Report: Microsoft to Release Free Antivirus Tuesday

[Robert17]

Have to agree for the most part that if you are careful about your surfing/downloading habits, viruses aren't a problem. But I've tried virtually all of them over the years due to having other users (kids) in the house. After I built/networked PC's for all, MY computer didn't require anything more than a firewall. I had to constantly service the kids until they got wise enough to chill out on downloading every music player, weather bug, "free"ware. Still, I could never understand why I'd (in some cases) pay for AV software only to have it completely shut down if I didn't pay an annual "tax" to keep my license. Seems to me that what I bought was mine, should have kept working at some level. Nevertheless, I still have no way of knowing what's on a disk/flash that I receive and prefer to validate it's contents with a scan before opening it. I'm looking forward to giving MS latest offering a spin; I've used MS products since the '80's and figure that it will integrate more seamlessly with what my modest needs are without the huge footprint that all the others offer. We'll see......

 

[Shadow703793]

[citation][nom]zaratustra06[/nom]I'll stay with Avira's free Antivir.[/citation]
+1. Don't see why people are still running AVG.

See:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2009-antivirus-test,review-1315.html

 

[Shadow703793]

[citation][nom]zaratustra06[/nom]I'll stay with Avira's free Antivir.[/citation]
+1. Apart from the nagging of the Ad for buying the paid versin when updating, it's a very good AV program. Heck, better than AVG!

See:

AntiVir’s biggest strength lies in its detection rate. It’s the only scanner in our roundup to triumph with a near clean sweep during Virus Bulletin’s latest testing, and it did so without reporting any false positives. That’s impressive. AntiVir performed equally well in our Lab, as long as we didn’t attempt to install spyware or hijack the browser.

If you can live with the popup ad AntiVir forces you to view each time a scheduled update is performed, you’ll be rewarded with a potent, no-cost AV scanner. Move over AVG, we have a new favorite freebie.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/protect_your_pc_from_guys_like_this?page=0%2C2

and
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2009-antivirus-test,review-1315.html

 

[Guest]

McAfee, Norton, etc, are bloatware. I've made extensive use of AVG Free, AntiVir, and ESET (not on the same machine at the same time, of course,) and they are lightweight, unintrusive, and effective. Basic protection + a little smart surfing = no big deal. If you need a "full internet security suite" that eats up half your working memory just to stay safe, what you really need is a Mac. The vast majority of infected machines I see (one to four a day) also have McAfee, Norton, Trend Micro, or Kaspersky anyway!

 

[pender21]

[citation][nom]rooket[/nom]If they got rid of ActiveX, that'd probably solve a whole world of spyware issues.[/citation]
I agree and if they had better User/Folder access permission control like Posix systems, they'd eliminate a lot of Rootkits too.

This better not be a P.O.S. like Windows Defender. It took them long enough to admit their software is insecure and offer a free of charge solution. I smell an anti-trust suit brewing from the big AV giants like Symantec, Trend etc.

 

[stromm]

I got tired of Norton/Symantec issues with Vista and started using BitDefender. Been with it for over two years now. I have a multiple PC license and use it on work/gaming machines. I still have Symantec Enterprise, AVG and Avast on their own boxes which I use for client testing. Those have a nasty habit of missing almost every virus BD finds and cleans.

 

[azz156]

why bother using these security suites, i've only got it on my laptop because i get alot of free software where i work. if u stop going on porn sites & downloading keygens u'll never get a virus/spyware. my main gaming pc hasnt had any protection ever and to this day has never had a virus or spyware.

it wouldnt susprise me if alot of these companys actually made half of these virus's

 

[Guest]

I have been using the 64 bit version of the ESET Smart security 4 (the one with firewall and antivirus together) on Windows 7 for sometime now and I am very very happy with it. The most important thing for NOD32 users is that "Advanced heuristics" in realtime scanning should be enabled to get maximum protection. I recommend it to anyone who is on 64bit version of eithe Vista or 7.

 

[hemelskonijn]

I used a lot of anti virus software and this article reminded me of ThunderByte AntiVirus or TBAV for short.
Now its not that i like anti virus software but i always stuck with them till their end (including and most importantly their hardware anti virus protection).

I went from DOS to linux (i hated GUI's back when a GUI on a pc was basically windows 3.x and windows 95 was to expensive for me later on) during those years i knew the risk of running any software without protection but i did it any way.

Now i am running a wide range of operating systems and in these dangerous days for each system a different anti virus suite.
On my windows and *nix systems i run Avira Anti virus using a license my employer sponsored me and on my mac i think there is some version of Virex.

Now whats even more important is that i have a hardware firewall and a packet filter (the firewall dubs as a pretty descent DDOS and DOS detection and protection unit).
I wonder how many people think about those things and yes if they are not running a nice set of servers with awesome IRCD's the chance of a DDOS other then a smurf here and there or a teardrop is one you can take but still i think there is a bigger threat in oldschool hacking then there is in automatic scripts and virus thus making me think this could be more important.

 

[Guest]

+1 for Avast. You hardly know it's there and it works. Although, it once scared the crap out of me in the middle of the night when a freshly installed system announced "Virus database has been updated". lol.

 

[dmv915]

Currently running AVG free as a precaution on my downloaded files.

If you know your way around the internet, don't click on random ads, and aren't downloading from random places, running no anti virus to something really basic in my opinion is fine.

 

[Guest]

I already have the beta of Morro ver. 1.0.2140.0
It detects some keygens just like Nod did. Haven't tried it against Temida apps to see what's happening there.

 

[catchrex]

Why we bother about new launches when we have free sofwares like avast free home edition. It is protecting my PC for the past 2 and half years. I had no issues with it. I still wonder why mcaffe uses very big memory foot print and heavy cpu cycles which is doing the same operation of avast with little memory footprint probably 20MB. It is a scary thing on my Office PC which slows the PC each day 1.10pm t0 7.00pm... sorry for my bad english

 

[ceteras]

I still wonder, about those who pick the names at microsoft: what kind of sense of humor do they have? Naming an antivirus product "Morro"...

I wouldn't touch this because:
1- avast free home edition is pretty good
2- I'm not desperately looking for a better security solution (heck, I can use my computer without an antivirus installed)
3- I'm too lazy to do a such insignificant move


Like they say, they are "targeting people who aren't protected" already.

Though if installing it would be a snap, without activation keys & stuff, I might recommend it.

 

[ceteras]

I wonder if it will be free for use in a company...
That would make a difference, but I don't expect it to be so.

 

[Guest]

I work as a bench technician and Live One care was the best tool I had. I had Entreprise and consumer level AV from Norton and Macafee. I would scan a clearly infected computer with both of those tools and Norton ALWAYS found 1-3 pathetic tracking cookies. Macafee would find Lots of trojens but not the whole infection. Live one care would take a while to scan. But it would find the entire infection and clean the computer AFTER NORTON AND MCAFEE HAD THEIR GOES. THis was true in EVERY CASE OF EVERY INFECTED MACHINE I HAD. Wich was about 2 aday. Even Malware bytes and Spybot S&D couldn't find anything after One Care. (both Incredible and amazing free products, I highly recomend both.) You might say it's only had 89 detection rate but it cleary outperformed macafee and norton combined. Oh and dudes it's not the just the detection rate that matters its the also database it's checked against. If it's not in the database then all AV will have to detect Malwayre via their fancy algoritims and such but the thing is they will not find all registy keys and curropted dlls that way. They may only find part of the infection. Leaving you with a broken virus and probably the trojen or infection files in your restore point waiting to reinfect you.

I currently recoment 3 products. 1st. AVG 8.5 second spybot S&D and third Malwarebytes. With these three there is not a virus i havn't been able to remove. Avg scan right behind spybot and Malware bytes scans wich is double duty and detects many virus it doesn't on its own. This is due to how virus cloak themselves and behave when scaned. Avg sees that and reports it. Malwarebytes is notroisly good for finding all of theos antivirs 2009 or whatever the current name is. Spybot as a literal arsenal of tools beyond scanning and giving you a detailed descritpion of every virus cookie and trojen detected. I'm sad that all of you High profile users have never heard of these products. And those that have hanv't mentioned more than once. Try them they are free and they work every thime.

BTW I find avast to be a terrible program. I've used it hundreds of times and every time i was dissapointed. So i don't use and don't recomend it.

 

[68vistacruiser]

Avast

 

[68vistacruiser]

Avast is a great program, with daily updates and low memory overhead. I've never had a problem with it, and Malwarebytes has never found anything on a computer that is running Avast. And no, I don't work for them. I personally would not use AVG, nor recommend it. "A real computer technician" would be a registered user of tom's Hardware, wouldn't he, if he really was one?

 

[zak_mckraken]

I'm using AVG right now but I'll be sure to switch to Morro as soon as it gets out. It might not be a permanent switch but I'll at least try it out. I never required more than basic protection and, with a little bit of common sense, you shouldn't either. Looking for the last Britney Spears single on Limewire? You're interested in that "Britney Spears naked.exe" file that weights in at 5KB? Maybe you need more than basic protection in that case...

 

[hemelskonijn]

Do i dare to react to all these reactions at once ?
Do i dare to change your few of good Antivirus software ?
Do i dare to write another line that starts with do i dare ?

You cant proof your anti virus is good by running it you can only disproof it by running another for a change.

"my system runs fine with virus killer X and i never had a virus it could not find" is a bogus argument since no virus scanner reports a virus that it cant find but you do have.

PS: if your looking for "Britney Spears naked.exe" you need glasses and or a consult with a nice pill stuffing coat giving doc who can and will lock you away indefinetly.

 

[anamaniac]

Anti Virus?
What's that?

Oh yeah... Those fat clunky useless things.

Firstly, even if a hacker or bot got into my mail and online banking, I have a negative balance. =)
I have no quarrel with dealing with infections, they're usually easy to deal with, and honestly, the only I'd miss if I had to reinstall my OS would be my bookmarks, but then again, that only takes a hour to remember it all. AVs are resource whores, and I prefer to avoid them.

In fact, I have had more issues with AVs than I have had with virus'...

I have nothing valueable I'm not willing to share in any case...

 

[Guest]

Microsoft Israel R&D CenterI already have Windows Security Essentials.

It’s called: iMac + OS X 10.5

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

i love kaspersky kis but i would try it!all software deserves a chance.