what is the best antivirus software

what is the best antivirus software?

i have primarly stuck to avg but i am starting to look at other options because of problems iv had with avg. so im looking for the most protection for free.

any suggestion?

 

Hmmm, lets see

Free real time protection:
Avast (my personal favorite
Avira
Windows Defender
Spyware doctor (I think)

Regular scanners:
Malwarebytes ( personal favorite)
Nod32
SuperAntiSpyware
Ad-Aware
Spybot S&D

 

Zone Alarm

 

I heard Comodo are quite good
I have Comodo installed with anti virus
but bewarned it through up a false positive on the real time scan when it scanned your mgtools and quarantined your swreg.exe and your other one with a funny name bol
but that may be due to heuristic scan being to high
also im told you can have another av installed as either a real time scanner or stand alone but not both

 

I recently had a good experience with Avira.

A client of mine gave me a computer that was acting a bit funny, and I was certain that it had a virus. However I when I ran a virus scan nothing came up. I wasn't convinced, so I went down the line of products, scanning the computer with FIFTEEN different antiviruses, none of which detected anything... until I got to Avira! It detected a rare virus that had slipped through the cracks of all the commercial scanners. Not too bad for a free antivirus!

That said, ESET NOD32 is still my favorite AV, but it's not free.

 

Eset nod32, hands down, however, it's not free.

 

Someone said it here best, there is no 'best' antivirus program of all those available. After using McAfee for a time I decided a leaner less bloated program was preferable for me. Hard to beat the lean combination of PC Tools antivirus and PC Tools firewall. PC Tools is a small download size, small final product, and requires few NT type 023 services or processes running in the background.

 

For freeware I like Avast and AVG, for commercial Kaspersky and Trend Micro. I won't use Internet Security Suites any longer, but prefer separate programs for firewall, AV, Spyware/Malware. Also good to be behind a router, one with some encryption protocol in place (WEP, WPA, WPA2)
http://compudent.blogspot.com/2006/09/wireless-wep-vs-wpa-vs-wpa2.html

 

I've been using the free version of Avira AntiVir for year now and I love it. There is a "buy the Pro version now" nag screen that pops up when it does its auto-updates, but it can be disabled. It looks like MajorGeeks has had some server troubles and the version available here is v7 from Sept 2007, you can download the latest version (version 8) from this link.
:-D

 

also use Avira AntiVir

 

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 *Est. $35 Compare Prices

NOD32 earns accolades from users and experts for effectiveness and performance. Reports say that software conflicts are rare and that the program won't noticeably slow down your computer. Virus protection is first-rate… according to tests. The user interface notably improved in the previous version, and version 4 brings further improvements, making NOD32 easy to use. Unlike most antivirus software, user reaction and satisfaction is very positive.
Collaboration software

 

dlb, how difficult is it to disable the nag screen? I need to put some security on my fathers pc, but I don't think he would handle nag screens very well.

 

The instructions for disabling the nag screen have been posted here at MG a few weeks ago, but I'll post 'em again:

The server troubles that I spoke of have been fixed and you can download the newest AntiVir 9 from MajorGeeks using this link.

(I copy-n-pasted the instructions from EliteKiller dot com . . . link: http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm )

[dlb]
:-D