Definitive Best Antivirus 2009

[Barney T. Administrators]

An updated "Best Antivirus" for 2009. Please use this as a reference when researching antivirus utilities. As time goes on, the poll can be updated to add further options.

Happy Voting.

[maccik]

Nod32 is a big bul**hit :x Norton Internet Security or Norton Antivirus is the top of the top :D:D

[Guest ovd]

On-demand comparative February 2009 by av-comparatives

Avira has been and it is the best.

[Aitrus]

Hi, I'm totally new to Neowin; this is my first post.

I just bought a new 'puter without any antivirus and was wonderin' what you all thought was the best free antivirus software out there?

... do you think it was a bad idea to buy a comp without antivirus? Just curious about that.

Is it alright that I'm just jumping into your forum, as a total n00b, and asking a question like this?

Anyway.

Is a free antivirus option going to be as good as a retail software? Will I be able to get updates with the free software?

I've been doing research, but any help would be great. Thank you. :)

[NEVER85]

Your questions are fine. We're here to help, after all. :)

It's not a bad idea to buy a comp without antivirus. I'd prefer it to getting some ridiculous 60-day trial.

Anyway, from my experience, the best FREE antivirus out there is Avast. I used to like Avira but I would keep getting popups to buy their Premium version, and that got annoying rather fast.

[frogger]

malwarebytes is very good.

It seems to detect many viri, not just malware as the name would suggest.

[Blood.Sugar.Crazy]

The best is Avira Antivir:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

For those of you about to say "Oh, they're talking about the professional edition there." Well, maybe so, but the engine used in the free and pro edition is the same.

[Jarik]

AVG for me.

And welcome.

[Blood.Sugar.Crazy]

the best FREE antivirus out there is Avast. I used to like Avira but I would keep getting popups to buy their Premium version which I could have stopped with a 10 second Google search, but I didn't bother.

There, fixed for you.

[Subject Delta]

There, fixed for you.

Instead of trolling and posting useless comments, why don't you actually add something useful to this thread.

In my personal experience, Avast home is the best free product by miles. No nag screens, or constant reminders of their payware products, and you only need a new serial once per year. Only drawback is that the scanning engine is a little bit slow, which can be a bit annoying if you have a drive with a large volume of data to process.

[Abhishek kapoor]

Avast is best .... and it is free, there must be something lacking that's why it is free otherwise nobody want to help other without $$$$$$$$

[Abhishek kapoor]

Avast is best for it's feature "Pre - boot scanning"

[hjf288]

+1 for Avira here... its got great detection rates, picks up the stuff that Nod32 doesnt and I havent had any false positives.

[DJ-Light]

Avira

[Aitrus]

Wow, so many responses. Thank you. :)

I'm currently browsing around Avast's and Avira's web pages, but will also look at the other mentions.

I'm terrible at making decisions like this. ;)

[Blood.Sugar.Crazy]

Wow, so many responses. Thank you. :)

I'm currently browsing around Avast's and Avira's web pages, but will also look at the other mentions.

I'm terrible at making decisions like this. ;)

Let me help you then. Choose Avira, it's better. Then go on over to Google and search for "remove avira nag screen".

[Deathray]

Avira, even with the nag screen...

[frogger]

I'm just going to come in here one more time, to encourage you to TRY all the ones you want.

Don't let people tell YOU whats best for YOU.

things that annoyed other people, may not phase you at all.

and vice versa.

[Omen1393]

I use AVG Free, it recently blocked a Trojan that was being transmitted via flash.

I haven't used Avira or Avast, but I don't really see a reason to switch.

[Blood.Sugar.Crazy]

I'm just going to come in here one more time, to encourage you to TRY all the ones you want.

Don't let people tell YOU whats best for YOU.

Speak for yourself. I'm offering FACTS. Have you heard of them before? Maybe you should look that word up in an online dictionary or something. My FIRST POST IN HERE pointed to an antivirus site that uses TESTS to present ACTUAL FACTS about which antivirus is the best. And guess what space captain? Avira Antivir is the best. So feel free to jump off your soapbox any time now...

[Kevin.]

I've used AVG free for years and never had a problem with it. I always picked up malware and removed it successfully. I'd like to try Avast and Avir at some point though. My only problem with Avast as that the free version can't do schedule full scans like AVG and Avir have.

[Blood.Sugar.Crazy]

I use AVG Free, it recently blocked a Trojan that was being transmitted via flash.

I haven't used Avira or Avast, but I don't really see a reason to switch.

If you check the test sites, AVG actually sucks compared to Avira. Even Avast is better than AVG, and that's saying something. So there you go, there's your "reason".

In the most recent on-demand tests AVG stopped 93% of virii in the wild while Avira stopped 99.7%. How's that for a "reason"?

But don't believe me, read for yourself:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stor...vc_report21.pdf

[deletedxyz]

Avira

The best one out there hands down.

[Omen1393]

Well, I wouldn't call AVG sucky, 93% is still a pretty high number. When I do a fresh install for the Windows 7 for the RC I'll probably try out Avira or Avast to see how I like it. Here's a brief comparison of the 3 that I found.

http://freebies.about.com/od/securityfreeb...t-antivirus.htm

[Crackler]

I'm just going to come in here one more time, to encourage you to TRY all the ones you want.

Don't let people tell YOU whats best for YOU.

things that annoyed other people, may not phase you at all.

and vice versa.

+1. Avast does the job for me. :)

Speak for yourself. I'm offering FACTS. Have you heard of them before? Maybe you should look that word up in an online dictionary or something. My FIRST POST IN HERE pointed to an antivirus site that uses TESTS to present ACTUAL FACTS about which antivirus is the best. And guess what space captain? Avira Antivir is the best. So feel free to jump off your soapbox any time now...

Umm... have fun during your short stay here at Neowin. :rolleyes:

[Kevin.]

Hey, guys, quick question. How are both Avast and Avir on resources? Are they light or no?