Best "FREE" AntiVirus?

[Precedentbug]

Title says it all, I've tested out Bitdefender (causes Blue screen) Avast too.. (Have to pay to actually fix stuff) ..

I Run alot of .exe's And i literally need one to keep my PC Healthy and virus free..

Can someone please suggest me GOOD anti viruses that are free (Free to remove stuff also)


And please no "You don't need an anti viurs" Replies because i do..

Any Suggestions are appreciated!

 

[tubagznyven]

have u tried AVIRA AV?

 

[Isokolon]

generally Windows Defender (under Win10) is on par or better than most of the free stuff

 

[Paul NZ]

There's Comodo antivirus. Dont know how good it is tho. I dont use it

Probably wont matter what you install. I've never seen one that doesnt crash

 

[SchizTech]

I haven't seen Avast ask to pay to fix stuff (only to unlock special features).

Malwarebytes anti-malware free version won't run a service in the background (you'd have to scan it manually) but it's excellent

 

[Darkbreeze]

The best FREE antivirus is windows defender. It's going to be there anyhow, so you might as well get the most out of the resources that it will use regardless of whether you install another antivirus or not without extensive procedures to nullify it. Plus, it does just as good of a job as any other free antivirus.

Malware is a different story. Viruses and malware are totally different things, requiring different applications and definitions for protection. Some paid applications do both, but usually not as well as ones specifically designed for that. The best free combination I've found is using Windows defender for virus protection, which is a no brainer anyhow since there are VERY few actual "viruses" in the wild anymore, and Malwarebytes or Spybot search and destroy free versions for malware.

None of the free malware scanners that I'm aware of have real time protection though. They will scan and remove malware doing a manual search but do not actively protect against intrusions or malicious software. MAYBE Bitdefender, for free real time, but if you have issues with that software than obviously this is not an option for you. Spybot home version has real time protection and is extremely cheap for a one year license.


Some further information on protection.

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2602295/protect-remove-virus-malware-rootkit-infections-layman.html


http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2646010/free-antivirus-free-internet-security-free-antispyware-solutions.html

 

[Precedentbug]

Windows defender never blocks stuff for me, neither does it pick anything up 99% of the time.
And I've been using Avast for around 2 months now.. if it picks up a false positive and i click "quarantine" It's just going to pick it up again unless i disable it.

At this point i'm trying to figure out what's better.. Avira or Comodo (haven't seen any good reviews for them)
And Yes Avast does ask to pay to fix "Broken Registry items" "System junk"

What anti viruses are you guys using??

 

[Darkbreeze]

That is because you, and most people, have never actually HAD a virus on your system. As I said, there are really VERY few actual viruses, which are NOT the same as malware, spyware, adware, trojans, rootkits and other modern forms of systematic infection, around anymore.

Windows Defender is only really there in CASE an actual old style virus happens to come around. For the rest, you need malware protection.

 

[Precedentbug]

I'm honestly just going to give each one ago, Currently installing Comodo .. see how that works out for me.
Then probably go on and try Avira, which seems to be a replace of BitDefender? 😀

 

[scout_03]

ok you got blue screen then use this to have the minidump files in plain text http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed might be something that interfer with virus software that made this .

 

[jaslion]

Windows defender never blocks stuff for me, neither does it pick anything up 99% of the time.
And I've been using Avast for around 2 months now.. if it picks up a false positive and i click "quarantine" It's just going to pick it up again unless i disable it.

At this point i'm trying to figure out what's better.. Avira or Comodo (haven't seen any good reviews for them)
And Yes Avast does ask to pay to fix "Broken Registry items" "System junk"

What anti viruses are you guys using??

Defender does pick up viruses the moment they try to enter the system. However comming a cross and actual virus is really really rare nowadays.

The things you need to watchout for now are malware, spyware, trojans,... all of those are NOT virusses. If you want realtime protection try malwarebytes that is one of the best programs to have nowadays. However it is paid.

Windows defender is the best antivirus out nowadays since it simply is the least invasive and does it's job.

 

[Avast-Team]

Hi everyone, I hope I can provide some information/clarity here!

First, our free option is truly free. In the free version, you will see notifications for our other paid products, or upgrades to premium antivirus -- this is part of how we can support Free However, these can be completely disabled if you upgrade to a paid version of Avast.

Re: real time protection -- our Free option for consumers does include real time protection against viruses, malware, ransomware, cryptojackers, you name it. This is done through our File, Web, Email shields as well as CyberCapture (zero-day protection) and Behavior Shield (real-time behavioral analysis.) More info here: https://www.avast.com/protect

Re: false positives -- quarantining a file won't create an exclusion for it. In other words, if Avast detects that a file may be malicious, quarantining the file will move it to the virus chest, but if it reappears then it will be quarantined again.

If you need to add a file exclusion, or a whole directory exclusion, it's easy to do (keep in mind this means Avast will not be protecting/scanning these files or folders) https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/168/

OP, if you're having any issues at all with Avast, I'm happy to help -- let me know.