DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Free AntiVirus & Spyware

The subscription to my antivirus and spyware is getting close to expiring and I know there are free programs out there. I know there are some computer geniuses in here and was looking to see if any of you could help me out with advice on whether they work as well, and if you had any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

There are free ones out there, but if you do a lot of surfing and/or receive a decent amount of email, it's best to purchase a full version.

The free version is not exactly the same as the pay ones.

But if you insist on free, I'd go with AVG, and back it up with MalwareBytes, and run manual scans weekly.

It's my wife's laptop that is expiring and it's TrendMicro w/Webroot Spyware. The desktop in the house utilizes McAfee. I have also used Norton on a previous computer in the past. Any suggestions on what paid version is the best?

Avira

Always worked well for me before I got the ol' Macbook.

I'm pretty happy w/ Avast.

http://www.avast.com/index

AVG is really good.

linkee dinkee do

I recently had problems with AVG 9.0 . It kept causing my computer to go to a blue "safe" screen causing me to have to hard restart (power the machine down). A tech friend of mine told me that AVG 9.0 has that glitch at times. I went back to 8.5 and haven't had any issues.
Anyone else hear of this or had similar issues?

I have heard of some issues with AVG 9.0 but have not encountered any on my or my customer's computers.

MalwareBytes is absolutely the best freebie out there. It has on many occasions removed infections which the paid versions of Norton, Mcafee, Trend Micro, many others could not handle. You can schedule scans and updates with a batch file, but there is no real-time protection unless you purchase.

I no longer recommend or endorse any Norton products of any kind. I have reached the stage with their products where I actually recommend their removal if there is any kind of problem whatsoever.

My typical antivirus install includes AVG, Malwarebytes, and Spybot search and destroy. Avast also works well.

Good surfing habits are the most important factor.

my laptop does the blue screen thing sometimes and I have had AVG 8.5 and 9.0, didn't know that was the cause, interesting.

I haven't had any issues at all.

Perhaps there is some sort of compatability issue with something else installed on your system?

The new avast is pretty nice, not as good as one you pay for, but not bad.

Microsoft has a decent on that is free now as well.

Microsoft Security Essentials

I read the user agreements on the Microsoft free antivirus and let's just say, it was a bit intrusive for me taste.

Any review of free apps that I've read have always had Avira rated best.

I used AVG for some time, but after Antivirus 2009 got through I switched to Avast (AV2009 was virus / malware). At this point I'm happy with Avast as it provides active scanning of email and downloads. I was also impressed that it did a boot scan immediately after installation.

I would imagine that retail software should provide more timely definitions and better heuristics, but I've used free anti-virus for years with few problems. The aforementioned AV2009 was removed with Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware. As already recommended I think it's a good idea to perform scheduled scans with your anti-virus, MB's Anti-Malware and an anti-spyware app or two. In addtion, Trend-Micro's "Housecall" is a web based anti virus / malware scan and removal that is outstanding. I usually run a scan there twice a month.

Have used AVG at home and on many work computers. Never once had a problem.

AVG always worked mostly without notice on my home machine, and it works just fine on 7 of our 8 lab computers. Its just that one that it hates. My home machine is custom built and has a bunch of various parts from various manufacturers, but our lab computers are all Dell and are all the same model... makes trying to figure out why exactly it happens to only that computer very frustrating. Anyone ever have any luck having that problem and then fixing it?

I've already downloaded AVG and Malwarebytes. The only thing that worries me is not having the automatic scan with Malwarebytes. Having to remember things like that isn't one of my strengths.

I run Avast, Adaware and Spybot. I switched from Norton a few years ago and never looked back.

There's a load of online articles kicking around that I worked through when deciding on a new virus package for the system I got late last year.

From what I found, the best freebies were Avira AntiVir and Avast. Both had very good detection rates, light on resources and were user friendly.

AVG has a tradition of being very good but recent versions have been panned.

I used Avast in the past and was happy with it and am now using Avira and am similarly happy. The only crap thing is that alot of the freeware antivirus now pops up ads when you start your comp to try to get you to buy the real thing and the subscription expires in 6 months. But you can just renew it and its just fine.

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Throw in CCleaner (for its uninstalling thoroughness, not for cleaning the registry, I would never trust that).....

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Ditto on CCleaner and I also like GlaryUtilities. Glary provides a more thorough clean and thereby takes a bit longer. I do use both for registry cleaning with no problems to date. Always make sure the app makes a back up copy before scanning the registry. Glary's has a convenient one button click to run the full scan. It also has a tabbed interface that navigates you to plenty of useful tools.

Relative to accomplishing a complete uninstall of software I have heard good things about the Revo uninstaller. I watch Leo LaPorte's various webcast shows on a regular basis and he always recommends Revo. It is my understanding that this is free software, but I have not tried it yet.

Revo is a great tool... use it at work all the time 2 thumbs up