Which anti-virus would you recommend?

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section - I couldn't tell whether this goes here or in the Science Labs.

Well, my current anti-virus has a bad reputation. Such a bad reputation that I don't want to say which one it is. But regardless, I'd like to change into a more trustful option for anti-viruses - free of charge, of course. Which anti-viruses are, in your opinion, the best/most reliable?

[stupid_chris]

Avast is free and does the job. All the extras in the paid license are really just fluff which are pretty much facultative on a personal computer. It can test suspicious files in protected environments, put viruses in quarantine, scan files before you download them, etc. Really it's pretty good, and I've never had a case of virus with it in nearly ten years.

[micha]

Another vote for Avast! (free), although I just installed BitDefender (free) on my reinstalled machine. Avast! was starting to cheese me off by poking its nose into my SSL connections - sorry, but it's closed source, and there's no way I'm letting any software become a man-in-the-middle when I'm doing banking and suchlike. The SSL snooping is on by default, but you can turn it off. Nevertheless BitDefender ranked slightly higher in the detection stakes and in the system impact so I thought I'd give it a try. I'll probably go back to Avast! - the user interface for BitDefender (free) is slightly -too- simplistic for me, and it seems to be interfering with Windows Restore.

[Roadkill]

I recommend the None anti-virus. The full featured version is absolutely free and it takes up absolutely no computer resources to perform a function that can be done better by the pc's user.

[SpaceXray]

Bitdefender total security 2015 for sure. Does a great job and doesn't consume much processing power.

Also praised by a bunch of websites.

[Nibb31]

I've used AVG for years, but since Windows 8, I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials.

[iCT]

360 Total Security. This anti-virus using multiple virus database and scan system. Using less CPU and RAM. And it's free of course.

Edited December 2, 2014 by iCT

[segaprophet]

Microsoft Security Essentials

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Welp, I'm torn between Avast, Bitdefender and MSE. Which of the trio is the most compatible with other anti-viruses?

[cantab]

I've got on quite well with Panda. Does its job and largely stays out of the way.

However it did have a bug with mapped network drives. If you use a fileserver or NAS it might not be a good option.

[waterlubber]

AdBlockPlus. Unless your torrenting gentleman's literature, or *gasp* filling out surveys, you will never get viruses. Trust me, ABP stops them all.

[micha]

Microsoft Security Essentials is better than nothing, but it doesn't score particularly highly in the virus-detection tests. OTOH it's likely to be the most compatible with Windows.

Using AdBlock and FlashBlock in your browser should be a given.. even on other platforms!

[King Arthur]

My vote also goes to Microsoft Security Essentials. It co-exists with Windows the best out of any AV out there thanks to MS being the developer for both MSE and Windows. MSE also has absolutely no bloat compared to other AV suites like Avast, MSE deals with viruses and nothing more.

[steve_v]

I recommend the None anti-virus. The full featured version is absolutely free and it takes up absolutely no computer resources to perform a function that can be done better by the pc's user.

Yup

The best cure is prevention.

Just can't resist executing that mystery .exe? Run it in a sacrificial VM.

That said, for those that just can't resist all those dodgy e-mail attachments... MSE or Avast. Or put clamAV on your mail server.

[rodion]

i don't know how people over 13 and under 65 even manage to get malware any more. the days of Wild West surfing with unsigned applets executing in the browser and P2P networks full of undocumented mystery meat executables are long over. i spend a lot of time grabbing content from places that could be considered high-risk and i still ran my PC with no AV for over a year recently and never picked up a single thing in that period.

[steve_v]

I hear ya, the sad thing is people do... mostly toolbars.

[ndiver]

Avira Antivir. Free (there is a premium version that offer additional functionalities, but it's not necessary), developed in Austria (Deutsche Qualität), has en excellent detection rate without too many false positives.

[KerbMav]

Austria (Deutsche Qualität)

No more Deutsche Qualität from Austria, please, thank you very much.

[ndiver]

No more Deutsche Qualität from Austria, please, thank you very much.

I did not said Australia !

[KerbMav]

I did not said Australia !

OK, now you have me puzzled in return - I tried to self-invoke Godwin's law.

OT: Been using MS Essentials since Windows 7 and seem to have no problems so far.

[Camacha]

I recommend the None anti-virus. The full featured version is absolutely free and it takes up absolutely no computer resources to perform a function that can be done better by the pc's user.

Cool story bro, until you make a mistake and the bank tells you they will not pay you your money back because you did not take any precautions. You break rule number one by doing this: people are flawed. You can and will mess up sooner or later.

[cantab]

i spend a lot of time grabbing content from places that could be considered high-risk and i still ran my PC with no AV for over a year recently and never picked up a single thing in that period.

How do you know? Not all viruses make themselves obvious, some expertly hide themselves from future scans, and novel malware might even go unnoticed by a bootable antivirus CD.

[Javster]

I use Avast. I had to impose it on my entire family who though Ad-Aware is still a viable option for antivirus...

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

Mac. ha. ha. ha. *goes into corner to hide from windows users*

(I only use a mac nowadays for graphic design purposes anyway.)

[CapCornsnack]

I like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, it works really well from my experiences. Also the Ghostery and Adblock extensions on Chrome help out.