Best free virus protection...?

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Hi all

My AVG free anti virus protection now wants to start charging me - anybody know or have luck with other free virus protection apps they can recommend?

Thanks a heap

Whatever you do, DO NOT use Avast!! It slowed my puter down to a bare crawl.. I repeat do not use Avast!!

I have the Avira anti-virus plugin on my browser. It works fairly well. And it does NOT slow me down like Avast did.

Hi Blue Ladybug

Thanks - gonna look it up!

I suggest Panda Antivirus Free.
The install file is not readily available and you have to do some digging, but I have no problems with it, and it has done a great job so far.
Here is the link, but if this link is not allowed... mods feel free to delete it.

If the link is not allowed:
1. Search for Panda Antivirus free
2. On google, the second search result says: FREE and lightweight antivirus - Panda Security
3. Click on that link and proceed to download

FREE and lightweight antivirus - Panda Security

I've used Avast for a while and mine still runs as fast as ever, but I guess every computer is different.

No antivirus, just use ad-block and CC cleaner....problem solved....

There is no best antivirus. Every year or so, the highest rated ones change. BitDefender is currently a favored one, from what I've read.

But basically, there isn't a lot you can do in the way of preventing infection besides safer web surfing habits.

No, not a bit. Both are good to have, though.

Move to a Linux platform.

Problem NOT solved. Those aren't anti-viruses, nor do they prevent viruses, spyware, malware or other bad programs..

Antivirus is a waste of money, and just grinds your hard drive down with so many repeated scans, not to mention the slow down on internet. Win 7 comes with windows defender a default type of antivirus and windows firewall .... those are more than enough...never had an issue at all once I ditched the antivirus junk 5-6 yrs ago...

They may be expensive, but my Norton 360 has blocked many many fake web attacks, AND warned of malware sites before I go to them. So I'll gladly pay $90 a year for Norton.

There's a fair chance you're clean, but I would not be surprised if you had malware hiding somewhere, even if only a "pup" or two. It's so sad how prolific malware is these days.

Win 8 and Win 10 have their own antivirus protection built-in, so, in theory, you dont need any other 3rd party software for that.

But as somebody suggested in this thread, better (safer) OS than Windows and clean, safe behaviour on internet can be much better solution than any "anti-something" protection during unsafe behaviour on unsafe OS.

If you really need Windows (e.g. because of your job), you can have two OS on your machine, one for work, another one (the safer one) for free time browsing and internet banking.

I second windows defender, and being careful where you go on the web, and get adblock.


EDIT: k9 web protect is free it's just something extra.

Deep Freeze is also an interesting tool, though not an anti-virus, per se (and not exactly practical for most home users).