Free antivirus software?

Uncle_John

Hey guys,

A few months ago, I bought a new computer. It seems the antivirus software on it has now expired. They want me to pay, but I'm broke.

Is there such a thing as free antivirus software?

mcp

Microsoft Security Essentials.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx

pacbowl

Avast

Essee

I do personally swear by Microsoft Security Essentials, which seems to be the current top antivirus according to many people (but this changes as virus creators learn how popular software works and modify their viruses to take advantage of it). Avast is also pretty good. I also supplement by scanning every once in a while (once every week or two) with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. My absolute favorite tool to keep nasties off my computer, however, is NoScript, for Firefox and compatible browsers. Basically, by default, sites aren't allowed to run any sort of script, including Flash or other players (which is how the vast majority of people get themselves infected without downloading anything sketchy). This way, you can't get any sort of drive-by installation on your machine unless you've specifically allowed the site to run scripts (like if you wanted to play a video on some random site), and even if the site you allowed gets compromised, the compromisers very often run scripts from off-site to infect people, so the scripts will still be blocked. It takes a little bit to set it up for sites you use often, and you sometimes have to fiddle around with allowing scripts to get a site to work, but it's WAY more secure than how browsers work by default. Heck, it even hides a lot of the worst ads (animated ads often use Flash, which NoScript blocks, and many other ad services use scripts to serve their ads), as a bonus. Great stuff.

You might already know about NoScript, but other people reading the thread wondering the same as you could use the info, too, I bet. With NoScript, the stuff rarely gets onto your computer in the first place (usually it's through something people downloaded that they THOUGHT was safe) and then, if it does, your antivirus can hopefully detect and block it, or mop it up if it gets past the protection.

SeñorAmor

pacbowl wrote:

Avast

Seconding this so hard.

Uncle_John

Thanks, guys. I installed Avast and will look into NoScript.

Thundyrkatz

PC World has a nice article on the top 5 free antivirus programs. http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/collection/5928/2011_free_av.html

Avast is #1, MS Security Essentials is #3.

Also, Malwarebytes for supplemental scanning is highly recommended http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Deusfaux

MSE - the most unobtrusive AV I ever used.

No popups, no ads, no anything. Just keeps running minimized in the tray, tells you do to a scan if you havent in a while, and autoupdates itself, often on patch tuesday