I know that there are many options out there, but how many of them are trustworthy is what I have to ask myself. Recently the anti-virus I had been using for a long time expired, and is asking me for an outrageous amount of money to renew it. I was wondering if anyone has any tried and tested anti-virus program that they use that was either cheap or free? With all the information out there it is hard to trust what anyone says, and first person testimonials are always the best in my opinion!
Well, there are probably dozens of first-person testimonials contained in threads with the exact same title as your thread. I'd recommend reading through those. There are plenty of options for free anti-virus, including AVG Anti-Virus, Avast!, and countless others. They're all fine programs, but you're probably better off being smarter with your browsing habits. I don't use anti-virus programs, and I haven't gotten a virus on my machine in years.
AVG and Avast! are among the two largest names out there, I feel that both do their job pretty well so long as you update them often. Honestly I see no reason to buy antivirus software when the free one can perform similarly well.
You could have just looked around a bit before you posted... Log In I'm gonna say, again, as I said before, Microsoft Security Essentials.
MSE is pretty good but I would say a combo of AdAware and Malwerbytes would do you pretty good. They're both free but they have premium versions as well. I always go to shady looking sites and download some dev kits that are the very definition of third party and so far both I haven't got any problems with my computer, at least not that I know of.
I have used both AVG free edition and AVAST and both are good for free software but for some reason, I always come back to AVG. I also run Malwarebytes and CCleaner and never had any issues with viruses. (knock on wood)...lol
I think antivirus program is that which has to be compatible with your PC configuration and if it is easy to install then you have chosen better option. I am using AVG license version from 2 year and this one is best for me.
I think AdAware is pretty good for a free software. Also, Malwarebytes and AVG are pretty good too. But I would say it all depends on the user and how much malicious software you deal with on a regular basis.
I have used AVG for years, and I have no complaints with it's performance. I tried using other anti-virus programs, but I don't seem to like their performance for some reason. Try also Super Anti Spyware, it can also detect keyloggers which AVG has failed to detect.
I use a combination of Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials, which seems to work quite well for me. Also, Ccleaner and Adwcleaner, along with the former two I mentioned, are good to run every now and then to check that you haven't accidentally downloaded something that slipped past your notice. One more thing--while Sandboxie isn't exactly an anti-virus program, it can be very useful (and has a free version) if you need to download some files, and are not sure whether or not they might affect your computer adversely. Obviously, you still have to take care while using it, but most things run inside of Sandboxie will not affect your actual computer, as the programs are run independent of your actual system (while I believe it may actually apply to all programs, I'm not completely sure, so I'm saying 'most' to be safe).
I've used Avast internet security suite but was still infected with some sophisticated virus. I don't remember the name of the virus but I've then purchased Kaspersky internet security suite and the problem was solved. People talk of responsible browsing and going to trusted sites alone. However, you never know, when you invite the problem, albeit unknowingly. Though, I had enough success with Adaware/Spybot/Malware bytes, the same thing can't be said about free anti-virus programs like AVG/Avira/Avast and so on. I trust either Kaspersky or Norton alone.
Well, there was a time where I would have said that Malwarebytes was the best free anti-virus - even though you are required to pay at some point, if you'd like the full version - but after experiencing some problems in my Chrome browser, and having Malwarebytes not detect the problems, I am not so sure anymore.
I've been using AVG for half a decade now and so far I haven't had too much trouble with it. I can remember a few instances where some of my programs were registering as malware or Trojans but I think things like that are unavoidable to some extent and the only thing I really want from them Is to keep my computer safe which they do very well. I can't say it's the best since I've never used other products but it's worked for me for a long time now.
My two favorite anti-virus programs are "Search and Destroy" and the free root kit removal tool by Kaspersky Labs. Search and Destroy is regularly updated and has caught many a virus for me that my other paid programs did not and the root kit removal tool from Kaspersky Labs caught perhaps the worst virus my computers have ever had, a sinowal virus. I no longer let my kids use my computer when they visit youtube and other seemingly harmless places because they tend to click on things like ads and links in descriptions that target kids on purpose. I think that was the best security move I ever made with my work computer
Best imo is avast. Its free trustworthy and gets the job done you cant really ask for more than that. The free version however does leave out some options that would probably come in handy and it would be worth upgrading eventual. So far i have not contracted any viruses though.
I used this also, it was a pretty good piece of software, I wasn't aware it was still around. Actually these days I get so few viruses that I don't think much of it. I suppose I'm nor downloading all the freeware games that I used to though.
I used to use avast but then I began to realize that my computer would begin to run really slow and I could not detect what it was that was causing this to happen. After tons of hours of research I realized that the root cause of the problem was avast and that it was slowing my pc down. The one that I am using right now is panda and I will tell you that I think that panda and avira have to be the best free ones that I have ever used.
I personally like Kaspersky. Not only it does the job so well, the interface looks classy and neat which is exactly what i'm looking for. I've been using this antivirus for few years now and I'm really happy with it.
I'm using Avira and it has not disappointed me thus far. It's not too demanding on my processor and it's notifications rarely causes lags on my pc which happened to me before with other antivirus programs. I also didn't experience any successful malware attacks on my pc so I've got nothing but praise for Avira.
I used Avira since before its name was changed (it was formerly known to as AV Free) however it causes many lags in my system despite I have 4GB of ram, perhaps you have more than this. Actually I do what @Sivenor does; using the Windows built in protection, which seems improved now that I'm running Windows 10, because most anti-virus come bloated with anti-spyware, anti-this and anti-that that eat up to much system resources.
