Discussion on:

Five free antivirus tools for Windows

as an "on demand" scanner. At one time I used Avira, in addition to MalwareBytes,
but when Microsoft offered Security Essentials, I thought I'd try it. Pretty good, and
it doesn't slow your system to a crawl while it's checking something out.

We've actually tested Malware Bytes along with several other antivirus programs and it was the WORST at finding/eliminating malware. Even McAfee, which I hate and don't trust at all, did a better job...

make sure to update it first using the in-program function (it's not automatic).
MBAM is good. But MSE is good too.

This doesn't map with my experience either. I used to do desktop work for a living so was removing viruses every day. I found quite a few infections that most would miss, but MBAM found. I can't speak to what it's like in % terms, but it was certainly good at finding some of the harder ones other tools would miss. This was three years ago though... maybe it's gone downhill.

As an aside, I found SuperAntiSpyware to be in the same category (good at finding some of the worst infections that my other tools would miss).

It's shockingly good.

J.Ja

MSE and a linux (bodhi) running as a guest in virtualbox

I use Avast, MSSE and Comodo myself and in my experience they perform at least as well as, if not better than, any paid AV solution on the market. Avira and BitDefender I have not had occasion to try but I have heard good things.

The latter is a background heuristics scanner. It has a small footprint and plays well with most AV. (Note: ThreatFire is free but about monthly will nag you to upgrade to the retail version. I find the two seconds of annoyance to be worth the benefits.)

heuristics scanner = behavior-based malware detection?

Task 1. Removed McAffee.
Task 2. Installed AVGFree.

I have used either AVG or Avira for ten years. I am going to give Avast a look. I upgraded to Avira 12 and my computer seems slow on start up now.

I used to use Avira for years but dumped it a few years ago due to major slow-downs at startup and while scanning.

I then switched to Panda which started out great but fairly quickly started slowing down the system as well (though not as much as Avira did).

I tried AVG but was never very impressed.

I'll have to check out Avast and BitDefender.

I've found, over time, that AVG has become a real resource hog. Am now using Avast and find it is much better. YMMV.

It's been a while since I've checked up on the available products, any suggestions?

That's the only one I've ever used prior to the built-in firewall in Windows XP

In Vista, at least, the firewall only works on incoming traffic. That's okay if the machine is clean in the first place. I believe the one in W7 works both directions.

Until it came along, I too used ZoneAlarm.

It was with Vista that the Windows Firewall started filtering outgoing as well as incoming traffic.

Try the COMODO Internet Security Suite, It is free, and there are other pay-for programs available as well. They offer a forum similar to that of Lenovo, with company people often online and if they screw-up, they will admit to it! I have used their service for 6 years free service, and highly recommend them re the above including their other free wares.

AVG www.avg.com

Before switching to Linux I used Avast for YEARS, I dont remember how many, maybe 8. I have been to many disgusting places on the interwebs, I feel comfortable suggesting Avast to friends and family, and recommending it to strangers.

AVG -- too weak in detecting viruses
Avast -- so far so good
Avira -- Many features
BitDefender -- not my cup of tea, causing crash with certain software
Comodo -- not suitable for newbie
McAfee -- slow
MSE -- simple
Clamwin -- not bad
Panda Cloud -- not bad

I use it and recommended it to everyone... it s Free for only 15 days but it is comes fully loaded. Viruses, malware, trjans, rootkits.. and the list goes on..
i will admit it is a but more technical to install but what is more difficult than clicking "Next" a few times..

I use it too! It's great. I've also used Emisoft (previously A Squared). It can slow down your system when paired with McAfee or Norton. It works fine with other AV.

Avast! Free with zonealarm firewall. I run weekly (sometimes monthly if I forget) Malwarebytes scans.

I'm thinking about using threatfire that palmetto mentioned.

...and I've often recommended it, but I'm getting tired of it's nagging me to upgrade to the Pro version. Excepting MSE, do the others in the list show the same proclivity to nag? My current recommendations are MSE, MalwareBytes (for ad hoc scans), and safe browsing habits.

Is that one of the moon men from Rocky and Bullwinkle?

Jack writes about Avast!, "Well, if you need online protection (such as safe shopping), ID protection, and advanced firewall, you???ll need to drop some coin for the professional version."

I admit I'm a rookie IT pro, so maybe that's why I'm confused. Do I really need the pro version of Avast to do my Amazon shopping safely? I've always thought AV solutions promoting their pro versions with "safe shopping" as nothing more than gimmicks to get the public to buy the paid solutions. Or maybe the paid offers a sandbox type environment which is safer?

I used AVG for many years until the significant and noticeable slowdowns started to happen upon scanning. I've got a quad-core system and the processors ground to a halt when scanning happened.

Since using Avast, I barely notice it's there, until it picks up a virused file, which quickly gets quarantined.

This is *the best* program (imho).

In my experience Avira-Free provides the BEST protection of the lot amongst freeware antivirus software. I had to move away from it as the daily updates started to grow very large. It does not have any incremental updates, You have to get the whole signature every time. Evry few weeks there would be a version update requiring literally 100s of MB of downloads ! On slower connections it can literally take hours!. The funny thing is that the users in third world countries who can least afford the paid version and have the slowest connections are the worst affected !

I agree with most everything stated here.
"banaun wrote:
AVG -- too weak in detecting viruses
Avast -- so far so good
Avira -- Many features
BitDefender -- not my cup of tea, causing crash with certain software
Comodo -- not suitable for newbie
McAfee -- slow
MSE -- simple
Clamwin -- not bad
Panda Cloud -- not bad ."

Every two years I try everything listed here (as well as Norton & 360cn) to keep current. After 8 years with McAfee I switched to Comodo. Simply, it just works. It is well suited for newbies, offers enterprise-class protection including the #1 rated Firewall, Cloud support, profiles, DAT's are pushed no less than twice an hour, it's light on resources, it's fast, (and much more), and can be installed and used by a newbie out-of-the-box (the default settings are secure) who can then learn and grow with Comodo by enabling features as you understand them. Comodo can Look intimidating at first, just chill. :o) Documentation is totally excellent, the forum is employee-staffed and honest. I've been a Comodo user for two years after growing tired of McAfee.
Your mileage may vary, for me I am surprisingly impressed and bought a license this year just to say "Thanks!".

What about Clamwin? it is pretty good, just does not integrate well with Outlook, but I don't actually care about that, move to a newer mail client is my cry.

I agree with everything you stated in your article. I might add AVG to the list. Also, there are numerous "on-line" scanners that I like to run from time to time just to make sure my primary anti-virus software is catching things.

Just a suggestion, but you might want to add the comment that only ONE interactive anti-virus program should be installed on any given computer.

There are a number of primarily anti-maleware programs that do not remain memory resident, such as Maleware bytes, Super Anti Spyware, so you have to remember to run them manually from time to time.

My theory...

The geographical location of a software company is frequently a major factor in what gets caught and more importantly: when. Although most viruses spread quickly, I have often-times seen situations in which a virus that was originally introduced in Europe is "caught" by an Anti-virus software program from Europe long before it is picked up upon by a company located in the U.S.A. or in the far-East. Running or managing numerous different computers for various clients over the years, many of which have any of the AV software programs you mentioned (plus some you did not), will be as much as 24 hours late in adding a new virus to their database updates.

Hence, it is my opinion that if a virus is introduced in the Seattle area first, Microsoft's AV product will most likely "notice" it first. As virus-makers become more devious, they may deliver a number of variants to the signature of their product. Hence, Kaspersky may name the virus "ABC", and Trend Micro may name essentially the same virus as "XYZ", once again, although both are essentially the same virus.

Just some thoughts...

Immunet is nowadays owned by Sourcefire, that also owns ClamAV. At the moment, there are two versions of Immunet Protect AV:
1. Free (only cloud-based signature database = online)
2. Plus (cloud-based signature database = online + computerbased signature database = offline) The Plus-version is a shareware, that costs $24.95!
The Free version is very light-weight and note, it can be used together with other AV softwares without any problems. I am using Immunet Free online together with my ESET Smart Security v.5 without any problems just to have a second opinion.
Immunet Free & Plus quarantined previously too many False Positives, but the Immunet development team has lately changed the detection engines, so nowadays no false positives are reported and quarantined. The malware detection rate is about 99% in line with BitDefender. Its detection rate is much higher than its closest competitor: Panda Cloud! Immunet community consiss of 2 million users and the database has today 29,000,000 signatures (threats), but both the community and the database is fastly growing for every day! Immunet has no firewall module. Under development is now an Enterprise version for Beta testing. I assume, this one will be a pretty expensive shareware. I highly recommend the lightweight Free version for personal use. But install the latest version, not any old version!
Documentation is almost zero, but the support on its forum is good. Email support can be received on its email address: support@immunet.com as well!
Cheers,
sweidre

I used to use AVG. While they have solved most of the problems of false positives, I noticed that I could not successfully use System Restore with AVG. It had to be shut down and restarted. The only problem is AVG automatically restarts when the system boots back up to finish the Restore process. The only way to prevent this is to uninstall AVG and run down every piece it leaves behind (Revo fixed this just fine). However, it is a pain to have to uninstall the program every time you want to or need to restore. I use Avast now. It isn't perfect, (some false positives and it flags Malware Bytes Antimalware "virus" database tracks as viruses sometimes) but the Sandbox Feature doesn't have an equivalent in AVG. I haven't made up my mind, but it seems like a good idea to run "possibly suspect" files in " a separate" space until sure that it is not malware or crapware.

Hi, can someone please advise if a free anti virus software that can cleans & disinfects the file from virus without affecting the file itself. i.e. the infected file is disinfected/cleaned and file is still there for use. Most of anti viruses either delete the infected file or move to some kind of vault (secure area??) which is no more available to use. In past years there were some anti viruses s/w available but not now any more (at least not in my knowledge).

Manish Mertia

For several years i used to use AVG but like a few other's have noted got tired of the bulk and slow down just was not doing what is used to. I have used avast free plus Zone alarm free amd malwarebytes and will not use anything else.

With over fifteen years in the industry, I have always recommended AVAST to my clients as it does exactly what it meant to do, above all it does not affect overall pc performance.

I used Avast for years, too, but most clients don't update the free version for virus signatures which makes it useless after a while. I now use MS Essentials because it does not nag to buy and it keeps itself updated.
With MSE, Malwarebytes, and Stinger I have no troubles with any Malware or virii.

I know we are talking FREE software BUT ( there always is)-I haven't seen anyone mention Vipre from Sunbelt. ( and no, I have NO connection with the company at all, except as a VERY happy customer).

They have a Basic and Premium version that's fully functional for 15 days. Updates many times a day and I have *never* noticed a system slowdown when it's updating or scanning. The Premium version has a very good firewall and will block dangerous web sites (which can easily be added to exceptions if you really want to visit the site). Vipre Premium is $39.95 for one year/one computer,.

I've been in the computer game since 1981 and over the years I have used ALL the anti-virus software that's been available, both free and purchased. Vipre is the first *fully featured* software that has NOT slowed my system down.

Sunbelt also has a FREE fully updated virus scanner as an .exe for those times a computer is so infected that software can't be installed. Read more about it at live.sunbelt.com

CORRECTION!!! live.sunbeltsoftware.com

I ditched AVG after a serious rogue attack, which it did not detect.
For a time I used Comodo Firewall and Avast! anti-spyware-malware (at that time, the full Comodo Internet Security solution inexplicably slowed some of my systems to a crawl). later, in the interest of simplicity, I just switched all my systems to MSE and have been happy with it so far.
My one gripe with MSE is that it just will NOT run scheduled scans on my Windows 7 HP (64 bit) system.
I'd like to know more about Microsoft Firewall vis a' vis it protecting againt outgoing traffic. Is it really different from previous versions??

I would appreciate opinions on SuperAntiSpyware.com. I've used some of the listed AV's but tend to come back to this one.

I have been using Symantec Endpoint Protection for a few years now and am impressed with what it catches, its small footprint and ability to watch the whole network. This does not mean that occassionally a culprit does not sneak through but Ithink that is the same fro every program out there. We sometimes sit and wait for the rogue and attack it with specialized tools.That is why we are the techs

I had tried out Comodo for a while on my brother's system, but eventually wiped it off because it couldn't manage to remember exceptions and allowed applications from one moment to the next. Come on, how difficult could it be: when I say an application is allowed, look at the exe, do a checksum of it, and ***REMEMBER*** that information. Don't come back and ask me AGAIN about it when I open the very same exe 15 minutes later.

I've always used the free version of Avira on Windows boxes, not least because of its consistently high zero-day ratings over at the Shadow Server Foundation. I note, however, that recently Clam, which I've used on my Linux boxes, has been getting top ratings even for Windows (http://www.shadowserver.org/wiki/pmwiki.php/AV/VirusMonthlyStats) - perhaps reason for a change ? With regard to AVG, which due to ease of use I've been recommending to retirees, I've been disappointed by how difficult the firm is now making upgrading to the free version of AVG 2012, without inadvertently installing either AVG Internet Security or the AVG Toolbar, or both. Perhaps time to change to AVira Free, which is pretty upfront concerning what is free and what isn't ?...

Henri

I use the free version of malwarebytes anti-malware for on demand scans. In my experience this has worked better than all of the commerical anti virus programs. I also use AVG for it's resident shield and link scanner.
But most importantly, I use Chrome instead of IE.

Microsoft essentials = It's okay at least it keeps my mom's computer clean and stays in silent mode.
AVG = Weak. Found too many viruses using something else(avast).
Sophos = Also weak. Same situation.(how come this one wasnt mentioned?)
McAfee = Weak even though i get the full version from my ISP.

I now stick with AVAST and Malwarebyte. I might go pay for them soon!

I wouldn't even recomment Avast if it was the only free product available. A fully up to date Avast and it couldn't detect the fake Anti-Virus XP garbage a few years back?

I like MSE. Small and lightweight. Only thing wrong is that the icon says it's out of date for definitions. Instead of "complaining", just update automatically. Unsure if it can be adjusted, but complaining about a [weekly?] scan is a small pain.

Avast would be my other choice.

Nobody mentions the one I install for the sad people who still insist on running IE online.. google it up, look at it's results (That's how I found it when it slaughtered everything except Clam a few years back) .. Rising Free 2011 .. seems sleek and in 150 installations this year not a single callback.. my only gripe with it is it takes forever to update if you install anything later than a month or so from "new" version release.. It's a little strange to get used to at first, then t runs silently in the background and seems to take virtually no system resources whatsoever. http://www.freerav.com/

I have Webroot Internet Security Suite. Works well. Does not slow my system.

Also I use AVG-Free and Malwarebytes on another PC I have.

Standar User privileges.
No AntiVirus.

No problem for regular users.

What do you all think about Lavasoft Ad-Aware free, which runs in the background? I've been running it for a long time, but I can't recall it picking up anything. My main anti-virus is Avast Home Free, which seems to be very good. Every now and then I manually update the passive blocks in Spybot S&D and SpywareBlaster, and every now and then I manually scan using Avast, MalwareBytes, Spybot S&D, MRT.exe and Ad-Aware, but my machines have been very very clean for a long time. (Maybe with some thanks to NoScript on Firefox, changing the username and password away from the defaults on my DSL modem-router and using OpenDNS [with the OpenDNS web sites also programmed into my DSL modem-browser].) Should I uninstall or turn off Ad-Aware?

I run Avast as my ongoing firewall/antivirus and then alternate Malwarebytes and MSE full scans from night to night. Also run MSE quick scan in the morning, first thing. VERY important to UPDATE the definitions and rules engines *constantly* !

Also use Security Task Manager to view all running processes (maybe 2 times a day).

I am just another AVG turned Avast user.

I use MSE for anti virus, Commodo Firewall and run Malwarebytes from time to time to catch some of the outliers. Maybe this is old school but I still run SpyBot Search and Destroy and AdAware and they will sometimes pick up an oddball offender. WinPatrol is also an excellent product and I believe they still have a free version. Gizmo has a sunscriber's discount for the paid version as well.

I am feelin a little guilty using Avast for free. Its so good its hard not to. So some time in the future I hope to be able t oafford their chargeable program. in the meantime I recommend it to all friends etc. AVG? Gone, and so is Comodo and Microsofts MSE.
Avira is also very good...

Dr web - cureit it is a free tool for personal use and it is good.
I'm using it for on demand scans.
It detects almost any kind of infections and cleans the infected systems.

Avira is my favorite free AV scanner.

For the longest time I have used most of the free tools listed and they work well, but I found that Comodo complete suite has worked the best for me.I introduce to most ppl the free apps, but fail to do the updates them selves.This is the only hang up about free apps:you have to some work.What is so hard about using your fingers? Oh well.

And if I think there could be a virus or malware: drWEB (Russia) and MBAM all on demand and to finish: IOBIT Malwarefighter (China) and SOPHOS (GB).

And each one find something different..

I was using Comodo, but it make to complicate for regular user to control the firewall.

What a great idea!! i'ld like to know more how many people you met on 1st sept, i'm quite late to see this blog.Very good! Nice information this is really interesting. Good luck in building the table.
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This is the point that has to sink home in your mind.There's a conspiracy against computers.You could probably browse the web and find hundreds of virus scanning programs.Virus is the major problem in the computer industry.Virus can enter everybody's computer while they're on the Internet.I even see a case for virus getting into your machine when you're not even connected to the telephone lines.At a higher frequency than computers are currently operating the hackers have their hacking network.In essence virus are just pop ups at that frequency.If you saw them you would close them,but you can't see them is the problem.This group can virus,as an example,all of the wireless cards in computers across the Internet all at once.Some work hard for a fix.The fix gets stolen and you have the hackers as the perpetrators and as the heroes.

I believe it was a file in System 32.It started with an 'S' like Soi or something.It looked like a key.It was in the Task Manager as a running file.When I clicked it in Sys 32 my desktop background went black!On the Internet this would happen and a pop up would appear saying that my Windows was not genuine.(You can 'end process' for this file in Task Manager.)When I tried to delete it in Sys 32 I got a prompt that said I did not have Administrator rights.I right clicked the Desktop then 'Personalize' then chose the regular Win 7 theme with a click on the image.I deleted the black file with a right click delete and then emptied the recycle bin.In the Task Manager you can right click a file in Processes and open the file location to see the file in it's folder.I have a problem with black screens in my other computers.

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I agree with the assesment, we are using AVAST!

For reasons that have nothing to do with the case, I can not use Microsot Security in one of my PC's so I use in this PC the DigitalDefender Antivirus. It has a philosophy very similar to the MSE and is a great option in Antivirus software.