Best free and non-obnoxious anti-virus program?

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
I currently use Microsoft Security Essentials, but I'm wondering if there are better anti-virus programs out there. I haven't had any issues with MSE, but I want to keep my computer safe.

Suggestions?
 
Avast is what I use, just make sure to turn off sounds for auto-updating. You may or may not want the auto sandbox feature on. I test it against most the malware/trojans my clients have and it does better then MSE and AVG.
 
Been using Avast for more than 3 years now with no problems. I like it a lot better than AVG.
 
I use MSE. It keeps to itself and does its thing as a good virus scanner should. Used to use AVG but that was years ago. They started updating the program itself rather frequently which required intervention on my part. I don't like that.
 
not sure exactly what you are looking for but when I open up resource usage, Avast.exe uses an average of .01 of the CPU. That was full active in background with 77 threads going. In this amount of time I have taken to type this it has gone off the usage data completely. Keep in mind I am using an i7 though.
 
I was pretty much putting MSE on all my client's PCs, and then a round of Rogue AntiVirus 2012 got onto a bunch of them. It just disabled MSE and proceeded to wreak havoc on the system. I switched over to Avast and have not seen anything like that yet.
 
if your running MSE i suggest using malwarebytes on the side too. we run MSE at my work and we still find viruses and trojans all the time with malwarebytes
 
A lot of it depends on your internet habits. I'm pretty careful about the links I click on and we run filtering software that blocks many potentially dangerous sites. I also scan my registry run folders on a semi-regular basis to keep aware of what might be loading with the system. And our email is all internet based.
 
Atown said:
if your running MSE i suggest using malwarebytes on the side too. we run MSE at my work and we still find viruses and trojans all the time with malwarebytes
Click to expand...

Not sure how they stay so awesome but MBAM is been truly amazing for like 5 years now. It still cleans up any mess. I rarely have to use combofix anymore, MBAM just rocks. I picked up a ton of lifetime licenses for 9.99 each and resell them to clients for $30, its a no-brainer.
 
used MSE for a long time as well. Never really had any issues with it to be honest. I do use Avast now and LOVE it! Especially the link scanner that rates sites based on community votes.
 
I don't have any complaints about MSE, but I think I'll give Avast a try just to satisfy my curiosity. But it's good to know MSE is a viable option for users who are careful about what they do and where they go online.
 
Spend the money on BitDefender, you'll never regret it. I had Avast, and AVG in the past, and had a virus that completely locked down my PC. I got bitdefender installed on it, and not only did it wipe out the virus, but it knocked out tons of other crap I had and didn't realize it. One of which was a ghost program that kept clogging processor usage.

Edit: It did this due to BitDefender having what it calls "Rescue mode", which is its own mini operating system that reboots your pc into it.
 
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Bit defender ranks up there for sure, but it does nothing that's worth paying for in my opinion. MBAM plus Avast is a winner and free. If you want to throw money put it towards a lifetime license of MBAM not an AV. Rescue mode is easily done through free repair disks should you need it, which you won't if you have a tech friend like me.
 
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BullGuard is what my family and I have been using since 2005 I think..
It has a free trial, but it costs moniez after that..
Could always swap your OS from Windows to Linux since Mac isn't safe anymore...
 
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