best free antivirus? [merged]

[Guest]

[jonkimnicko]

guys, can you please help me in selecting the best anti-virus software available in the net ? because the only free anti virus i know is avg and i think avg is now on its paid version..what is the best free antivirus available on the net?

[panic]

G'day,

There are several free antivirus applications still available. Which is best is really a personal judgement and I certainly won't stick my neck on the line and tell you that X, Y or Z in unequivocably the best.

All of the free AVs listed below feature realtime scanning, on demand scanning, right click scanning, email scanning (AntiVir doesn't have this, but the others do), regular updates (some more so than others), scheduled updates and scheduled scanning.

My personal preferences is CAVS, as it is an antivirus and an antispyware application in one. It also includes a HIPS (Host Intruder Prevention System) module that the others don't have. In a nutshell, the others rely on two layers - detection and removal, whereas CAVS has an additional third outer layer - prevention, detection and removal.

*** BUTT COVERING MODE ON ***

I should remind you that this (CAVS 2.X) is still a BETA product and you should only run this if you are familiar with and cognizant of the risks inherent in running beta software. You very well may have no errors, but the potential is there (as it is with any piece of software)

***BUTT COVERING MODE OFF ***

The best of the free antivirus applications are;

Comodo Anti Virus/Spyware V2.08 (this is still a BETA product)
AVG Anti Virus Free Edition V7.5
Avast Home
AntiVir

Comodo AntiVirus/Spyware (CAVS) BETA 2.0.8 is available from
http://forums.comodo.com/index.php/topic,6012.msg44339.html#msg44339

AVG Free Edition is still available. Grisoft have been bought out by Intel and a bunch of partners and they are, naturally, pushing the paid-for version. The free version is available at
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5#avg-anti-virus-free

Avast 4 home Edition is available from http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

AntiVir Personal Edition is available from http://www.free-av.com/

My advice would be to have a look at the four sites named above. Check out their respective support forums. Check out the frequency of updates (Comodo don't publicise their updates but there are usually two a day, sometimes more). Check out everything you can think of and then make an informed decision.

Nothing beats knowledge - other than my wife, of course! 

Hope this helps,
Ewen :-)

[StormyMind]

Avira is the best among the 4 mentioned free AVs.
There is still one problem with Avira, it generates a lot of false postitives.

[Osage]

You are arguably  missing the best free AV which is active virus shield put out by AOL. Its powered by Kaspersky---and has the best detection rates and fastest updates according to the tests I have seen.

I had a heck of a time getting it installed until I learned the xp registered owner page can't be left
as just the default owner.

Just google active virus shield to download a free copy.---free license is good for a year and then can be updated---not yet vista ready but a new version may soon may be. And even better---it likes the comodo firewall.

[douchrti]

I liked Avast alot when I was using it.
Im using BitDefender now and I like it better.

[Jeeys]

I liked Avast alot when I was using it.
Im using BitDefender now and I like it better.

Currently, I'm using Avast. Is BitDefender better than Avast? I'll like to know more of this product.

[Quwen]

You are arguably  missing the best free AV which is active virus shield put out by AOL.

It may just be me, but I, personally, don't feel safe putting my security in the trust of the company who released information about a lot of it's members for anyone to download.

But that's just me.

[Tham]

I liked Avast alot when I was using it.
I'm using BitDefender now and I like it better.

Are you using BitDefender 8, the free version ?  It doesn't
have a resident shieid. I'm using it as a manual scanner.

While Avast's detection rate isn't particularly good, its shield
does have a startup engine, much like that of Norton and Prevx1,
which can detect and remove viruses from the System32 folder
before they load and become memory-resident in Windows.
Prevx1's one is particularly advanced. I was infected with quite a bad
malware, Spywarequake, almost two years ago, which inserted 15
files into my System32 folder. Prevx1 detected and removed 14
of them after several bootups. Avast removed the final one, also
with its startup engine. You can read my post in the Antivir forum here.

http://forum.antivir-pe.de/thread.php?threadid=13506

Without a startup scanner/shield, one would have to go into "Safe Mode"
(DOS in Win 95 and 98) to remove them manually from the System32 folder,
and moreover one must know the names of the viruses/spywares to look for.

Antivir and AVG, at least the free ones, don't have this capability.
AOL's Active Virus Shield (the free version of Kaspersky) doesn't
appear to have it either. I note that many antivirus programs,
including some paid ones, have overlooked this very important
criteria. This is part of a "wish list" which I believe is a "must" for Comodo.

[Pedro*]

Avast! or Antivir, but i hear far too much problems with Antivir regarding updates, active guard being disabled for no good reason, etc.
Avast! is solid. Lacks some heuristics, but i'd bet the FP's are RARE. Has more features as mentioned above.

AOL, personally, i wouldn't touch that.

[Toxteth O'Grady]

Could someone who apparently gets inundated with false positives while using Antivir\Avira tell me what they hell they are doing. This is one of those stories on the Internet that will never die, no matter what happens.  Boring and not true.

I've been using this program for about six years now and I simply cannot confirm that story. In fact, I deny it. And yes, I have seen an occasional false positive, but I simply send such files to Avira and they swiftly correct the program\database (usually the very next update) instead of MOANING about it in forums or slandering Avira for it.

And yes, it does not have an email scanner. It simply intercepts junk when you try to open a file (in this case email attachment). No problems there.

It's an excellent program. Good protection without wasting resources or slowing the system down (much). At the moment it is using less than 7MB RAM here. Compare that with over 70MB for an AV program\resource hog I won't mention in this forum...

[pepoluan]

I had experience with AVG and Avast.

In my experience AVG slows down the system more than Avast. But On-Demand scanning of AVG is faster than Avast.

I like Avast better because it is easy to do automatic downloading of off-line updates.

[Soyabeaner]

Compare that with over 70MB for an AV program\resource hog I won't mention in this forum...

http://forums.comodo.com/index.php/topic,7398.msg54545.html#msg54545

The five .exe files in "C:\Program Files\Comodo\Comodo AntiVirus" use over 70 mb of ram here.

[Toxteth O'Grady]

Never heard of irony before, have you? (hence the smiley...)

[Soyabeaner]

Never heard of irony before, have you? (hence the smiley...)

Likewise

[Toxteth O'Grady]

Tell me, don't you trust people or do you have a very good memory? 

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