There are lots of free anti-virus software MOST OF WHICH are not that great as I learned when I visited a friend this weekend. I had a pen drive with me and wanted to use a my portable browser to access the net. The moment the pen drive is inserted into the machine, the resident anti-virus begins scanning the pen drive and after a second or two says it has found a virus. The virus it found? The executable file of my browser. Used any such anti-virus software which can't find viruses or will get you lots of false positives that could have you so worried when in fact there's no threat that should worry you? Do you think it's better for those who use anti-virus software to buy commercial [anti-virus] software because they are better?
Are you talking about Tor? A lot of programs will identify that as a virus, at least that's how it used to be. Free antivirus programs are fine, and they have a similar catch rating to the paid versions. However, the paid antivirus software (best of the best) does beat out free options by a wide margin, especially when you take into considering the extra features you can get. I don't use antivirus of any sort, but I'd rather go with a paid version. I'm not going to complain about dropping a few bucks on quality antivirus software.
It very well could have been a false positive, or it could have been a newly discovered virus. Kapersky was recently busted for creating false positives, to make it appear that their software was catching more viruses than their competitors. They argued that that was not their intention at all, and rather that they were creating the false positives in an effort to catch some competitors who were stealing their proprietary virus database, and passing it off as their own. Their logic supposedly was they should have been the only ones aware of these false positives in their databases, so if anyone else was flagging them as well then that meant they were somehow borrowing from Kapersky's database. Either way, they created a lot of headaches and confusion releasing those into the wild like that and should have known better.
I'd say malware bytes anti-malware has the best reputation among the free anti-malware services. Their free service - which consists of the basic scan and other helpful tools - is very efficient at catching bugs and potentially unwanted programs. You can also pay to have constant protection. I've never had a false positive using their service, which is the best quality I think. I've also tried avast and avg, but they both caused a lot of issues, like slowing my computer and catching false positives.
I think if you have some common sense a free antivirus should work fine. Just stay away from shady sites and downloads and you should be fine.
Do you know that Sourceforge, which isn't a shady site, used to bundle software that was downloaded from the site with adware? Common sense no longer is good enough to keep your computer clean. Free anti-virus programs promise that they can get the job done but but most of them do a half-decent job. Better than common sense is using software like Reboot Restore [as a safeguard] so in case your computer is infected, you can discard all changes when you reboot.
To be honest, I always found Sourceforge to be somewhat shady. I found out they bundled adware with their downloads the first time I used it. I don't even remember how I found out, but after that I never went back to the site if I wanted to download software. I just went to the official software page or used another site that seemed more trustworthy to me. I'll always think that if you stop and check what you're downloading to your PC you should be able to find something wrong with it if there is anything shady going on.
This, a thousand times over. A free antivirus is going to be good enough as long as you exercise a little caution and follow the guidelines for safe web browsing. Here's a great link if anyone needs a refresher: Log In
I think the paid ones will always be better, because there are just some features that the paid ones do have and it offers you more security. However, since I want to save money, then I always just go for those free anti-virus ones.
Anti-viruses have their list of viruses. That is the problem with my anti-virus at home because it doesn't update the virus list anymore since January. Maybe the license had expired so I am thinking of getting a free anti-virus. In the olden days, we were using a free anti-virus that we had downloaded. But when our office computer was attacked, we decided to buy a licensed anti-virus software.
Not necessarily. I've used free software that is as good as commercial alternatives. The only advantage Commercial anti-virus software I believe is the tech support you get should your computer be infected. While there's no denying that most commercial anti-virus software is better, not all of them are. A good example would be Norton antivirus.
@Denis Hard, Why, what's wrong with Norton? A lot of false positives when it comes to scanning viruses?
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what antivirus you have, trust me. You could have the best one in the world and still be exposed. The virus "realm" is so vast antiviruses just can't keep up with the pace. Just tread on known land and don't go any further. That's the best thing you could do. Antiviruses are good only for when you need to, I don't know... go for a shady site once in a while, but not to make it a habit.
Here are some reasons why Norton is one of the worst anti-viruses: - The software's detection rate [of viruses is not impressive]. - They hardly ever update their virus database which leaves some depending on the anti-virus to prevent infection vulnerable. - It's a resource hog. - It's very expensive even though it's no better than many free alternatives.
I see, thanks for the info, I have only used McAfee and AVG, so I had no idea that Norton is a lousy anti-virus software. Even if it's pirated I won't buy a Norton disc then, lol.
I know for a fact that many of the free programs are as good as the paid programs. I would not spend money on an antivirus program again. These are the options that people use when they are looking for a good anti virus program. It is just one of the facts about the computer world. People try to charge you for what is available for free!
I agree that the paid ones are better than the free ones. But if you know what you are doing online and are internet savvy, even to a minimum, you can use the free anti virus software programs and get the most out of them as internet novices would use a paid anti virus software program.
