I'm an AVG user, I'm wondering what other free anti virus software is good?

I’ve used Avira, Avast, AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).

Currently I’m using MSE, it seems to impact the performance of my laptop less than others. But it seems every 6 months or so performance bugs me and I switch products.

And yes, I use another program, too, for trojan horses/spyware. Even if things aren’t acting up, I scan with Malwarebytes every couple of weeks.

I’ve tried Avast, and I felt it was annoying beyond belief. I’ve also tried NOD32, but it wasn’t properly recognized by Windows as anti-virus software. I use AVG now, and everything works fine. I remember reading an article recently saying that it’s enough to use the built-in Windows security tools and be smart online to avoid problems.

linux
actually this is not free-antivirus
it is virus-free which makes it even better

@Sebulba Yeah I used Ubuntu for a good while dual booted alongside vista. But appart from the advantage of no viruses it really wasn’t good for me. I like to play games and I didn’t want to have to emulate windows all the time.

i do play games via wine or crossover without the need for any kind of windows emulation

Comodo is a free professional standard firewall and anti-virus suite. I’ve tried them all and Comodo is easily the winner.

It probably isn’t newbie friendly though but give it a try anyway :)

If you think as a Linux user you’re protected from viruses you should really think again.

i use linux only for 4 years now surfing the internet and downloading everything you can imagine @anon. linux also provides out of the box firewalls that i never set up and used actually. never had a problem with viruses or other protection issues

I use Avira. It might not be the prettiest and it has that annoying daily popup, but it has the highest detection rate among the free antivirus applications (something close to 98%).

I go with Avira though I trust and respect Avast! as well.

The one virus I got was when I was running AVG so I learned to distrust it. Looking at some independent testing told me that my distrust was justified.

@drdoombot Avira is closer to 99.4% while AVG is 94.0% and Avast! is 98.0%, according to AV-comparatives . The only one better was G Data, which (I beleive) is not free.

Avira also has the best heuristics so it does a better job at getting new viruses that are not in the database yet.

@Sebulba I’ve heard the same thing from Mac users; it doesn’t mean you’re safe ;)
Oh, and one of the first things I do on a new Linux install is configure the iptables—well, after donning my tinfoil hat of course!

@anon True. Even Linux users often run something like ClamAV.

i just know that there is this ClamAV never used it. @anon linux is not mac. linux is unixlike but not unix. if you know anything i can download and run that will risk the stability of my system give me a link. and something else. security issues are dealt superfast on linux realising a fix right away. on windows and mac this never happens

@Sebulba Mac OS X is based on BSD so therefore it’s about as close to UNIX as Linux is.

but linux is not the same thing with bsd either. bsd is unix like mac

@Sebulba We could go round-and-round like this for quite a while. :D
However, the fact that Linux is open-source makes bug-fixes a lot quicker since it effectively has millions of programmers “on staff”. Given enough eyes, all bugs are shallow.

My computer guru put Avira on mine. I love it. It’s doing a great job. I’m happy to see good reviews here on it. Yes, it does have a pop-up that comes on every day, but so what? X out of it!

I used to be a militant AVG proponent, then v8 came out and they blew all their credibility in my eyes. AVG became slow, bloated and intrusive. I moved to Avast and haven’t looked back, i strongly recommend it.

Honestly, and don’t judge this harshly for its name, Super Anti-Spyware is probably one of the best programs around. I’ve had Spybot, AVG, Adaware, and a few others on a test PC all at once. And under the same circumstances, Super Anti-Spyware picked up and killed the most problems. :3 Between that and a free version of Zone Alarm, you should have no problem at all.

On that note though… I work as a Network Support Specialist. When one of our clients wants an anti-virus that won’t kill resources, but get the job done… I tend to install AVG. It’s a decent program and I like it.