hey im looking for a decent free anti virus that doesnt slow down windows to much and one that has pretty decent protection for free and i do realize that its better to get a paid one but i dont have that sort of cash right now
Avast ( be careful of the installing google stuff ) has a boot scanner. Avira but it is little heavy on the resources but a far more thorough scanner. Takes longer and no boot scan. Bitdefender is also highly rated. For lightweight and free with boot scanner Avast if you dont suffer from downloading to many nasties due to bad habits. If you have regular issues Avira would be a better choice.
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Definitely common sense.
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I've literally never used any antivirus. Taxes performance and most are a scam. Advertisement blocking software for melissious sites and knowing your way around is the best antivirus
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isnt that the one where it uses the engines from different antivirus?
Recommending to the average person to not use an antivirus is complete elitism and stupid. Not everyone is a software expert. So having a lightweight anti-virus scanner is must for anyone not vetting all software/programs.
Elitism to suggest that people don't do dumb things? I understand that most people don't know as much about computers as the average member of these forums. That is exactly why I am recommending common sense. If you are on this site, then you are likely pretty familiar with computers. So it should be safe to assume that he has a decent amount of common sense when it comes to these sorts of things. You don't need to be a software expert to know to uncheck every add on program when installing things, to never use express installation, to not click questionable links, to not install questionable software, etc. Calling that elitism is what is stupid.
Well? See that is where we disagree. I understand promoting better practices but use all the tools available as no one is perfect. Over the years i have learned better practices but i still find Avast kicking me from a site every once in while to safequard my pc. Think of it like this ..........Just common sense = a walled in safe little box. A decent antivirus/malware scanner and you can go roam. :) Cause sometimes the best stuff is in a pile of ......
Malwarebytes and common sense for me.
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Common sense isnt elitism.. its common sense, to many people throw it out the window because there on a computer and some how think it doesnt apply.
@ninja85a see here for more info http://www.clamav.net/about
Not sure how good the windows version is, it likely isnt as good as the normally windows avs as theyre made for consumers, clamav is originally for placing on a server or in the background rather than having a nice front end.
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I think when you guys say something like that ? You have to explain common sense / better practices as it is very misleading to average person. Imagine the internet with large group of people thinking they do not need an antivirus. :) Someone should put together a best practice guide as there are so many more factors than just an antivirus.
Agreed, the first line of defense is always safe computing habits. That includes safe browsing habits. Your second line of defense should be a hardware and software firewall. I know hardware is impractical for most people, but you should at least have a software firewall. (Windows comes with its own firewall now.) Your last line of defense is your anti-malware software (antivirus and anti-spyware).
@ninja85a
What are your specs, and what antivirus are you using? It's possible you don't have the computing power for whatever you're currently running as antivirus. I use Avast, but I've noticed quite a few false positives lately. I do have sensitivity set to high though. Supposedly it's not as good as it used to be, but I've been quite satisfied with it, barring the above and the occasional blocked site.
my specs are a FX 4130 underclocked to 3.5GHZ to keep it from becoming really loud 2*4 sticks of ram a 1TB seagate HDD a R9 270 GPU
Wow, you shouldn't have any noticeable slowdowns. What antivirus are you running then that it actually affects performance?
i was using avast before and i was noticing a bit of a increase of the amount of time to load anything up
I would first look for malware and second look at your avast scan settings closely.( I would check the PUP setting in Avast and do a boot scan ) For instance the need to scan everything incoming is very important but not so important if you already have the program. Malwarebytes and SUPERAntiSpyware are good malware scanners to pair with Avast.
Avira! It only sometimes displays message to buy pro version on boot.
All other either slowed down my PCs drastically, or showed many false reports, including for my own programs.
Gonna just Ignore that flame war going on up there...
If you must use something I would recommend Avira. You can actually set it up to not run in the background, only run scans when you start it up and hog less resources if you want.
There is a good argument to be made against using active virus protection as lots have been shown to leak private information and spy on your machine. (not so) common sense really is the best anti-virus.. for example:
ALWAYS look at the URL when visiting sites (bankofthevvest.com is not bankofthewest.com)
NEVER trust email links. Just don't man. (your best friends email could have been hijacked or your bank sends you a generic "verify your identity" email)
AVOID popups with adguard or your pop blocker of choice (NO, you can't do those online surveys for free shit)
Google social engineering and research the major cases where information has been stolen. If you understand the methods and technology being used against you then you'll more than likely be able to recognize it and defend yourself.
Fight the ignorance man.
Anti-virus free since 2003
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I consider every .exe file malware. Same goes for windows as a whole but yeah....
Weekly scans with mbam an adblocker and https everywhere should be enough for most people that will not blindly trust a talking donky on the internet.