Is there any good anti V that comes free?

In America one leading cable TV/internet provider is Comcast. For years free Norton antivirus was included. No longer true as of next month. We notice that the one that comes included with Windows seldom intrudes nor blocks downloads and such. But Norton does all the time. So I am guessing the Windows antiV is not good enough.

 

 

11 minutes ago, Fielder said:

Is there any good anti V that comes free?

In America one leading cable TV/internet provider is Comcast. For years free Norton antivirus was included. No longer true as of next month. We notice that the one that comes included with Windows seldom intrudes nor blocks downloads and such. But Norton does all the time. So I am guessing the Windows antiV is not good enough.

 

 

https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-free-antivirus-protection

I have Spybot Search and Destroy on all my systems, but not their antivirus, only their anti spyware (tracking cookies and so forth). They find stuff that deleting browser cookies and other anti packages never find. What it does is free up browsing speed online to what it was when a new browser was first installed: lightning quick.

Thanks for the antivirus test site, I'll probably follow their advice.

I used Firefox as my internet browser and they provided free Norton antivirus suite.

I use Firefox too. I have not seen any commercials on any youtube videos because of the addons I added ,and many other addons that are way better than Chrome's. 'Legibility' and 'Playback Speed' being my favorite add-ons.

I'll check out firefox antivirus Norton package, didn't know it had that!

I had to laugh at the thread title. How about Windows Defender? It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it works, it's free and it comes with Windows. The title reminded me of the person warning neighbors on social media that someone had stolen the catalytic converter from his Tesla. It turned out to be a joke but a bunch of people didn't get it and offered condolences.

Avira would be a good choice in my opinion.

Cheers, Ed

If you want true protection then you need a payware internet security application which has real-time detection, virus/malware/spyware scanner, and firewall. 

The Windows firewall and Defender antivirus are decent and afford moderate protection, but there are better options out there for around $30-40 a year - well worth it.

Malwarebytes has a good freeware malware scanner which I use in addition to my payware internet security software.  They also make Adwcleaner, a freeware malware remover which focuses on less harmful but troublesome adware.

Dave

1 hour ago, jabloomf1230 said:

How about Windows Defender?

Indeed. For 95% of folks this works just fine. It's as good, or better, than anything else that's free. If there is some sort of "special need" go with a good payware solution based on what's needed.

I've found the free Avast to be more than adequate. It doesn't interfere with my flight sim or addons. It's very easy to pause it when I'm installing new programs, yet it stays updated and seems to do a good job protecting...oh, and did I say, it's free.

I have tried Bitdefender and Avast purchase subscriptions and didn't care for either.  They seem to be overkill and extreme, in that they want to get into every action that is done with the computer, whether purchasing products or downloading.

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by signmanbob

I use Avast Antivirus Free Edition, and I have never had any problems.

10 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

I had to laugh at the thread title. How about Windows Defender? It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it works, it's free and it comes with Windows. 

 

Precisely! Windows Defender does a great job. Works silently in the background, has a very small footprint and in my experience does a superb job.

I've no idea why anyone would require anything else.

Those using Avast might like to read this article in Pc Mag about Avast harvesting your entire browsing history and selling it through it's marketing subsidiary.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-cost-of-avasts-free-antivirus-companies-can-spy-on-your-clicks

The article explains how easy it would be for a company like Amazon, for example, to identify you individually from the harvested data.

I would not be surprised if similar activities are happening with other anti virus products, since they all have unrestricted access to your pc.

I used Avira but the latest version is major bloat so I've gone back to Avast. Norton has and always will be awful: bloaty and overly intrusive.

It's very easy to remove the Avast browser plugin if you're concerned about data being collected and sold to marketers although the link above suggest main antivirus application web shield passes URL data (although not clicks). The same article also states that Avast stopped all such activity in January 2020 though.

The anti-virus included with Windows 10 I am told is reasonable. To be honest I went over 6 months without an anti-virus on Win7 and had no problems, generally if you don't visit unfamiliar websites, are careful with links in e-mails and attached files and you're not downloading/saving files the risk is not actually all that great, the real risk comes if you're not savvy or you're browsing the darker corners of the internet. Even now, a lot of the time I disable the anti-virus for a performance gain, such as when I play MFS.

Edited November 27, 20205 yr by ckyliu

I have used Avast! for well over a decade now, no issues, no viruses.