What's the best free anti-virus?

[bugibar]

What is the best free anti-virus program?

I am looking for an antivirus for my new laptop. I am looking for something that is not heavy and resources hogging as I do not have very much RAM. I know there are many of them, such as McAfee and Norton, but I do not know which one is the best and which one is free.

[atari]

If you want an antivirus that is going to do any good to you, you always have to pay for it. These guys do not do their jobs for free. You might get 30 or 60-day trial version though, but after that you will have to pay some fee. Here is a list of anti-virus software you can check out:

McAfee (mcafee.com)
Avast (avast.com)
Norton Synantec (symantec.com)
F-Secure (f-secure.com)
Trend Micro (trendmicro.com)
Kaspersky (kaspersky.com)

It does not really matters which one you get, all of them are good, and all of them are configurable in a sense that you can choose what needs to be scanned and how much resources it will take. Pick by the price.

Let us know your experience and which one you have chosen.

[mismas]

1. Avast Antivirus– Avast is one of the best free anti-virus software available that provides a complete protection against security threats with 94% detection rate. This full-featured antivirus package has the following feature: Built in Anti-spyware, Anti-Rootkit, Web shield, Strong self protection, P2P and IM shield, Anti-Virus kernel, resident protection, Network shield, Automatic update, System integration, Windows 64 bit support, Integrated Virus Cleaner.

2. AVG Antivirus – AVG anti-virus free edition provides basic antivirus and anti-spyware protection for Windows with 82% detection rate some cathces most harmful viruses. Following features included in the free edition:Anti-virus , anti-spyware Safe surf feature and no anti-rootkit.

3. Avira AntiVir Personal ( freeware ) - Avira is a comprehensive, easy to use antivirus program, designed to offer reliable free of charge virus protection to home-users. Features included are: Protection from with virus worms and Trojans, Anti-rootkit, Anti-fishing, Anti dialers. With 99.8% protection rate for detecting wild viruses.removes permanently viruses and protection against trojaner, worms, backdoors, jokes and other harmful programs

4. BitDefender - Free Edition uses the same ICSA Labs certified scanning engines found in Pro version of BitDefender , allowing you to enjoy basic virus protection for no cost at all. Features includes: On demand Virus Scanner and Remover and Scheduled scanning.

5. Blink Personal – An all-in one security suite with antivirus limited for one year. Blink personal Security suite features – Antivirus and Anti spyware, Anti root kit, Built-in Firewall protection and Identety protection.

6. Calmwin antivirus – An open source, free Antivirus program for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003 and Vista. Features include - high detection rates for viruses and spyware; automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database, Standalone virus scanner. It does not include an on-access real-time scanner.

7. Comodo Antivirus - has all the functionality of a paid AV without the price – Features includes- Detects and remove viruses from computers and networks. On Access Scanning conducts a real-time, scheduled virus scan. Host Intrusion Detection allows you to Intercept viruses, spyware, and other malware before they infect your computer.Get updates of the latest virus definitions everyday so you can stay protected against the latest threats.

8. Moon Secure Antivirus - Aims to be the best Free Antivirus for Windows under GPL license. It offers multiple scan engines, Net shield, Firewall, On access, on Exec scanner and rootkits preventions plus features from Commercial Antivirus applications.

9. PCTools Antivirus - with PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition you are protected against the most nefarious cyber-threats attempting to gain access to your PC and personal information. It protects you fromVirus, worm, Trojan and has Smart Updates, IntelliGuard Protection, file guard and email guard.

10. Rising Antivirus – Rising Antivirus Free Edition is a solution with no cost to personal users for the life of the product while still provides the same level of detection and protection capability as RISING Antivirus 2008. It protects your computers against all types of viruses, Trojans, worms, rootkits and other malicious programs. Ease of use and Smartupdate technology make it an "install and forget" product and entitles you to focus on your own jobs with your computer

[Loogaraempott]

after testing it myself, its actually better than the AVG free version...

[mismas]

Sorry, can you specify what is better than the free version of AVG? I am not following what you reply to.

[D.Hooli]

I hate formating and installing over and over just because of some virus that ruined my computer. I like to be safe and Avast is the most reliable, Trend Micro and Norton have let me down in the past.

[mismas]

maybe you just have to avoid browsing bad neighborhood sites