Good Free Antivirus

[TTY]

...Which version did you install? ...

I can't remember, it was so long ago.

[Saucey]

If you want to run your computer with least resource usage then I would suggest LUA + SRP, K9 and Bitdefender Free.

I'll have to try this out in one of my machines.
I normally toss MSE and Ad Blocker Plus for Chrome or Firefox. I would use that stop javascript but it seemed quite annoying enabling websites I normally traffic or sites that I know aren't bad...

[Adda]

Well I'm a little late, but since no one has mentioned Panda Cloud, I'll mention Panda Cloud.


PANDA CLOUD

[sir_synthsalot]

I like MSE because it stays out of the way, and does not lock down your computer and interfere with everything you do like some other antiviruses. It also doesn't have popups telling you to upgrade to the paid version.

The disadvantage is it does not detect adware, so I use MBAM on-demand scanner when I suspect some software came bundled with malware.

[Adda]

Panda Cloud (free edition) doesn't even need updates, so it's even more invisible then MSE.

[dogbarber]

Avast for me. Keep.windows updated and don't click any links that are questionable and you're golden.

[Temetka]

I was using MSE but after Microsoft admitted that they basically wanted it to be an OK anti-virus solution, it's not meant to go toe toe with NOD32 and the rest. So I installed the latest version of BitDefender free. I'll let ya all know if I get infected. I never got infected with MSE so I just might switch back to it. I do practice safe computing and have the following addons installed in Firefox:

Noscript
AdBlock+
FlashBlock
Ghostery

and of course a youtube downloader or 2

Not only am I virus free, but web pages load considerably faster. I rarely experience a popup blocking my article, or anything trying to auto download.

[dr_st]

Is NoScript any better than it used to be? Back in the day (probably almost a decade ago), I tried it briefly, and found out that it breaks too many site without a simple way to add them to the whitelist. Moreover, in some cases it was not immediately obvious that there was any additional content that NoScript broke. So I dumped it and started using YesScript instead to filter out specific sites that were hogging the CPU on my weaker systems with badly broken scripts.

[Temetka]

Is NoScript any better than it used to be? Back in the day (probably almost a decade ago), I tried it briefly, and found out that it breaks too many site without a simple way to add them to the whitelist. Moreover, in some cases it was not immediately obvious that there was any additional content that NoScript broke. So I dumped it and started using YesScript instead to filter out specific sites that were hogging the CPU on my weaker systems with badly broken scripts.

Excellent question.

TBH, I have no idea. The sites I visit work fine. I will take a look at YesScript though.

[dr_st]

Actually, I did read (after I posted), that NoScript has an option of "allow all by default", which makes it behave just like YesScript. So it's probably fine.

[gravy robber]

Sorry to dig up this thread. I'm sick of AVG free constantly bringing up these sliding ads in the corner of my screen.

I really like Malwarebytes free and could make use of the paid features. But most things I've read said that it should only be used as a second line of defense and adware/malware removal and the like.

Avira and Avast seem to be the best free choices. Does MSE really not do enough combined with noscript/adblock? What are my other options?

[ajkula66]

Does MSE really not do enough combined with noscript/adblock? What are my other options?

MSE is sheer junk IMO.

Try Panda. Or Avast. As good as "free" offerings get.

If you don't mind paying, it's ESET or Kaspersky.

As for other options...the best antivirus is common sense.

[Khipata]

I tried them all... Over last 10 years... And in about 2012 realized that they are more trouble than help, in my case anyway... So since 2012 I do not use any and never, even ONCE I had a problem on my multiple laptops, old or new, XP or Windows 10

[Hans Gruber]

Microsoft Security Essentials

[Dos3.1]

Been using ClamWin Free Antivirus for on-demand scans and Online Armor firewall. Seem good and quite light. I have MSE on some machines and find it good.

I used to use AVG and Zonealarm, but they got crappy, and bloated and needed to get paid, especially ZA with too many popup advertisements.

[axur-delmeria]

On my recent Windows installs, I've been using Bitdefender Free Antivirus. I don't know how good it is compared to other free antivirus software, but it's lighter on system resources than Avast and (probably) Avira, allowing me to use it on Win 7 systems with only 2GB RAM.

It's also not very obstructive, as it doesn't show any pop-up ads. It doesn't even show a pop-up notification whenever it detects a virus/malware, preferring to silently remove/clean/quarantine the infected file. The developers say that it's designed that way to prevent the antivirus from disrupting the user as he works on the computer.