[POLL] What is the definitive best FREE antivirus for 2024?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello, 
  
This is the 2024 poll for best free anti-virus (aka anti-malware aka internet security aka endpoint security) security software.  
  
The poll for paid products is located here .  The poll for last year's best free antivirus is located here. 
  
If your choice is not listed, please choose "other" and reply below with its name.

This year the poll is multiple choice, so that you can select two (or more) choices.  If you do choose multiple options, please leave a comment with the ones you chose and why.  
  
Regards, 
  
Aryeh Goretsky 

[GSDragoon]

Common Sense

[Joe User]

Since most antivirus developers share their detection databases with each other, the free versions should all perform similarly.

Added value comes from additional features, something that is usually lacking in the free editions.

[goretsky Supervisor]

On 02/01/2024 at 13:22, Joe User said:

Since most antivirus developers share their detection databases with each other, the free versions should all perform similarly.

Added value comes from additional features, something that is usually lacking in the free editions.

Hello,

No, they most assuredly do not share their detection databases.  What they sometimes share are copies of malicious software, URLs, IP addresses, and sometimes metadata or other information in order to provide nuance or context when required, such as possible relations to other malicious activity, interesting things they may have come across in their investigation, and so forth. 

It is up to each company to determine how to detect each threat.

Now, there are companies which own multiple brands, and their products are going to perform similarly, and there are also companies for whom a large part of their business is licensing their products to other companies.  But those are only notable exceptions because their detections cluster.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

strategy

On 02/01/2024 at 15:17, GSDragoon said:

Common Sense

Common sense is only one layer of a security strategy. This is post is about anti-virus.

 

 

On 02/01/2024 at 15:22, Joe User said:

Since most antivirus developers share their detection databases with each other, the free versions should all perform similarly.

Added value comes from additional features, something that is usually lacking in the free editions.

Those additional features are mostly junk IMO and not needed.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

I see no point in installing a 3rd-party anti-virus as Windows Defender is more than good enough if used with a little common sense, ad-blocker, and prompt installing of security updates.

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 02/01/2024 at 14:17, GSDragoon said:

Common Sense

How does Common Sense protect against a 0-Day exploit that requires no user interaction to run?

[ThaCrip]

Microsoft Windows Defender (free)

when I was on Windows that's what I stuck with as it was good enough and generally stayed out of your way. but that paired with GSDragoon's 'Common Sense' answer goes along ways. because as some say, 'security is only as strong as your weakest link'. the weakest link in many cases is the end-user. I know Warwagon came back with a 0-Day, which is legitimate, but as long as someone keeps their browser up-to-date and avoids shady sites, while it can't guarantee you are protected, chances are you will be fine (would it be fair to say those exploiting 0-Day tend to target higher value targets? (i.e. the average user probably don't have to worry too much)). hell, I might even argue in regards to 0-day exploits to use a non-Chrome browser since I would imagine that's targeted most in general since it's got the largest share. so using Firefox (or another alternative) should hopefully keep the chances of a 0-Day to a minimum and I would imagine those exploiting 0-Day stuff probably go after higher value targets(?) unless it's easy to get a bunch of random people hoping the data they can get from them is valuable.

p.s. but besides common sense, I prefer Linux as the best anti-virus since it's pretty much virus-free in regards to your typical desktop user (even if it's technically not virus-free, it's probably close enough to that standard as I can't recall hearing stories of the average user getting infected with a virus on Linux as I would imagine nowadays it's more likely someone to install a shady browser extension or fall for some online scam more than a random virus getting them). so that paired with common sense (like avoiding Phishing etc), goes along way and I use Firefox as my primary browser which should further help. I have not looked lately, but I would imagine there have been some 0-Day's exploited on Firefox but it's probably not often enough to be too much of a concern, and like I mentioned above, I would imagine those are probably geared more towards higher value targets(?), unless of course it's easy to get a lot of people to get infected fairly easily in which case the shady people are probably hoping the sheer volume of people getting hit would give them some valuable info etc.

[MrElectrifyer]

Windows Defender + Think before you Click suffices for most security needs. So long as you take the time to permanently disable its shady scareware that'll be endlessly trying to scare you into handing over 24/7 file access/uploading to Microsoft if you dare to set its Automatic Sample submission setting to prompt you before sending anything.

To permanently disable the nagging scareware notifications, you'll need to set the following registry key, then they'll disappear from Windows Defender's GUI without disabling all other notifications:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Spynet

DWORD: SubmitSamplesConsent

Value: 2

The very fact that the DWORD for disabling them is under a key named "Spynet" only further shows why you really should have its Automatic Sample submission setting notify you before sending anything.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

I like basic eset nod32. For it's low system impact, and the constant micro def updating.

Look for the "Eset NOD Anitvirus 202X Gamer Edition" which is really silly branding of the basic / essential edition that is sometime sold cheaper.
It's just the core anti-virus / pup (potentially unwanted apps), no password manager, parental controls, firewall, vpn, etc.

That isn't to say other's there's a better product on the market.
How good an AV is can easily change over time, what's good today, can less effective tomorrow. 

 

 

 

Edited January 4 by Eternal Tempest

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

On 02/01/2024 at 15:17, GSDragoon said:

Common Sense

We're entering a weird age where someone can group up in school with a Chrome Book / Tablet, do everything with the phone. Then pick up a computer years latter and try a computer OS for the very first time late in life. It may seem like common sense, but in reality, they don't have the basics to be able to base common sense off of.

It's not lack of common sense in some cases, it's no reference point to base it off of.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

On 04/01/2024 at 05:16, Eternal Tempest said:

We're entering a weird age where someone can group up in school with a Chrome Book / Tablet, do everything with the phone. Then pick up a computer years latter and try a computer OS for the very first time late in life. It may seem like common sense, but in reality, they don't have the basics to be able to base common sense off of.

It's not lack of common sense in some cases, it's no reference point to base it off of.

So true, I've noticed this at work in recent years.

In some ways it's more we had this bubble of people who are currently 30-40ish (give or take a few years) that grew up at the right time and learned good basic computer skills, mainly because having a computer at home and getting the internet became the thing to do in the late 90s / 2000s.

As a kid back then even if you had no interest in computers you still went home from School, went on MSN (here in the UK anyway) and messaged your friends all evening. It was just the thing to do. You'd figure out how to use Office and learn computer basics in general as it made doing homework so much easier. You probably even learned some networking basics if you wanted to play / host a game online.

Today we have a whole generation that has grown up with tablets, smartphones and Chromebooks, so basic computer skills beyond using a web browser can be quite lacking.

[adrynalyne]

I am using Defender, and have all of my code on a dev drive so I don't see a lot of the performance pitfalls when dealing with a lot of files.

[EmperorA]

Tencent PC Manager and Baidu AV were discontinued in English from what I understand.

Surprised to see them mentioned.

 

edit: typos

[goretsky Supervisor]

On 08/01/2024 at 10:45, EmperorA said:

Tencent PC Manager and Baidu AV were discontinued in English from what I understand.

Surprised to see them mentioned.

 

edit: typos

Hello,

They are still available for download, as is Kingsoft, I believe.  I always try to list programs that are widely available, even if they aren't well-known in the English language-speaking world.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

I voted for Microsoft Windows Defender (free). Having used it since the Microsoft AntiSpyware days on Windows XP I feel Defender has evolved in to a great product, it does what it needs to do without letting you know its there.

Combined with a good content filtering plugin such as uBlock Origin I feel Defender is all I personally need on my devices.

I did run Sophos Home for a few months a couple of years ago, however I found theirs a noticeable performance impact, especially when browsing. I was mainly curious how it compared to Sophos Endpoint / Intercept X we run at work.

[EmperorA]

On 08/01/2024 at 23:26, goretsky said:

They are still available for download, as is Kingsoft, I believe.  I always try to list programs that are widely available, even if they aren't well-known in the English language-speaking world.
 

They are not available to download from their respective official websites. Baidu's English AV stopped being updated in 2015-16, plus the official website has not available for a while. 3rd Party download source FileHorse shows it has last been updated in 2015. Official Global website antivirus.baidu.com (Down)

Tencent PC Manager's English (Global) website has also been taken down. 3rd Party download source MajorGeeks shows it as being last updated in 2020. Official Global website: www.pcmgr-global.com (Down)

You can still download them from 3rd party sites... but I'd trust the AV more if their own official websites were still up, I have no idea if the database lists for either of them are still updated.

I believe that for both the Chinese variants are still updated/maintained, but I haven't visited those websites in a while.

Checked Kingsoft Antivirus, Cnet shows it was last updated in 2012. Official website www.kingsoftsecurity.com (down)

 

I personally tried Baidu and Tencent PC Manager back when they were still being supported.

[Joe User]

On 03/01/2024 at 07:25, goretsky said:

Hello,

No, they most assuredly do not share their detection databases.  What they sometimes share are copies of malicious software, URLs, IP addresses, and sometimes metadata or other information in order to provide nuance or context when required, such as possible relations to other malicious activity, interesting things they may have come across in their investigation, and so forth. 

It is up to each company to determine how to detect each threat.

Now, there are companies which own multiple brands, and their products are going to perform similarly, and there are also companies for whom a large part of their business is licensing their products to other companies.  But those are only notable exceptions because their detections cluster.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

I was under the impression that most of the major players shared enough data to create signatures. Thanks for the correction.

[goretsky Supervisor]

On 09/01/2024 at 16:49, Joe User said:

I was under the impression that most of the major players shared enough data to create signatures. Thanks for the correction.

Hello,

Every developer has their own way of creating detections, and they can be very different from each other.  Even when malware samples are shared, it is up to each recipient to determine if and how to add detection for it, and when.  For example, a malware sample received from a VIP customer might have a higher priority for analysis and detection than something sent to a bulk sample feed.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky