Free antivirus?

[Chuck Dye]

AVG says free will end soon. who likes what free antivirus for Windows 10?

[lupinus]

I've been using Avast for quite awhile, no complaints, including since I upgraded to 10. I don't know which one is "the best" these days as it seems to flip around and I haven't looked ilately. Course, I'm not exactly downloading illicit Mexican midget hooker donkey shows or opening attachments so I can fill out the bank form and claim the life savings of my diamond mine owning Nigerian Uncle either, so I'm not generally putting it to extreme tests.

I pair it up with various more specific spyware/malware programs and have had good luck with it. Namely Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, Spybot, and Iobit Malware Fighter. Only one I leave with active protection up is the Antivirus. I just keep the others on hand to run periodically, if I think there is a problem, or if the AV hits on something I will run the others to make sure it gets everything.

[Brad Johnson]

W10 comes with Windowa Defender (formerly Microsoft Security Essentials) by default. Impressively effective for a freebie. Between it and an occasional scan with Malwarebytes and AdAware I've had good luck keeping nasties at bay.

Brad

[AJ Dual]

W10 comes with Windowa Defender (formerly Microsoft Security Essentials) by default. Impressively effective for a freebie. Between it and an occasional scan with Malwarebytes and AdAware I've had good luck keeping nasties at bay.

Brad

Ehh... people who've looked under the hood for Security Essentials find it's more of a reporting/collecting tool for Microsoft to design and push patches than it is to protect "you".

Maybe that's changed. I still use it, but because it's better than nothing and has low system performance impact. And then just do my best to clean reactively with ComboFix, ADW, JRT from BleepingComputer, followed by a MalwareBytes scan.

[Hawkmoon]

I run Avast! because friends who know a lot more about computers than I do recommend it highly. It's been working for me on XP and Win7 -- I haven't yet made the jump to Win10 so I can't report on that. I would give Avast! a look.

[Ben]

Ehh... people who've looked under the hood for Security Essentials find it's more of a reporting/collecting tool for Microsoft to design and push patches than it is to protect "you".

Maybe that's changed. I still use it, but because it's better than nothing and has low system performance impact. And then just do my best to clean reactively with ComboFix, ADW, JRT from BleepingComputer, followed by a MalwareBytes scan.

I've stopped using it. Microsoft itself recommends using other antivirus prgs now. I decided to just bite the bullet and pay for Kaspersky, but Avast seems to always make the top five in free antivirus prg reviews.

[lupinus]

Yes, I wouldn't use defender. It might be OK as a supplement but I would have something else for a primary.