Best free anti virus

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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The author of the article conflates anti-malware cleanup tools with antivirus packages and further goes on to express uncertainty for the need of malware cleanup tools. I had to stop reading.
 

time

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You must have read an entirely different article. The one I read implied no such thing.

In fact, it looks like a pretty good research effort to me. Definitely worth a quick read.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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You're going to make me go back to quote the idiocy.

"Quite a few of the free products are cleanup-only tools, rather than full antivirus solutions. They're intended for use in an emergency, when malware prevents installation of a full solution... Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0 remains PCMag's Editors' Choice for free cleanup-only antivirus."

The suggestion here is that those tools have any sort of antivirus function at all. Malwarebytes absolutely does not have an antivirus component in its free product. It's an error that suggests either a fundamental comprehension problem or an editorial error so large that the article should not have been published. Antivirus and Antimalware are two entirely different tools with vastly different operating mechanisms. When I talk about security software, I spend quite a long time ensuring that users can understand the distinction between the two.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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jrZ7ox1.jpg
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Well that makes rather more sense now, doesn't it?
Though the article I read still makes me want to shank someone.
 

CougTek

Serial computer killer
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About eight years ago was the time to stop using AVG, when it was already clear that it was inferior to both Avast and Avira Antivir (the other two free AV solutions at the time).
 

mubs

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Sheesh, they were supposed to be one of the better ones, and now this?

I'm not running TrendMicro, but thanks for sharing.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Sheesh, they were supposed to be one of the better ones, and now this?

I don't know that it's ever been one of the better ones. Housecall is kind of handy, but Trend's desktop products have never particularly impressed me.
Kaspersky has its heuristics to recommend it, but it's WIDELY rumored that Eugene Kaspersky makes his own Malware just to screw with everyone else's detection stats. Since Kaspersky also can't keep its own web site safe on the internet and it's a Russian company anyway, I really don't trust it any longer.
 

Chewy509

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Rereading the last few posts, the AV industry really has a lot to answer for... Like producing a vaccine that causes some other horrible condition that you are left wondering was the vaccine really worth it?
 

snowhiker

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Brother is thinking of upgrading computer, finally. His current system has a Core2Duo and WinXP. I told him that if he installs any McAfee or Norton shit he's on his own with no help/support from me. I'm not going to spec out a whole system to have a HUGE chunk of performance destroyed by shitty anti virus software. Soooooooooooooooo ...

Any updates on what is the best free anti-virus software? Paid versions? Or just Firefox with all necessary plugins + spybot "immunizations" + spywareblaster "protections" ???

Thanks in advance.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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Avast Free (only install the virus and web shield components. It'll also install "Safe Browser" after the first time it updates and I go back and remove that as well). Avira. Forticlient.
 
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