Always used AVG but are there any better free options?

Microsoft Security Essentials

I like MSE.

MSE

Comodo seems to be about the best at the moment… Been using it a few months after years of AVG and it’s definitely better.

Also run Malwarebytes, which I run about once a month to make sure absolutely no malware has got in to my system…

Avast is good.

you’re not with barclays bank are you mranger?

Nope not with barcays

all the above are Free for a reason! (Crap)

pay up and buy Kasperski or Bullguard ya tight git ;O)

+1 Microsoft Security Essentials, I used to use AVG and AVAST but MSE wees over both of them, very unobtrusive, very light on system resources and very quiet.

It sits there and does its job.

What more do you want?

Just got MSE and seems good. Thanks.

You could also get Trend Titanium for nowt for a year.

all the above are Free for a reason! (Crap)
pay up and buy Kasperski or Bullguard ya tight git ;O)

Bollocks, they are fine.

The paid version of avast and AVG uses the same virus detection engine.

+1 Microsoft Security Essentials, I used to use AVG and AVAST but MSE wees over both of them, very unobtrusive, very light on system resources and very quiet.

It sits there and does its job.

What more do you want?

I want it to talk like a pirate, Avast talks like a pirate.

+1 for MSE.

AVG used to be the best free solution, but it’s got progressively worse with each new revision.

I want it to talk like a pirate, Avast talks like a pirate.

Although, the novelty is wearing off now.

NEVER!

well maybe, but its still less annoying than the american sort I had before

buy a Mac! On the our wee netbook, I have recently swapped from AVG to Avira after reading good reviews. Any body have any experience of it?

MSE + Malwarebyte anti-spyware.

🙂

all the above are Free for a reason! (Crap)

pay up and buy Kasperski or Bullguard ya tight git ;O)

Sucker!

childish.

He’s right though.

Avast has been good to me over the years.


AVG:      98.3% coverage, 177 performance
Avast:    99.3% coverage, 179 performance
Kapersky: 98.3% coverage, 160 performance
MSE:      97.6% coverage, 179 performance

— http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/detection-test
— http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/performance-tests

I have recently swapped from AVG to Avira after reading good reviews. Any body have any experience of it?

Yeah, I quite like Avira. Works well on ancient kit.

MSE works well, and is quite low on resources. Although I’m not sure I’d trust an AV product from the same company who can’t patch their own software in the first place…

AVG has become bloaded, ever since version 9+. Before that it was excellent.

Been using Avira Premium for 2 years now, tried the free one for a month after AVG failed to find a raft of stuff on one machine.

Have recently gone from being a long time user of AVG to Avast to Avira. AVG was getting very system heavy, and Avast was just plain annoying. Avira is great. Just sits there quietly and does what it’s supposed to do. Noticeable quicker start up times as well.

AVG: 98.3% coverage, 177 performance
Avast: 99.3% coverage, 179 performance
Kapersky: 98.3% coverage, 160 performance
MSE: 97.6% coverage, 179 performance

— http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/detection-test
— http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/performance-tests

Latest MSE includes heuristics so may perform better on coverage than the version tested here, although personally I prefer MSE because of its lack of interference and general invisibility rather than this month’s coverage or the fact that it’s free.

Latest MSE includes heuristics so may perform better on coverage than the version tested here, although personally I prefer MSE because of its lack of interference and general invisibility rather than this month’s coverage or the fact that it’s free.

All decent anti-virus engines use heuristics. As for “lack of interference and general invisibility”: avast is basically just an icon in the system tray that quietly gets on with its job. The only time it notifies me of anything is when it finds a virus or when it cannot download new updates – both of which are very very rare.

All decent anti-virus engines use heuristics.

Well aware of that – the significance of my point was that until now MSE didn’t!

GrahamS – Member

AVG: 98.3% coverage, 177 performance
Avast: 99.3% coverage, 179 performance
Kapersky: 98.3% coverage, 160 performance
MSE: 97.6% coverage, 179 performance

— http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/detection-test
— http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/performance-tests
OK so which bit of the pdf did you pluck that and where is Avira in that?
As I don’t see Avast doing that well! http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_retro_nov2010.pdf