best anti virus program

What is the best anti virus program i can get for free?? i need help.. thank you.

 

AVG or Avast for sure if you are looking for a free one.

I use AVG on all my home PCs.

Both should be available on this site.

For a commercial product, Norton seems to do its job, but I have put it on my blacklist for being a resource hog. Try running it on a system with 256MB

 

i uze antivir it works great but i forgot the link can somebody post it please

 

http://majorgeeks.com/AntiVir_Personal_Edition_d955.html

 

Lots of great free antivirus right here at Major Geeks, with Avast, AVG, and Antivir leading the pack. Check out this page for other options as well.

http://majorgeeks.com/downloads29.html

I use avast. It updates all the time, and doesn't hog resources. AVG is also very good. These programs are better than Nortons and McAffee, so don't let the word "free" scare you. If I had money, I'd save it and use one of these free ones.

 

I recommend you try Avast Home Edition

I currently have Norton AntiVirus 2005 running on this computer at only 192mb and it runs fine along with my other programs.

I know that Avast and AVG are not better then Norton and McAfee, but If you are talking about resource usage you are right.

 

Why do you say that? I'm interested to see some facts to back up that statement.
Eric

 

in fact i find quite the opposite.

I had a clients computer protected with NAV 2005 fully updated with real time protection on. I uninstalled it and installed AVG instead. After running a full system scan around 200 viruses were found, so saying that AVG is not as good as Norton is not true. The opposite is most likely true.

 

My choice of the free is AVG w/Kerio (about to be a thing of the past) firewall. For purch I will stick with Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security AV/FF. Have used Norton and McAfee and found both to be good for AV but, as mentioned, are resource hogs and takes forever (it seems) to scan. Also they don't play well with some software (IMO only).

Jack

 

I have facts here in the form of magazine tests and reviews which showed that Norton and Nod32 were the best at detecting viruses, especially polymorphic viruses.

It's becoming trendy to bash Norton, and to a lesser extent McAfee.

Anyway, all this is irrelevant and off topic. The author wants free, so discussing Norton isn't helpful.

 

Kaspersky is good!

 

Is it available free?

 

Yes I understand this, but magazine tests and reviews can always be subject to criticism, and I am only stating personal experiences that norton isn't all its cracked up to be.

I agree, go with AVG, Avast or AV-Win.

 

I agree with you there insomniac..Just becuase norton and mcafee are the "heavy weights" of the antivirus world doesnt mean there bad too use.

I also have proof, in form of a test by a well known antivirus tester....

According to what you said above is proven wrong on antivirus tests across the web. On every test I have seen has giving Norton a big advantage in detection over most antivirus programs including AVG. Just remember no antivirus program picks up everything

 

nope, you gotta pay!

 

Yes, I know.

I said that because the author of this post asked for FREE.

Posting about retail and shareware doesn't help, does it?

 

yea so then y did you ask if it was free? if you already knew you could have just said you had to pay....

 

I said it in sarcasm, if you know what that means.

If you need me to explain it, then you need more help than I am qualified for.

 

hey, i didn't want to get into a war about which antivirus is better than which other antivirus . Most of them all do their job pretty well, a lot of the time it just comes down to personal preference. But there have been articles where AVG edges out Norton. I don't want to start any flame wars so can we please leave it at that.

 

Found this review at www.av-comparatives.org (go to August 2005 online results page) and it seems to suggest that AntiVir is better than either AVG or Avast(?? ) and that NOrton's AV is Advanced+ compared with either of those!??????!

Has anyone else seen this? I don't know what to believe anymore.

 

His testing is what you would probably want too compare antivirus products with as his are more accurate using 400,000+ samples to test with... And yes AntiVir is the top free antivirus among the three. (dont know why you are shocked to know that ) Just because Norton seems to be a resource hog on most people's computers, doesnt mean it wont have good detection rates againest threats.

 

The antivirus program I trust/rely on most is AntiVir.
I also have AVG (its good to use 2 scanner/removers) and use it as my resident/background scanner.
Both are free.

Happy trailz

 

Well I'm shocked to know that Antivir is the best free AV because from all the threads about AV on MG's that I've read I got the impression that AVG & Avast were THE ones to go with. This is the first I've ever heard that AntiVir is better than AVG or Avast.

 

No, it's not good to use 2 AntiVirus scanners.

Show me one reputable site or expert who recommends that. If fact, they say not to as it can cause false reports and corruption.

If what you say is correct and that 2 is better than 1, then using the same flawed "logic", 10 is better than 2 and so on.

 

Wrong, it is never good to have 2 AV programs installed on your computer. They can and often do conflict with each other.

AntiVir Personal Edition, Avast! Home Edition, and AVG Free Edition are all good FREE Anit-Virus packages. Which one you use is a matter of personal preference and available system resources.

Using detection rates to determine which program is better, isn't a good standard to judge a program by. There are many viruses that are written to look and see if the 'HeavyWeights', Norton and McAfee, are installed on your system. If detected the virus disables your Resident scanner without you knowing.

 

You can have two antiviruses installed on your computer but only one can be running active and the other not. As you could use the not running antivirus for doing an on-demand scans only. Or yes conflicts will occur between them if running at the same time.

 

Some brands of AV will refuse to install if they detect an AV program already installed on a computer; they issue a request during the installation process, in effect, to remove the current AV before installation can continue.

 

Which opens another can of worms. Compatibility. Would Avast and AntiVir work OK together on xp sp2, assuming norton is gone?

 

IMO, installing one than one AV program is just asking for trouble; if you need one to cover the others' butt, the first one isn't worth having. The percieved spyware multi-program theory never held much water with me, and it does even less with AV programs.

There are security sites that have test viruses that can be downloaded to check your AV. Good, thorough test viruses, not that weenie program by Eicar.

 

There is no need or benefit to having more than 1 AntiVirus program.

If anyone thinks otherwise, then I'm still waiting for an answer to the following,

"if having 2 is better than 1, then wouldn't having 10 be even better yet"?

 

Try reading a post before you attack it.
I clearly said only one is running resident/background.

"I also have AVG (its good to use 2 scanner/removers) and use it as my resident/background scanner."

Do you not understand what that means?
If you think any scanner gets every bad boy every time ... good luck to you.
My logic here is not flawed. Your attitude may be.

 

I am going to say this one more time, for the benefit of those who fail to understand.

You do not ever install more than 1 Anti-Virus program on your computer, they are not smart enough to know the difference between signature/definition files and real virus/Trojan signatures. Many of the leading AV programs embed themselves deeply into the registry, and will cause several false positives between the different scanners, whether or not only 1 is resident; as well as cause other conflicts.

 

Since you are "Authorized" I'll shut it.
No more comments from me on the matter.
I like this forum and would prefer to stay.

Happy trailz,

 

It's got nothing to do with who is authorised.

It's got to do with posting wrong information that others who read will take as practise.

It is wrong to have more than one installed, it can cause corruption and faults. (Regardless of whether only one is resident)

There is nothing wrong with having a debate on a relevant issue, so don't personalise it because you don't have the facts to back you up.


I don't mind being corrected, but show me one reputable expert or site that recommends this and I will post a retraction.

 

Antivirus progs work on definitions. In other words,
they scan the bits and pieces of your computer for the
names of viruses. What I have found over the years
is that some programs will spot the virus definition list of another
anit-pest program and flag the definitions themselves.
Seriously, if you think one of the freebies actually found 200 viruses
that Norton failed to find, you're 100% mistaken.

 

I don't know that site, so I am not commenting on it per se.
But I think the rule of thumb is to select reviews from sources
that can be verified as truly independant.
Consumer reports, for instance.

 

I made my comment before spotting this, but you are absolutely correct.
It's all about the definitions. That is what gives the big guns the edge. They have large teams that constantly review threats and update the definitions lists.

 

All right people it's time to get this back on topic the orginal poster wanted to know what is the best FREE Anti-Virus program.

This is not a debate about which AV program is better than the other or the relative faults of a particular AV program.

As I have stated before any of the above packages are good and will provide more than adequate protection.

 

Personally, I had problems with AntiVir Guard staying active, probably because of Zone Alarm. AVG would never update for me. Avast on the other hand has proven to be my cup of tea. Firstly, it tells me, literally with voice, when it has installed updates. Secondly, it does not fight with Zone Alarm. And lastly, it seems to scan a whole lot more files than AVG or AntiVir did. Just my un-computer-educated opinion.

 

star 17, where might i find one of these test viruses and more importantly, does it come with the "The dummies guide to" instructions?

 

What happens when you uninstall an AV program that installs DEEPLY into the registry, and then install a new one? Will false + still come up? I think that actually happened to me when I uninstalled McAfee at one point in time. Would it be best to reformat and then install the AV of your choice?

 

If uninstalling an AV program leaves behind redundant files, then you can or should manually delete them before installing another program.

There are a few available like EICAR, and for Spyware you can use TROJAN SIMULATOR.

 

After using the Uninstaller to remove the program, you can use software tools to remove any left behind registry entries. Symantec has tools to help remove the remnants of their programs. You can also use a registry cleaner to remove the orphaned registry entries.

 

I've got them in files at work, I'll try and remember to post them tomorrow if I'm not too busy. As far as instructions, it involves two clicks of the mouse; if you need a guide for that, we need to talk

 

You would probably be amazed at what I have screwed up with two clicks of the mouse. But I am getting better everyday.

 

I tried to but there's still McAfee files left in my registry that can't be removed. Phoned them, got tech support, downloaded their removal tool, got more technical support, and was told that there are some files that simply can't be removed.

 

Insomniac, Thanks for the links.

 

It takes you 2 clicks? I can do it in one!

And you're welcome for the links.

 

Why can't they be manually deleted?

You can try Safe Mode to delete them, or for program files and folders you can use something like POCKET KILLBOX.

 

Kaspersky Personal is for free .. I think ..
or you can use its Personal Pro version which is great ..
the best Anti Virus I had .. and I tried about 7 of them
detects 99% of known viruses .. and its very low on system resources unlike norton ..