Any good free anti-virus software?

AVG Free

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

That is what I use. It stays out of your way and doesn’t nag you. That and using a good browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Opera) and a bit of common sense will keep you safe.

If your mom sends you a link to bestiality porn it probably isn’t her and it is a bad thing to click on. Unless your mom is running for office in New York.

This has already been mentioned, but I want to give it another vote. Avast Home Free offers enough protection to be the only antivirus you’ll need. Paying for antivirus seems unnecessary IMO, but the software companies need to make money somehow.

Avira AntiVir Personal was rated as the best free antivirus solution last time I checked. It was ahead of Avast and AVG, and its interface is pretty clean. It’s the free version of commercial software, however, so every day it displays a single pop-up ad encouraging you to purchase the pay version. Like @Vortico said, software companies have got to make money somehow, and it’s only ONE per day – really not that annoying for a great piece of free software.

I know you’d rather not pay for antivirus software, but if you ever change your mind, you can’t beat Eset’s NOD 32 – it’s an antivirus beast – the best in the business by a wide margin.

I like Avast enough that I purchased the pro version. I have used the free version for a couple of years. It is very good. It saved my bacon more than once.

Thanks folks. I’ve downloaded and installed Avira. Just one question, it said something about in compatibility with Windows Defender. Is this a serious problem or can I leave defender running?

@roundsquare Windows Defender has been replaced by Windows Security Essentials now so it would be worth updating to that anyway. Running two anti-virus programs can cause some strange results, they often see each other as some sort of threat. However, if you do really want them both I would suggest un-installing Defender then install Avira if that’s the one you have gone for and then install Windows Security Essentials.

@camertron Eset is what I use. It’s painful to pay for but like you said it’s so much better than any other AV program out there.

My vote goes for Comodo but AVG is good for the casual browser.

@johnpowell . . . my mama iott likes to send me pix of her dressed in an ss uniform

I prefer Avira and avoid AVG. I used to use AVG, but the newer versions are less effective and are resource hogs. There is also the personal bias due to the fact that the one virus I ever got on a PC was one that got through AVG.

Looking at reports from AV-Comparatives.org, like this summary and the main tests, you can see that Avira is pretty good and McAfee and AVG suck (by comparison at least)