Definitive Best *Free* Antivirus 2012

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

In the preceding Definitive Best Antivirus 2011 message thread, there were requests to seperate the commercial and free antivirus products. For 2012, I have created two separate polls. This is the poll for the free antivirus programs. For commecial (paid-for) antivirus, please see the Definitive Best *Paid* Antivirus 2012 message thread.

Questions or comments? Post them here in the message thread.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Gunzip]

Microsoft Security Essentials....

[Stonecaper]

Microsoft Security essentials

[camuflage]

Avira free

[Xerax]

Microsoft Security Essentials all the way.

[Daedroth]

Avira.

[MadPerson]

guys out of a the free ones what ones also protects against spam.

[pankusareen]

avast 7 version is good but the bad news it is not fully compatible with comodo firewall.

More info about the bug

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=93953.0

[cooky560 Veteran]

Vista in the title bar and 7 in the dialog, MALWARE FAIL :p

[AJerman]

LOL. I hate that one. On the real I hate cleaning it.

Haha, I remember the first time I encountered the whole "Antivirus XP 2005" or whatever it was when it started. Was quite the bitch to remove. All the normal methods of doing things were blocked. Took me a few hours to figure out how to entirely remove it. Helped teach me a lot of better methods to remove stuff like that though.

guys out of a the free ones what ones also protects against spam.

Not sure, but most mail clients have that built in. It's not a really an AV task, not really sure why it ever was.

[Detection]

Avast, MSE seems to leave days between updates, or doesn't update automatically unless you set it to run a scan at the same time

[ybrett23]

MSE all the way

[patseguin Global Moderator]

I was on board with Bit Defender but now MSE all the way!

[SnoopZ]

avast 7 version is good but the bad news it is not fully compatible with comodo firewall.

More info about the bug

http://forum.avast.c...p?topic=93953.0

Serious problem this is as it seems a Windows 7 system running Avast 7 with either Windows Firewall, Comodo or Privatefirewall is at a security risk because any blocked applications blocked using those Firewalls are not blocked at all unless Avast 7 Webshield is disabled.

To make matters worse they seem to be blaming each other, so i have unistalled Avast 7 for now.

[ShiFteDReaLitY]

I don't use any other firewall as i have the paid Avast 7 Internet Security. They always have good sales on it $30 for 3 PC's for 1 year licence was a really good deal.

[McKay]

When I had Windows 7, it was MSE. Now I'm on Windows 8, Windows Defender :D

[Copernic Reporter]

UnThreat Free Antivirus 2012. I've had great results with it, I have rarely ever had a virus that it can't handle. My computer runs much faster with UnThreat Antivirus - used Avira Free for a couple of years but like all the good apps, it turned into a sort of bloatware at a certain point.

[mujjuman]

Microsoft Security Essentials all the way.

The question on my lips at this moment is do we need threads like this year in year out, why not just have a definitive thread for antivirus products?

I'm surprised Microsoft is getting such high numbers. I used AVG last year and I thought it was ok. It was better 2 years ago but last year it just slowed my computer.

I like it when they make new threads. It gives everything a fresh start, and some products are not as favored anymore.

[EDIT]

Okay guys I just downloaded MSE using your recommendation... otherwise i would have gone with avast or AVG. I use comodo as my firewall, so I probably would have leaned towards AVG. Let me give MSE a shot.

[BilliShere]

microsoft security essentials 4.0 beta right now is what im using. its been very impressive so far. still not as good as bitdefender when it comes to antivirus but thats a small difference that i'm okay with.

[LOC Veteran]

I've been using Webroot's SecureAnywhere 2012 for a couple of weeks now. Amazing product. It uses like, no resources while running. It scans incredibly fast (especially the 2nd scan) and they get away with this because most of the app etc is in the "cloud" and it works!

It's a fairly expensive product, and I was weary of spending that kind of money on it. But when I saw it was on sale at an online retailer I sometimes use, I couldn't resist.

Highly recommended product. I suggest also trying out the trial at the very least.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Why does everyone love MSE so much? Has anyone ever seen MSE's detection scores? They are terrible. It also takes forever to scan and remove threats. MSE would not be my first choice

[Ently]

Microsoft Security Essentials!

It's free, minimal and does the job well. Could not ask for more from an antivirus program.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Microsoft Security Essentials!

It's free, minimal and does the job well. Could not ask for more from an antivirus program.

How do you know it does the job well?

[Ently]

How do you know it does the job well?

Well I downloaded Avast which I have heard is considered good and it didn't pick up anything either. I dunno I guess I just trust Microsoft, if I ever download a file which I think might be a virus it will always pick it up.

I guess no one virus checker is the be end all they all have their flaws but I just find a lot of the other virus checkers slow my system down. To be honest I haven't run benchmarks on that but it's just the feel I get from my machine so yeah I think MSE is the one for me :)

[Ently]

Oh and heres another thing I was reading which gave it good reviews

http://www.pcworld.com/article/172958/independent_tester_security_essentials_very_good.html

[+Warwagon MVC]

Oh and heres another thing I was reading which gave it good reviews

http://www.pcworld.c..._very_good.html

Watching it in action on youtube tells a different story.