels lighter on the same system than Eset. Also over the weekend I was cleaning up a neighbors older PC that got bit by a AntiSpyware2009 rogue, they had Norton 2010 (under 10 megs usage)...but their early P4 H/T 2.4 with 512 megs of RAM didn't agree with it, ran slowly...despite the recent version of Norton being much lighter. I yanked that out and put MSE on. MSE, with 8x times the memory consumption, still allowed the machine to run faster.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Nortons AV product, last year, and this year, is under 10 megs. Default install. ;)
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How many MB is being patched into the kernel? From what I've seen, Avast doesn't do that. Norton on the other hand does do that, which is why computers with Norton installs are notorious for being slow.
 
bigdogchris said:
How many MB is being patched into the kernel? From what I've seen, Avast doesn't do that. Norton on the other hand does do that, which is why computers with Norton installs are notorious for being slow.
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Not sure...many AV's tuck away some in there, and it's dynamic based on system specs (machines with more RAM can utilize more). Myself being a longtime basher of SymantSuck products...and their bloated AV products, I have to admit over the past 2 years they've lighted up a lot....on todays current systems you really don't feel a slowdown.

Not that I'm going to jump back onboard reselling their stuff again..it's Eset for our business clients and MSE for home users. Although the way Eset is heading lately I may be jumping over to Microsoft for our biz clients too.
 
The Norton 2010 360 or whatever it's called seems to be a lot lighter than the past. Last I knew their endpoint 11 or 12, whatever they had in 2009, is still the old engine and is slug slow.
 
Yeah their corporate product is still a pig.....but way outside this thread. Nearly 5 years later I'm still cursing at the anger from their buggy push installs that corrupted from the management console...causing hours of lost time doing excruciating manual cleanups of the workstations.
 
+1 for Microsoft Security Essentials. You don't need anything else for your day-to-day anti-virus/anti-malware needs.
 
Switched from MSE to Panda Cloud after seeing several systems get infected, couldn't be happier.
 
bigdogchris said:
If you do a custom install and only choose Web filter and File Scanner, the combined service/UI is only around 20MB. MSE is around 60-80MB and does not include the web filter.
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My combined service/ui totals are at 7MB. I don't why you're at 20MB.

Also, I've never had issues with slow boot times with Avast on my own machines or client's machines. Not saying some other people's experiences on here aren't valid, I just haven't had them.

The only thing that bothered me a bit was the last AV Comparatives report and Avast's lackluster heuristics, but they did test with a older program version. I'm also not sure if they had the behavior shield running or disabled when they ran those tests. I think it supposed to work in conjunction with the heuristics engine. Not sure but I think I read that on their forums, I could be wrong.

I think the heuristics will improve. The AV Comparatives report was discussed on their forums openly with their developers. I can't say there's too many companies that have their developers replying to people trying to rip them a new ass on a public forum.
 
After reading this thread... then reading this (which was written quite a while ago) I laughed at these guy's arrogance.

jiminator said:
microsoft pulled a lot of stuff out of windows that you now have to download. for people with legitimate licenses it is not an issue. For people without them, its an incentive.
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What else is good out there?

szdpd said:
if it's free how come it doesn't ship with windows?
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Someone in some other thread mentioned that Microsoft released it free so that they don't have to deal with customer support.
 
Has anyone noticed excessive memory and CPU usage with MSE since the last update (Tuesday)? Of the three machines I've installed MSE to at the office, two of them have been exhibiting extreme memory/CPU usage thanks to MSE's processes, around 80MB and 10-15% CPU time, when idle. The only thing that seemed to help was disabling active protection, lowering memory usage to ~10MB and CPU usage to 0%.
 
number69 said:
My combined service/ui totals are at 7MB. I don't why you're at 20MB.

Also, I've never had issues with slow boot times with Avast on my own machines or client's machines. Not saying some other people's experiences on here aren't valid, I just haven't had them.

The only thing that bothered me a bit was the last AV Comparatives report and Avast's lackluster heuristics, but they did test with a older program version. I'm also not sure if they had the behavior shield running or disabled when they ran those tests. I think it supposed to work in conjunction with the heuristics engine. Not sure but I think I read that on their forums, I could be wrong.

I think the heuristics will improve. The AV Comparatives report was discussed on their forums openly with their developers. I can't say there's too many companies that have their developers replying to people trying to rip them a new ass on a public forum.
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The bottom line is there is a handful of free high end AV's available, each with pluses and minuses. Since they are all about the same in the end I went with the most light weight one. Plus the web filter is nice.
 
Kaspersky's Internet Secrity 2010 free for thirty days....Hands down the best..imo
 
DrDoU said:
Kaspersky's Internet Secrity 2010 free for thirty days....Hands down the best..imo
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Doesn't contain the magic word though. But yes, on a small business side project I'm running Kaspersky Business 6 off the admin kit and it's a very good product. Much better than Endpoint 11 that they had when I took over.
 
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