Free Antivirus

[jpchint]

Can any one suggest best free antivirus other than microsoft security essentials??

 

[RogerR]

Avast has worked very well for me. Skip all the add-on stuff and stay with the basic protection to limit pop-ups.

 

[ShamrockRig]

I second the avast option

 

[esmorax]

I used the AVG free version. It worked really well for me. However, I heard Avast is also a very reliable option

 

[Alejandro85]

I'm using Avira in one of my computers and ClamWin in another, so far without surprises, like them both, but to begin with I would recommend Avira just for the sake of having a real-time scanner.

I was using Avast at work and after getting TONS of false positives, I dumped it.

 

[Computer0304]

You should use AVAST Free with Malwarebytes PRO for best protection. Those two are often recommended on this forum.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Can any one suggest best free antivirus other than microsoft security essentials??

It depends on how you define "best".

As you probably know, there is a class of software that is considered "Potentially Unwanted Programs" (PUPs). Some antivirus tools ignore PUPs, others stop them. For example, The Conduit tool bar is a PUP that Panda Cloud Antivirus (PCA) stops, but Avira allows.

Some users that I support kept asking me to remove Conduit, for those users, PCA is the best free av tool.

But PCA is a young product that needs some minor bugs worked out and it is best to leave the settings at the their default values unless you want to spend a lot of time learning the impact of changing each setting.

 

[ThrashZone]

Most people using Avast have switched to Panda last I heard,
Good security combination,
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/206705-good-free-system-security-combination.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/297196-top-av-program-use-here-seven.html

 

[paul1149]

I had tried Panda Cloud Free a good year ago, and abandoned it - I don't remember exactly why, but I felt it wasn't quite ready yet. But I just tried it again on a netbook, and was quite pleased with it on a preliminary basis. With netbooks, you're always looking for something lightweight. Panda seems to achieve that while still giving some user configurability. Meanwhile I've been finding that MSE is not as lightweight as one might think.

The only shortcoming I found with Panda was the lack of ability to schedule scans. But that's due out soon in the next beta.

 

[Jonguy30]

Hi. I'm wondering how much resources does MSE use exactly? My avira uses about 1800kB to around 2900kB. I once heard that MSE uses about 50MB of RAM? Is that true?

Btw, I would recommend avira, I dumped avast after the "2014" version. I just didn't like it anymore. I also use MBAM, only the free version, not PRO. It also seems that pop-ups in avira has returned, is anyone else getting ad like pop-ups? It's not everyday I get them, just once every week or every other week. Is there any way to disable them?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi. I'm wondering how much resources does MSE use exactly? My avira uses about 1800kB to around 2900kB. I once heard that MSE uses about 50MB of RAM? Is that true?

MSE is about as windows friendly as you can hope for,
But cpu usage during a scan can be adjusted,
Now days Antivirus alone is not enough,
You need a dedicated Malware engine preferably one with Real time protection,
View attachment 310186

 

[paul1149]

CPU during a MSE scheduled scan can be adjusted, but I was getting hit on unscheduled activity, sometimes up to 90% of CPU. Why it was scanning I had no idea, as nothing new of note had occurred. This is not an infrequent occurrence.

As for memory usage, make sure you tally all an AV's distributed services. Yes to MSE taking 50MB. And that's pretty much on a good day.

 

[Jonguy30]

Yeah, I saw that you could limit CPU usage the one time I tried MSE. But currently I cannot get MBAM PRO, but I do have the free version. But I haven't updated it for, maybe a month or so. Maybe I should, hmm.. but the one scan (full) I once did took 2 hours, lol.

 

[paul1149]

Sometimes the first scan is the longest, as it builds a database. That's true of MSE. Whatever you choose, I recommend doing a full scan in order to speed up the computer.

 

[Jonguy30]

Oh, ok. Is the memory usage a problem when doing resource intensive tasks? Like when gaming and other tasks that take up system resources? Or does it adjust depending on what you do?

 

[paul1149]

That's what's been bothering me about MSE: it goes ballistic at seemingly strange times. But I'm referring to CPU usage more than memory, which I haven't tracked as carefully. It could be that when I install the dotnets they then optimize, and MSE is tracking that, but it seems to go beyond that. I need to test Panda more and see if there's a difference. I've been disabling MSE when I work on computers to get around the problem entirely, and then doing a full scan with it when I'm done working, which is a good idea anyway.

 

[Jonguy30]

What a strange problem. Do you know if it's been reported to MS so they can fix it? But MSE has had various problems a long time so I'm not sure if it it will be fixed. Anyway than you for the replies.

 

[paul1149]

No, I don't know.
BW.

 

[ThrashZone]

Full scans are always better done when the computer is not in use, really doesn't matter what security we're talking about they would all do a better job and run faster/ but MSE is one of the slowest,
The default scan is at midnight often not in use,
Quick scans I usually don't bother with but should also be done at lunch or down time,
The resources taking up reflect on the machine it's self not the scanner,
With the above said,
Power using or Game playing is not recommended to do as scans are in use
Cheers.

Looks like most of use have 4 gig's of ram.

 

[Lasha123]

Do NOT use avast guys. I had BSOD (Blue screen of death). I unistalled avast and then i installed MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) and i fixed my bluescreen. Avast has many problems and do NOT install avast, install AVIRA.