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Definitive Best *Free* Antivirus 2014

Asked by Marshall,

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Poll: Favorite *Free* Antivirus  

222 members have voted

  1. 1. Your Choice?

    • 360 Total Security
      6
    • Ad-Aware
      46
    • Avast! Free
      25
    • AVG AntiVirus Free
      16
    • Avira Free
      12
    • Baidu Antivirus
      1
    • BitDefender (Free Edition)
      8
    • ClamWin/ClamAV
      0
    • Comodo Anti Virus/Internet Security
      73
    • Emsisoft Anti-Malware (free edition)
      5
    • Panda Cloud Antivirus
      13
    • Microsoft Security Essentials
      17
    • Other (please specify below)
      0

Question

Grand Master

Marshall Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

It's a new year, and a new poll for Definitive Free Best Antivirus. The 2013 thread can be found here.

This is a poll for best Free antivirus, there is a separate thread for paid antiviruses here.

If your choice of Best Free Antivirus is not listed, please choose Other and specify in the comments.

  • goretsky and Riggers
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78 answers to this question

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Grand Master

Rippleman

Posted
Posted

For cleaning up after the fact yes.

 

uhmmm, what?... if "after the fact" then it would be only malwarebytes... why would you use 2 solutions when 1 solution did the job perfectly? (not suggesting you only rely on one opinion, only commenting on the claim of "after the fact")

  • 0
Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

uhmmm, what?... if "after the fact" then it would be only malwarebytes... why would you use 2 solutions when 1 solution did the job perfectly? (not suggesting you only rely on one opinion, only commenting on the claim of "after the fact")

 

You said 100% free solution. Malwarebytes isn't free for active protection.

  • 0
Grand Master

Rippleman

Posted
Posted

You said 100% free solution. Malwarebytes isn't free for active protection.

 

oh yes, i know, but if its "after the fact" you can just use their free scanner which picks up what 360 finds AND what it doesn't find... but more opinions are always better for sure. 

  • 0
Grand Master

inactive

Posted
Posted

the way i see it... Microsoft Security Essentials is good enough for me as it's simple and quiet and my chances of infection should be at a bare minimum in general because i am careful on what i install on the PC. so i figure if something does slip by hopefully MSE will catch it as i imagine it's protection is good enough even if other alternatives are a bit better but it seems like the ones that are better might have issues with false positives.

  • 0
Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

the way i see it... Microsoft Security Essentials is good enough for me as it's simple and quiet and my chances of infection should be at a bare minimum in general because i am careful on what i install on the PC.

 

Lets not forget about website exploits and Zero day's people :)

  • 0
Grand Master

cork1958

Posted
Posted
Please add:

Qihoo 360 Internet Security

Baidu Antivirus (Baidu Cloud Security Engine + Avira Antivirus)

Currently using 360 Internet Security and liking it pretty much except for the fact it takes WAY to long to actually be able to use the computer when first starting it up! Dang thing takes forever to do that intitial update.

  • 0
Grand Master

inactive

Posted
Posted

Lets not forget about website exploits and Zero day's people :)

 

true, but i figure if i stick to mostly known sites that should keep risk at a minimum.

 

plus, i got NoScript in use which i imagine helps a bit there since a lot of the side stuff on plenty of websites don't load when that's running as i only allow what i need to allow for a site to function well enough.

  • 0
Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

true, but i figure if i stick to mostly known sites that should keep risk at a minimum.

 

plus, i got NoScript in use which i imagine helps a bit there since a lot of the side stuff on plenty of websites don't load when that's running as i only allow what i need to allow for a site to function well enough.

 

That's were most of the exploits come from. Hacked "Known" sites. Even TWIT.TV was serving out malware at one point.

  • 0
Grand Master

goretsky Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted

Hello,

 

One thing to keep in mind is that in many anti-malware programs, detection of potentially unwanted and potentially unsafe applications is optional.  It needs to be explicitly turned on if you want that functionality.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

  • 0
Experienced

flynempire

Posted
Posted

Yes I was kind of surprised. I tried Avast and it was OK but gave me some problems with system speed. I am now using Panda Cloud and I like it so that is my vote for Panda Cloud.

It does not use too much memory although I recall Webroot (Paid) used very little memory. I have a customer on Comodo and just left it. Never really gave her a problem but I used CIS in the past and 3 times it would self destruct you can say which was annoying.

  • 0
Experienced

flynempire

Posted
Posted

I put Ad-Aware on a Windows 8.1 machine and the protection stopped working. Weird..

  • 0
Grand Master

xrobwx71

Posted
Posted

Comodo has the most votes BY FAR, but nobody is explaining why.  Tell me why I should switch to using it.

I counted 9 posts stating the person used MSE but only 4 votes? 75 votes for comodo but no comments.

  • 0
Apprentice

Darth Tigris

Posted
Posted
xrobwx, on 19 Aug 2014 - 16:26, said:

I counted 9 posts stating the person used MSE but only 4 votes? 75 votes for comodo but no comments.

 

Well I gave it a try and have spent the last 3 hours fixing my computer.  It kept blocking my touchpad and keyboard and I couldn't do anything.  Had to do a system restore even! 

 

I'm going to try Avast! instead. 

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