Best Antivirus For Windows 10

What is the most recommend (free) antivirus program for Windows 10 for the average user?

Thanks

 

I use AVG Free 2015 and it works pretty well. Another one I've heard really good things about recently is Panda Free Antivirus 2015. Of course, when you install the free editions, they will always try to get you to sign up for the paid version, so you have to be careful.

 

I've seen nothing wrong with the default Windows Defender in Windows 10. It's free, unobtrusive and obviously works well with the operating system. In fact, I've been staying away from 3rd-party antimalware solutions for a while now, with absolutely no problems on personal or clients' machines.

 

If you don't want to stick with Windows Defender, both Avast Free Antivirus and Panda Free Antivirus are Windows 10 compliant.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/windows-10-approved-products/

 

My two top choices for third party anti-virus programs for Windows 10 are Avast Free Antivirus 2015, and Avira Free Antivirus, both are upgraded and ready to roll on Windows 10.

 

I am another vote for Avast antivirus I think it's a really good program compared to most others especially if they are free.

 

BitDefender Free Edition

Read the MajorGeek notes in bold type on the download page.

I have been using Bitdefender Free for about ten days. It is ridiculously easy to use.
It's so easy you might think there is something wrong with it, but there isn't. It is intended to be that way.
As MA says, it always rates at the top of the tests both in protection and also in performance (system impact) with very low false positives.
Judging from my monitoring with Resource Monitor, working set memory usage is fairly low.

Once it is installed, just get it registered and from then on everything is automatic.

Is Bitdefender 2015 compatible with Windows 10? (upgrade and installation process)

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If you like being bothered by your AV popping up needlessly at least once a session then any of the programs recommended in this thread will suffice. On the other hand you could stay with Defender and your peace will be undisturbed while it just quietly gets on with its job.

 

BitDefender Free does not equal the Bitdefender 2015 that reviews highly, Free is based on a cutdown older version, simple interface, almost zero options. Not suitable for W10 (look at the date).

 

Here's another review that clearly states which Free Antivirus programs support Windows 10.

http://freebies.about.com/od/computerfreebies/tp/best-free-antivirus.htm

 

avast is worth getting even the paid version is too i used the free for years and i also have the paid version they deserve to make some money.

 

This plus Common Sense 2015 Pro Edition keeps me safe.

I remember last year our work network got hit with ransomware. We were able to get it off before the payload triggered but the machine that infected it was protected by enterprise level antivirus and on a limited rights account.

I was piddling away on the other side of the building using Windows Defender running as Admin. In fact, my entire dev team was. We were all virus free, LOL.

 

Yeah, got to get me some of that - I like to leave a business card inside any of the cases I work on, and it sure would be nice to be able to sprinkle some good ole' CS in there with the peripherals...

 

I'm confused.
Major Geeks has a download page for BitDefender Free Edition
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/bitdefender_free_edition.html
It shows Windows 10 compatibility.

 

W10 released in July, BD Free driver dates are much older than the release date given; with AV/AM software, I'd not use anything where the main drivers/engine is older than a year, malware moves on pretty fast.

Compatible means only that it runs and (mostly) doesn't cause crashes.

 

Oh.

After reading Major Geeks impressive write up on the download page lead me to believe this program was an antivirus must have.

 

http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html let's look at the review (for BD Free 2014) listed on there: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421257,00.asp date of review =
July 01, 2013. "I can't report on how the independent antivirus testing labs rate Bitdefender Free, as they haven't specifically tested this product."

Scroll down the BD Free page and check the requirements:

Which ties in with their Support page, http://www.bitdefender.com/support/...r-running-your-bitdefender-products-1137.html

Ok, I'll install a fresh version of BD Free on W7 and recheck the dates of the drivers:
avc3.sys 17/04/2013 14:59:56
avckf.sys 17/04/2013 14:59:58
gzflt.sys 22/04/2013 13:21:00
trufos.sys 28/05/2013 12:12:19
bdfwfpf.sys 02/07/2013 14:04:11

But, the BD Free stub installer might load later drivers when it detects the OS as W10, you could check that out.

I check driver dates (Modified date = date stamped for release) using DriverView: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/driverview.html Add the Modified column (View - Choose columns) and hide Microsoft drivers then click the Modify date column header to sort them in age order, my rule of thumb for 3rd party driver dates for best stability is oldest drivers should be no later than the last OS Service Pack date (for W10, anything over a year old currently is likely to be running in some kind of compatibility mode, many hardware drivers from as far back as W7 SP1 will work fine, software drivers will be more variable).

My advice for W10 would be to stick with the default AV/Defender for several months (use some good Anti-malware alongside it) or buy a good Suite. There are likely to be some big updates for W10 in that time span, any of them might break 3rd party software installed - better to have decent support to fall back on, just in case (BD Free seems to be email support only, no support forum).

 

I have Windows 10 Pro, Defender and firewall enabled , MBAM - behind an ISP router.
lately my screen flickers now and then and it seems as though I have popups. I got those warnings twice that my pc is infected and to call a number.
I have run both full scans with root kits checked and all seems to test ok.
Is there anything else I can do to see if the pc is infected without running a program that cannot be uninstalled?
I ran SFC and that was ok.
Should I run something in safe mode?
This is aa pc I had built about 2 months ago with an SSD, and an Asus z390 board.

 

If you would like REALLY totally ad free, FortiClient from Fortinet is amazing. It's strictly an a-v, but there are caveats to this, because you can also install web filtering during installation, which is super fantasic, and also the program can provide memory protection for supported applications if you enable the Anti-Exploit feature in the settings. Possibly the best feature is the vulnerability scanner. It and the a-v scanner can be set on a schedule which is great too.

I pair this with Comodo Firewall for adless protectection. BTW, Forticlient's signatures can be enforced to varying/higher than default degrees if you don't mind editing the .html config file. F-C is straight office network endpoint a-v software that works with the F-C hardware firewall by design, so F-C didn't bother to put all the settings in the program. They are meant to be managed by an admin at a level above the actual endpoint running F-C. Anyone who would like to try the application can read more here in a thread on another site:

https://malwaretips.com/threads/forticlient-6-0-0-windows.83995/page-5

Post 90 contains the html values to change. The file can then be loaded and saved as the config from within the GUI. Configurations can be saved anytime in the html format and then loaded at will from the GUI.

F-C doesn't have any monitoring of vulnerable activities like command line. For this reason, as great as the web filtering and a-v are, I wouldn't use it alone. Comodo is a perfect companion for it, however, with HIPs and the auto-sandboxing of unsigned applications. Some other apps that could help include SysHardener and NVT OSArmor. Anything that monitors command line activities is good for pairing with F-C.

Avast, Bitdefender, Panda, and others like Kaspersky Security Cloud free are good programs. Of these, KSC is the best imo, because it has the rollback feature for protecting files from ransomware. It also has decent web filtering and very good signature detection. All of them have their weaknesses. Just as a quick example, I run a script from time to time on a system with Avast. I have hardened mode on and the like, but it took Avast months to alert me about the activity. O/c I whitelisted the script, but does make me wonder how much leeway actual malware gets with these a-vs. The script ran hundreds of times during that time.Don't want to harp on it, but KSC should get the high marks it gets for a free program, albeit some may feel challenged to steer clear of a Russian security program. I admit was terribly tempted to try KSC and almost installed it...ALMOST