Free Antivirus

[Snakeseye0]

Anyone know some good free antivirus software I can download online? Anything but avast.

[Stelio Kontos]

Malwarebytes

https://www.malwarebytes.org/

[Flutterguy]

If you have Windows, just download MSE. It's actually quite effective for a free tool.

It got rid of a pretty nasty rootkit virus I had a while back that other removal tools did not detect.

[Deleted]

^ agree with malwarebytes

adblock is also excellent protection if you dont have it

[Stelio Kontos]

If you have Windows, just download MSE. It's actually quite effective for a free tool.

It got rid of a pretty nasty rootkit virus I had a while back that other removal tools did not detect.

MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) is pretty decent too.

I use both that and Malwarebytes. Haven't had any issues in years.

[Flutterguy]

MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) is pretty decent too.

I use both that and Malwarebytes. Haven't had any issues in years.

Yup. That and general safe browsing practices helps.

[Endus]

Moved this to the Computers sub-forum, where it's more appropriate.

[marmac3]

CCleaner + AdBlock Plus + Avast is my choice

[Xarganthos]

avast is pretty decent, i'm using it myself and had never Problems. for malware and stuff i'm using malwarebytes and adaware.

[MyndZero]

I would go for AVG, it's probably the best I reckon.

If you can get a paid though, I would 100% recommend that. Don't get trend micro though, unless you want all your internet filtering through their servers before it hits the destination and ultimately slows down your computers connection (it can be disabled... but that's not the point here)

[Noctifer616]

I use CCleaner, Avira and SUPERAntySpyeware. Have been using them for a very long time now and I can say I am quite happy with them.

[Baphomette]

I have heard[1][2] that MSSE is not as good as it used to be, supposedly because Microsoft is not interested in competing with security companies so much as just making sure everyone has some baseline protection available.

I still use it myself because it stays out of the way, doesn't eat resources, and shuts up unless there's a problem. I more or less know what I am doing, securitywise, but my wife does not; I'm trying Bitdefender's free version out on her new system and it similarly stays out of the way. Level of protection remains to be seen, but it might become my new recommendation for resident defense. I'm partial to MWB for manual scans, but every now and then I come across something that it can't remove or even detect, so I have a stable of other tools like AdwCleaner and ComboFix.

[Noomz]

Anyone know some good free antivirus software I can download online? Anything but avast.

Ad-Aware is pretty solid.

[Byucknah The Red]

I use Malwarebytes and MSE for my computer scans and then I use Adblock and No-Script for preventative measures.

[Deleted]

AntiVir - no problems in the last 5 years.

[Sekhmet]

I use AVG. Has been good so far, but it will constantly try and get you to sign up for the full version. Free version is a bit lacking in stopping bad adds and so from your browser.

[Vermicious]

It also depends on what version of Windows you are using.

Windows 8.X already has antivirus built in: Windows Defender (same product as Microsoft Security Essentials when installed in Windows 7).

This, plus your choice of antimalware, is all you really need.

[Warrax]

Most anti-virus programs are bloated, use a lot of resources and don't detect much these days, unfortunately. Go with anti-malwares which cover most of the "modern" issues. Along with malwarebyte, I recommend Hitman Pro, scanning is free, you gotta pay the full version to clean but you get a 30 free days which is usually enough to remove your crap (unless you get crap often which shouldn't happen...)

Things like MSE, Avast, Avira, McAfee (lol), Norton, etc gives you the illusion of safety but in reality, they don't detect most crap because it's not about Viruses anymore, it's mostly about malware, adware, riskware, etc and programs that remove these, also removes viruses.

[caninepawprints]

AntiVir - no problems in the last 5 years.

This is the one I would recommend as well. A friend of mine was a well known hacker for a long time until she decided to live cleanly, and this is the virus protection she recommends.

Also, some of the suggestions made in this thread are not actual virus protection but are malware protection (which virus scanners don't typically scan for unless malware protection is built into it).

I'd recommend MalwareBytes and AntiVir (download both). If you want extra protection, you can install AVG as a back up, which is the virus protection my husband recommends (he builds and repairs computers for a living), but I found it to be annoying with its daily pop-ups.

[Dispraise]

I use Malwarebytes and Spybot-S&D