Any Decent (and FREE) AV Software for Windows 7?

[PKTrekGirl]

Hi all,

I have a home laptop that I don't really use very often, but that I just upgraded to Windows 7. It came with Vista but I got a free copy of Windows 7 because I bought the laptop late last year.

I don't really want to pay for a subscription to Symantec for this computer. Can anyone here suggest a FREE and decent Anti-virus program that will protect me?

I am planning to use the Windows Firewall and will do all the usual stuff like Spywear programs....but I need a good AV that I won't have to pay $40+ for.

Thanks for any assistance!

 

[Amaris]

AntiVir - www.free-av.com
I have used it for years, and use it on my Win7 machine. Light footprint, solid detection rate. I highly recommend this one.

AVG Free - http://www.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus
AVG has always been one of the better choices (except for v8.0).

There are more, but these two are the most popular.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Wow! That was a quick reply! Thanks very much for your help! It is very much appreciated!

 

[Amaris]

You're welcome.

 

[Sheep]

Typically it's AntiVir for me, but I've been giving Microsoft Security Essentials a test-run on my Windows 7 machine for the past few months.

I almost never run into any virus issues anyway, so I can't exactly say how well it performs but it seems to be fairly highly regarded among the tech writers.

 

[CorporalClegg]

The new Microsoft Security Essentials is excellent. It's been give great marks by pretty much everybody. Has as good detection as any of the others but a much lower false-positive rate.

It also has a much small memory footprint than the others.

You can DL it right from Microsoft. It's totally free (as long as you have a authentic, validated copy of windows) and you won't be bothered by nag/addware that comes with all the other free ones these days.

 

[sojourner]

AVG has always worked for me, and it has no adware.

 

[CorporalClegg]

It does now.

 

[The Fatman]

yeah, I don't recommend the newest AVG anymore, after years of singing it's praises.

Let me second what Clegg said about Microsoft Security Essentials. I can tell you my company just switched us off an enterprise license of Symantec Antivirus Corporate and rolled out MSSE to all workstations. It detects more, removes better, and has a third of the footprint. FOR FREE.

 

[Captain Pike]

I'll third that.

I noticed some unusual behaviour recently on the PC's of one of our large corporate clients. There were a menagierie of worms and virii jumping from workstation to workstation, despite the proprietry AV software they were running. I looked up a few of their ailments and found that they were missed by the majority of AV software out there, but that some had reported Microsoft Security Essentials as being able to detect and remove them. I tried it and sure enough it did.

It's free to use and will work on any XP or Windows 7 machine providing you have a legitimate release and not a pirated copy, and it beats a lot of licensed proprietry software out there.

 

[sojourner]

It does now.

Um, no, I am using the latest version right now. No adware. Unless you're counting at the bottom edge of the window when you open the client. But how often do you open the client? not very.

 

[CorporalClegg]

^
Why wouldn't I count it? An ad is an ad.

Not to mention, the trial version is now the default installation. (Didn't used to.) Anyone who isn't paying attention during installation (And let's face it, that's a lot of us.) is going to get stuck with hard to remove nagware after 30 days.

Plus, the free version doesn't do as much as it used to. You have to pay $19.99 to get everything you used to get for free. Yes, it's not a lot, but that isn't the point.

But my point was, you get everything AVG gives you for $40 for free with MSE. No strings attached. In fact, once word gets out about it, I think there's going to be some stir-up in the AV industry. Look what happened to most of the good firewalls once Microsoft starting offering a perfectly adequate one with Windows.

 

[sojourner]

Meh, I'm part of the "don't trust MS" generation. The only thing I use at home from Microsoft is the OS, and I wouldn't use that if it weren't for the fact that game makers don't make clients for Linux.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Free apps are usually untrustworthy, or have the adware.

I paid for ESET NOD32 A/V. It's $56 for 2 users per year right now, but I'm happy with it.

The 2 users covers desktop & laptop.

 

[Deks]

3 best free antivirus programs:

Avira
Microsoft Security Essentials
Avast 5

They all have high detection rates (comparable if not better to paid software per AV comparables), they do not impact the system (meaning you will never even notice they are on), and will be able to remove all detected threats.

AVG is pretty bad in detection rates and is a resource hog, hence my recommendation is to steer clear of it.

With one of the 3 programs I stated, protection is a non-issue for the most part in combination with a web browser such as Firefox or Chromium that have adblock.

I myself am using MSSE for months now and have 0 complaints.
Caught some potential nasties that wanted to get into the system (along with threats on my clients computers - pre MSSE).

In addition to that, I keep Malwarebytes (free) on the computer as an on-demand scanner.
I run it once every 3 months just for the sake of it.

Today there's really no need for paid AV software any more because open source solutions like the ones above are enough for most people (even if they go to so-called 'shady websites').

 

[Amaris]

Free apps are usually untrustworthy, or have the adware.

...

Oh, I have to disagree about that. Some of the best apps are free and have no spyware or adware. In the software industry, "you get what you pay for" doesn't apply as well as it does in the physical world. Some of the most expensive software is pure resource eating garbage, and there are freeware programs that beat some of the "best" payware.

What you do have to do is be judicious when selecting freeware. Programs like Avira, Avast, Spybot S&D, CCleaner, are superior to any payware and are free of virii and spyware. In fact, Avira's detection rate is slightly better than NOD32 A/V, and also has fewer false positives in a thorough scanning mode.

 

[Deks]

Axiom ... if I may add to your post ...
Out of the 3 free AV's I posted, Avira has the highest rate of false positives, while MSSE and Avast 5 seem to have the lowest.
Avira though comes out on top with 99% in detection rates, and MSE/Avast 5 have 98.5% if I'm not mistaken.

Neither of the 3 programs come with spyware, malware, adware (or any other similar garbage) of any kind.
If they were, I wouldn't be using MSSE.

As for Spybot S&D ... it's not as good as it used to be actually.
I recommend using Malwarebytes (free) instead.

 

[CorporalClegg]

In addition to that, I keep Malwarebytes (free) on the computer as an on-demand scanner.
I run it once every 3 months just for the sake of it.

I do the same. Though, honestly, since I got MSE I don't think I've even bothered with it.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Even outside this thread, I've heard great things about MSE. The fact that it's free, has a small footprint, and is about as accurate as the other AVs would pretty much make it a done deal for me.

 

[Skywalker]

I've been using Avast for years now, it's worked well for me.