blunce Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 (edited) Been STUCK with Norton Security Suite for a few years now, and just can't take it anymore. Looking for opinions on free Anti-virus software. I've used McAfee in the past it was alright, and had Norton for a bit now, and it always kills my pc when it does...well....just about anything, but usually the definitions update and the scan usually takes about 24hrs to do. I only have a 1TB hard drive that isn't even half full and only 2GB of RAM which I hope to upgrade sometime in the near future. Needs to be Suite type, not stand-alone (I think). I'm considering: AVG Ad-Aware Avira Brian Edited July 21, 2011 by blunce Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 If it falls under your parameters, consider >>> Avast <<< also ... Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomcatFanatic123 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 I'm running Avast! free anti-virus right now, and it seems to be doing OK for me. You have to re-up it every year (it automatically updates itself when you turn on the computer, and if there's a new version out, it prompts you to install), and the reason for that is so they can "offer" you their paid version, which is designed more for small business/corporation stuff than running it on a home computer/laptop. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomcatFanatic123 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 See what happens when you go get a glass of water in the middle of typing a reply? Thanks a lot, Gregg :P Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hoops Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 take a look at Microsoft security essentials as well, I'm running it right now, it caught lots of stuff that McAfee didn't catch. (which is actually the reason I had to look for a new program). Cheers, -Hoops Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GreyGhost Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 See what happens when you go get a glass of water in the middle of typing a reply? Thanks a lot, Gregg :P Sorry 'bout that James ... take a look at Microsoft security essentials as well, I'm running it right now, it caught lots of stuff that McAfee didn't catch. (which is actually the reason I had to look for a new program). Cheers, -Hoops Yeah, I run that in conjunction with Avast now too ... Gregg Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 As far as free anti virus goes, my favorite is FreeAVG. Lightweight, works. Tried Avast once, didn't like it at all. I'm running FreeAVG on my laptop right now. If you're running "standard" PC, i.e. not running anything fancy like VMware or other virtualisation software, you might also consider COMODO Internet Security Suite (the free version). It's all-in-one software. Quite light weight, much more so than Norton Internet Security or Norton 360. I'm running COMODO Internet Security on my two home PCs. The reason why I'm not running COMODO on my laptop is because I've got VMware Server running on it, which does not quite agree with COMODO. HTH. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastijan Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Happy Avast user here as well... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blunce Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 I think I'm going to give Avast a try and see how it goes. Thanks for all the replies! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
juanchopancho Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 take a look at Microsoft security essentials as well, I'm running it right now, it caught lots of stuff that McAfee didn't catch. (which is actually the reason I had to look for a new program). Cheers, -Hoops W7 Ultimate 64 user here. +1 and I've tried everything. My pc build specs: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600 EVGA 012-P3-1571-AR GeForce GTX 570 1280MB Crucial M4 64GB & 128GB SATA III MLC Internal SSDs I am a spammer....please report this post. Deskstar 7K3000 1.5TB CORSAIR Professional Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W COOLER MASTER V6 GT DynaLoop CPU Cooler Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blunce Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 Got Avast running with Comodo firewall and all seems to be running rather smoothly now. Definition updates have happened without slowing down my pc at all. Norton would render my pc virtually useless while it was updating definitions and usually took up to 30 minutes to complete. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
richter111 Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Microsoft security essentials I have been running it for the past couple/three years and I have had zero problems. It is a great FREE system Quote Link to post Share on other sites
UKPonchoMan Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Can't go wrong with AVC... I did consider Microsoft SE but the reviews I've seen have not been particularly complimentary... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
grandadjohn Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 (edited) Ad-Aware is not much of a virus program, but is good for spyware and it is free. You can also pick up Windows defender from microsoft, it's free. it's good fpr spyware and melware, etc Edited July 22, 2011 by grandadjohn Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike C Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Ad-Aware is not much of a virus program, but is good for spyware and it is free. There's also Spybots S&D (Search & Destroy) which has been around for close to 10 years. Fantastic little tool to get rid off spyware. And yes, it's free. Personally, I prefer Spybots to Ad-Aware. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Huey Gunner Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Another satisfied Microsoft Security Essentials user here. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sarathi S. Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Microsoft security essentials, Avast, and Malwarebytes all work well. Avira in my opinion is terrible. I say this from experience. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
blunce Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 Microsoft did have pretty good reviews, but from what I read lacked in a few areas like saying a virus had been removed when in fact it was still on the system tested. The same review also stated that a few of the free versions rated higher than Microsoft, so I went with one of them (Avast). Been happy with it so far. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pirata Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I've seen Ad-Aware defeated/disabled by a virus once and McAfee defeated/disabled twice. Norton uses so many system resources that it's not worth installing; It slows your computer down so much that you might as well be using the last computer you owned. Microsoft Security Essentials has the benefit of being constantly updated. If you're willing to spend any money, Kaspersky is the best one out there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Charlie Cheetah Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Im using Avast Anti Virus and Malwarebytes anti malware/spyware. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
smithery Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Im using Avast Anti Virus and Malwarebytes anti malware/spyware. Ditto this combo. I've had them running on my HP G60 for the past year and a half without issue. Resource allocation is completely transparent. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
juanchopancho Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Thanks to the admin/global mod for sabotaging my post, very funny. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
madmike Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Thanks to the admin/global mod for sabotaging my post, very funny. Whatever the brand name of the component you mentioned in your system specs was caught by the spammer word filter NOT by admin staff. If staff had edited your post, it would be shown. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Whatever the brand name of the component you mentioned in your system specs was caught by the spammer word filter NOT by admin staff. If staff had edited your post, it would be shown. Had that happen to me once and I thought someone had hacked into my account and changed the text. Didn't find out until a few months later that is an automatic function of the spam filter. To be honest, I think you would be better served just deleting the offending word instead of replacing it with nonsense. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wolfgun33 Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I use AVG, Ad-aware, and Spybot. Never had any problems. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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