Which freeware Antivirus is best?

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Nigel H-J
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Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Hi chaps, I know this is like a jungle with so many free antiviruses on the market but I am now looking at getting rid of my Kaspersky Total Security.

Have only 90 days of the licence left to run but since upgrading to Win 10 I found that the Safe Money does not give full protection and some applications will run but with limitations. Went to their website and found this out:

https://support.kaspersky.com/12198

I have had a look through at what is available and have got the list down to 2 definite choices but also know that it comes down to personal preferences so any-one who uses either Avast or AVG can you tell me of your experiences with either of them?

The site I looked at is here: http://uk.pcmag.com/antivirus-reviews/1 ... on-of-2017

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

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Nigel.
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TSR2
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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by TSR2 »

I just use the inbuilt Windows 10 defender and have no issues with it. Certainly better than most of the free stuff I used to use.
Ben.:tunes:

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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by Vancouver »

I agree I have used MS own in built for many years with many different Windows iterations and never had a virus get through, it has caught several. ATM I am still using Defender in conjunction with Kaspersky which I only installed because it was a full 1 years licence and came with my new ASUS ROG motherboard. In truth it is a bit overly picky. This very site it gives a warning about because there is something missing in the coding (I forget the exact message) Once the year is up I will revert to only Defender. In conjunction with Malwarebytes (free) and BitDefender (also free). I have been just fine for a long long time (touch wood) *-)
Alex

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Paul K
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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by Paul K »

I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials on my W7 PC and Microsoft Defender on my W10 laptop, with premium Malwarebytes on both. I got Malwarebytes just before it changed from a lifetime license to an annual subscription, but I think I'd keep it going anyway. I've never had a moment's bother.

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Many thanks for your replies, still as yet undecided but may probably go own the route of Windows Defender.

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Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by Dev One »

I have used the payware AVG for years following a virus back in days of yore. Went to the payware version because the freeware would identify the virus but thats all!
I was though working for the government & had legal use of Sophos, now jump quite a few years to about 3 years ago when my son gave me his old 'puter that had W8.1 with a legal payware Sophos installed, which ran out about 18 months later. So I liked Sophos a great deal & found that they now do a Home version for free! So have now got that on my main desktop, but still have AVG on my & the wifes laptops, which I will change to Sophos when it expires, because AVG can be a bit intrusive.
Sophos seems to update every hour & runs in the background quite silently, although I have found recently that starting some programmes - like gmax & FSX that it takes a long time to light up, I expect its scanning, so I must delve into the innards to create some exclusions.
Hope that info has not upset your applecart.
Keith
P.S. Still have the M$ issued malware stuff.

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Hi Dev One, many thanks for your input, we used to have Sophos when I worked in local government did not know that there is a free version of it though. Once though we got a virus after some-one opened up their e-mail and would have thought that Sophos would have detected it! *-)

I was re-thinking my choices and AVG are available as free-ware but wondering how good it actually is even though I have viewed a site that has tested quite a few I think it is all down to choice.

Will make up my mind over the next few days after I have ennie minie mo'd 'em!! :lol:

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Nigel
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TobyV
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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by TobyV »

TSR2 wrote:
20 Aug 2017, 13:10
I just use the inbuilt Windows 10 defender and have no issues with it. Certainly better than most of the free stuff I used to use.
I concur, I work with software engineering professionals and one of them, who regularly listens to a podcast called "security now", recommended to me that Windows Defender was now not that bad at all and if you are careful - i.e. you don't visit dodgy websites and you are careful about opening emails and particularly attachments and links in emails then you will probably be fine without a 3rd party antivirus package.

I've found a lot of them just slow the machine down, prevent various operations from occurring (e.g. compilers/linkers being inhibited because the antivirus detects an executable being modified or overwritten) and in the worst cases, retrospective clean up programs like Malwarebytes, CCleaner and so forth proved more useful when I actually got a problem.

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Nigel H-J
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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by Nigel H-J »

Hi Toby, Many thanks for your reply. it looks like my decision my sway over to Windows 10 Defender though where you mentioned Malwarebytes I too have that but.........found it picked out a lot of malware that was not malware at all and files from FSX Dirt Rally etc. so rightly or wrongly I no longer use it as my fear is that if malwarebytes wanted to delete them how will that affect my games?

. I only use sites such as Just Flight, Avsim, Amazon (when the wife feels the need to spend my pension) :wall: here as well as BBC News :wasntme:

Such a boring life I lead :lol: As for e-mails I never open up any that are spam related and also ones' not from somewhere I don't know.

Many thanks again.

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Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

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petermcleland
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Re: Which freeware Antivirus is best?

Post by petermcleland »

Windows 10 Defender...Definitely :agree:

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