Best free anti-virus program?

[Thibault]

AVG has been said to be poor at detecting viruses. avast, to me, seems to be a bit of a system hog, however has better virus detection than AVG. Finally, theres AntiVir, which i think is the best out of the three, it doesnt hog system resources and i think has better virus detection than both AVG and avast.

I'd be interested to see where you got this information?

[JabbaJabba]

Hey Avast fans...there are more than one versions on the site and i got confused...can u recommend me the one for Home basic? asap as my norton has expired..thanks

Here's the direct link:
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Within the 60-day trial period, you need to register it to make it permanently free. You register with a valid e-mail address and get a serial number from Avast directly. You then use this serial number to make the trial version, permanently free.

[-Recoil-]

I'd be interested to see where you got this information?

Well i know that avast is a system hog as i have used it (i have used all three - and still use AntiVir). The virus detection bit from here

Infact, that comparison reckons that AVG is better than avast; i missed that. Any who, AntiVir is still one of the best on there (definatly out of the 3).

[-Recoil-]

Keep in mind that the products tested by AV-Comparatives are not the free versions.
For instance AVG Malware, which has the rating "Advanced +" is the combination of AVG Antivirus and AVG anti spyware.
The AVG Antivirus free version does not include the antispyware program (it is available for free though).

For a thread I wrote I have searched for an independent comparison of the 3 free antivirus programs but I haven't found it (yet).

yes that is true, i also missed that. But i would imagine that the trend would be the same for the free versions.

[Daemoen]

Actually, right now, the best Antivirus on the market is nod32 . For free... avast is ok, so are avg and such, but they do have other issues.

http://www.av-comparatives.org

Most in depth review of most of the common AV solutions on the market.

:-D

AV -- use nod32 -- Not free, but well worth it
FW -- Right now, comodo has the best leak prevention, but at the same time, its a pain in the butt training its new defense+ mechanism
SW/AW -- This section of things you need multiple programs to be protected... Spybot, AAW Personal 2007, Windows Defender (Good start having all three of these )

[thnksfrthmmrs]

Hey Avast fans...there are more than one versions on the site and i got confused...can u recommend me the one for Home basic? asap as my norton has expired..thanks

Here's a list of Avast Products. I think the one you're looking for is the "avast! 4 Home Edition FREE Download". If you are willing to pay for Avast then you should go for "avast! 4 Professional Edition Download".

I personally would rate the free antivirus software like this. Avast>Antivir>AVG

[Padmé]

As I say every week when this question is asked, AVG works for me.

[jin07]

Someone needs to sticky the Best free anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall thread. Should we ask a mod to do it?

[JabbaJabba]

As I say every week when this question is asked, AVG works for me.

Just my thoughts I didn't want to say it, but every week is right.

[zfactor]

right now you can get kaspersky for free through amazon after rebate..

otherwise imo best free is avira...