Free software such as Microsoft Security Essentials cannot compete with McAfee or Kasper. Paying $49 for one year is not that expensive either. In my opinion, paying for a quality anti-virus software is much better than trusting a freely available low-quality application.
Thanks! I actually had to uninstall Avast a few days ago after it made my computer a lot laggier than it used to be. It's effective, but really slows things down. I'll have a look at Security Essentials.
I prefer free antiviruses actually. If you think about it, it's in Microsoft's best interests to not keep scaring you with constant updates about false alarms, or misleading "virus" alerts, and making their AV as unobtrusive as possible. On the other hand, with commercial antivirus products, they are constantly notifying you about everything under the sun, inserting "features" into all your other software - anything to keep their name top of mind so it gives the overall impression they are protection your system far more than free options. They end up being worse and more obnoxious than a virus itself. AVG will block other apps from hijacking your home page, but yet they hijack it themselves!
I prefer the free versions too. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and I must say their anti-virus programme is excellent. I have been a victim of spyware a few times and the program dealt with the virus efficiently.
I never heard of this one I usually use avg it's free too and I found it was the best so far I have never gotten a virus with avg
I use the following which are all free: - AVG - Spybot S&D - CCleaner (not an antivirus but helps me clean the registry and unwanted files) These three help keep my laptop nice and healthy.
I suggest avast!. I have been using their free version for 4 years now and I don't have a single complaint, it's amazing. It updates silently, it offers boot-time scan (which most of the other antiviruses don't offer) and the user interface gets more beautiful and easy to use with each new version.
When I used windows computers I would always use AVG too, its free and gets the job done. Now I use a Mac I don't use any virus protection simply because everyone I have spoke to said that Macs can't get virus's but eventually they will so soon I will get anti virus for my Mac
No Avira users here? I know their ads are a bit annoying on the free version, but I was under the impression it was a good antivirus. It doesn't eat a lot of resources and haven't had problems with it yet (been using it for about 8 months). Now I'm tempted to switch to AVG though, I'm curious why so many people use it. I'm such a sheep. I used to be a Symantec fan years ago, then switched to Panda after I had a nasty virus that was not being detected by any other antivirus (later on I found out that it was a really new virus and that Panda was just detecting it as "suspicious activity", but I was clueless back then). Does AVG have popup ads or anything of the kind? I wouldn't mind switching to it if it's effective *and* doesn't have the nasty popups that Avira has.
I started using AVG on advice from my older brother and i kept it that way for 3 years, then i used Avast for a few months. Lastly, because these guys kept saying that some of my files were spyware, i just deleted them and got Microsoft Security Essentials. Simple and never bother me at all!
I know it's been said a number of times in the thread, but AVG is definitely one of the better free antiviruses you can get. It's simple, non-intrusive and catches most things that can pop up. My opinion on antivirus is that if someone really, really, really wants to infect your computer, they are going to do it with a newly written virus and no antivirus can stop that, so having a free antivirus will do just as much as some of the subscription ones. Couple AVG with a good spyware program and you're good to go. AVG usually never has any popups unless it's asking for an update or telling you that your computer has started up faster since you've installed it, but the latter can be disabled. There are no ads, just make sure when you are installing/updating that you deselected where it asks to make AVG your homepage, install their toolbar and among other things you don't really want.
I have three laptops. On one I have a paid for version of AVG. The license my dad bought for his own laptop was for two computers so I use up the other one. I use Comodo Internet Security on one laptop and Agnitum Internet Security on the last one. Comodo and Agnitum are both free and have a firewall too. I prefer to have just one program for antivirus and firewall: it means I only have to update one program for everything rather than have a separate one to remember to check.
I'm not sure how much I would trust free anti-virus. Anyway, I don't mind paying £20 every year for Kaspersky, it's working for me anyway. If I really had that much of a budget then I'd go ahead and download a key generator for Kaspersky rather than downloading the free software. I'm not knocking it but I prefer to use Kaspersky since I know that it's reliable and I doubt I'd feel safe with free anti-virus.
I am using Windows 8 Pro. It comes with its own anti-virus program called Windows Defender. I think it's actually just a re-packaging of Microsoft Security Essentials. So far so good. Either I haven't met any viruses or Windows Defender is doing a very good job.
Avg antivirus is the best for the every computer and operating system but specially for the windows XP and windows 7 but this antivirus comntaines some heavy data and make slow to your computer so i think Avas antivirus is the best than AVG but the both are best you can install any one from both... Log In
I have used Avast free before and its very good. You can keep track of a lot of features and the best part it has a sandboxed feature. The only problem with it is it keeps blocking some of newly installed games and I dont want to play games being disturbed. So I ditched it and used Microsoft Security Essentials and I never had any compatibility problems again. And the best thing with MSE, its very lightweight.
