Best Free Virus Protection

What are the best free virus protection programs (that don't hog resources) out there? I'd be interested to hear opinions. Thanks guys/gals.

 

I just installed Avast and it takes up less resources the Mcafee. From what I've heard Avast and AVG are the 2 most recommended freewares. However I think there's slightly more positive opinions on Avast due to it protecting against trojans, so I went with that over AVG

 

I use avast and its a hell of alot better than Mcaffe and/or avg in my opinion.

 

are these better than norton antivirus ??...my subscription is ending soon and i am not happy with norton...it takes lot of time to scan and lot of RAM is lot....even if they are close to norton it ll do

 

Actually, you might consider trying Norton 2008. I was getting ready to ditch them as well, until I tried their trial version...

 

I'd say the best would be Avast. But second to it would be Antivir, and then AVG.

 

Hmmm...good feedback on Avast.

 

Yea, be sure though to combine it with a spyware/adware program. I'd suggeste ad aware. That's what everyone told me was the best more or less.

 

Spybot search and destroy has been better to me than ad aware so go with that. It picks up little browser tracker cookies that ad aware doesn't. Then again antivir does that too.

 

search please

 

AVG has always worked for me, but as eyecon82 said try search first because there are tons of threads on this topic.

 

I was tempted to say search please too but it was such a simple question and i wanted the addition to my post count.

 

lol..i was too tempted to say it and I did say it

anyhow, I use AVG without any problems

 

I have seen this question atleast 100 times.

 

Oh yeah, like everybody didn't know that.

 

How did you find out?! Anyway thanks for catching my spelling mistake there.

 

According to me Norton is the best. When my old dell notebook was infected by a spyware, no other antivirus/antispyware removed the traces (my desktop icons had a blue border) of Adware.spysheriff spyware except Norton Antivirus 2007. Free stuff don't remove the remants of a virus/spyware fully. They always want you to buy the professional/paid version.

 

That can be argued against.

 

oh! not again

 

Not again what? All i was saying is that some people will be able to say that Norton is not the best. But you did say that it was just your opinion and didn't state it as a fact and i like that.

 

Use a router with its firewall functions maxed. Use a Limited User Account. Run a browser other than IE, like Opera. Disable browser scripting, java, and plug-ins. Set individual site preferences to use scripting, java, and plug-ins where needed. Use blocked content to prevent ad-serving sites from delivering ads to those sites where you need to use scripting, java, or plug-ins.

Very effective, free virus, adware, & spyware protection with no impact on resources. In fact, I'm amazed how much faster browsing is with all the crap disabled.

 

^^ No need for these special efforts. Just avoid browsing po**n sites (related sites) without a good antivirus program installed. That's how most people get into trouble. Plugins always decrease the speed.

My personal experience also speaks here.

 

The only real special effort is the occassional setting of a site preference, which is a top-level menu option in Opera. Ergo, it's pretty simple to do real time while right on the site.

And, perhaps most importantly, antivirus software not in combination with a limited user account is easily subverted and disabled by a virus. See Here. So it's a little off to suggest we need only avoid bad sites and use antivirus.

It's far more effective to produce an environment hard to reach (router firewall), hard to operate (limited user account), and with fewer targets (no IE and selective use of scripts, java, and plug-ins). Even more, rather than consuming resources, resources are actually freed - very noticably too.

 

Agree with that IMO. I use NOD32, but I have a couple of machines with Avast on them here at the hooch

 

What's a hooch?

 

hooch 2 also hootch (hōōch) Pronunciation Key
n. Slang
A dwelling, especially a thatched hut.

 

That is his opinion, and he has a right to voice it. Even saying NOD32 or Kaspersky is the best AV can be argued against, because they are all just personal opinions.

 

well i guess what calvin is trying to say is that norton is a huge resource hog and has caused major instability in computers in the past.

Due to my past norton issues, i would never even buy or install anything from norton/symantec ever again

 

I don't use Norton, but from what I've read of the newest version, if true, a better description would be that Norton was a huge resourse hog. All the reviews I've seen of the latest edition of Norton have been excellent. That said, my personal preference would be Kaspersky, fwiw.

 

I agree with bmwrob, I would (I don't currently, but that is because its not my decision what AV my PC uses) use Kaspersky if I had a choice. But I don't, so I'm on Norton on my PC . I gotta say though, the past two versions of Norton (2007 and 2008) have really been dramatic improvements over previous versions.

 

if i am correct kaspersky has not fixed their chkdsk problems and still causes errors.. i have not used it for a few months though