Question Best FREE Anti-Virus?

[Harroldeenio]

New PC, Wanna keep it safe... Help?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-free-antivirus,review-6003.html

I personally use Avast.

 

[Gam3r01]

+1 on avast. Use that for virus protection then regular scans with malwarebytes.

 

[geofelt]

Best free antivirus is common sense.
Most viruses and malware come in through social engineering or unwarranted trust in links.
Don't click on email links or open attachments.


As to a product, windows defender is free, low impact and maintained well.
It is good at flushing out known viruses but not the top for "in the wild" viruses.

malwarebytes free edition will scan for malware that is not considered as a virus.

 

[britechguy]

I love Windows Security, and so do those who do independent evaluations.

See the most recent plus the last several years of historical test results from:

AV Test

AV Comparatives

SE Labs (Reports Page)

MRG Effitas (360 Protection Testing Category)

 

[mdd1963]

Once the irrational fears of the Russian FSB/KGB subside, Kaspersky Free has also fared very well over the years....(although 14-15 months use of Windows Defender, recently renamed MS Defender, also left my PC equally uninfected)

Check out some of The PC Security Channel's (TPSC) Youtube reviews, as I think Leo does a very good job in giving numerous assorted AV products a decent battery of real world tests on a variety of bad websites, malware/ransomware samples, etc..

 

[mangaman]

It all depends on what works best for you. Many people, including myself, use Avast and it works just fine. However, you may find that Bitdefender or Kaspersky works better in your system.

Even with a good anitvirus, I still HIGHLY recommend you have a secondary opinion scanner such as Hitman Pro, Malwarebytes or Zemana Anti-Malware. They are all free, but do have their limitations to the paid versions.

Of course, common sense it the best anitvirus.

 

[talzub]

Go for Avast or Bitdefender. You'd be surprised at a price of zero, you will be getting lots of encryption features and premium features that wont be available on other softwares. After using for a few days your free trial will be over on competing softwares and you will again have to seek TomsHardware for help.

 

[digitalgriffin]

Avast
BitDefender
MS Defender

With a secondary of Malware Bytes scans about once a week or so.

Run on a STD Account, not an admin one!
NEVER EVER USED CRACKED SOFTWARE. That's one of the quickest ways to get infected.

 

[JBHapgood]

I'm currently running Windows 7 and using Avast Free. The only problem with it is that it pops up nagging ads for the paid version, and seems to be doing it more frequently. I had previously used Panda because of its light system load, but I switched when an update had inexplicable problems that created gigabytes of error logs. I tried BitDefender, but it slowed my system to a crawl after I installed it, and I had to go into Safe Mode to shut it off and uninstall it.

I will soon be building a new computer with Windows 10. The built-in Windows Defender supplemented with Malware Bytes looks to be the way to go.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

best free and best in general antivirus is you. I use Windows Defender and Malwarebytes, never get infected. but only YOU can prevent forest fires, er this kind of infection thing from happening in the first place

in other words, no links from emails, even if you know them, no answering junk email, no torrenting for crackz and hackz, etc..