2006-12-20 17:20:54 · 18 answers · asked by ole_salty_dog 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
I must first mention that people will flodd with answers for their antivirus of choice and I really doubt you will really able to pick a best answer. Also, users will never agree to same answer. Now a days people has learnt some names and just through them around anywhere they like. I tell this because I saw already someone mentioned "adaware" which is not anti-virus but an anti-spyware!
Anyway, belive me or not, the best free anti-virus software with industry standard quality, free update and proven record of safety are:
1. AVG anti-virus free edition (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 )
2. Avira anti-virus free edition (http://www.free-av.com/ )
You can choose either of the two and they both are equally good. I personally slightly prefer Avira(may be 55-45 ratio).
If you want to pay for anti-virus, then you can get NOD 32.
My request just don't get Norton or Mcafee. Those are just bloated products.
Hope it helps you in the real sense not just answers in yahoo answers.
2006-12-20 17:31:14 · answer #1 · answered by observer 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I've used McAfee and Norton before and for the most part they do their jobs well. However, I found little annoyances with those applications that (to me) forced me to find another solution. Norton is more resource intensive, and makes system startup rather slow. Norton and McAfee pop up messages from time to time warning you about potential virus outbreaks, which is a cool thing but gets in your way too many times.
The current solution I use is AVG Professional with Firewall and found it does a very good job at protecting my computer without using up too much resources. It also doesn't pop up those annoying messages about potential virus outbreaks or offers to upgrade (McAfee did this A LOT). Plus, it works with Windows Vista very nicely.
2006-12-20 17:47:14 · answer #2 · answered by ajawad9 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I am not sure that it is the "best" but it has been very, very, very good to me and it updates itself more than 1/week It takes up only 57 mb on your hard drive and the best part? its free. yes free. (Only free on home computers and not free for businesses)
"avast! Home Edition is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. You can find more information here. If you are not a home user, or you use your computer for profit, the avast! Home Edition is not licensed for such use, and you are asked to use the commercial version - avast! Professional Edition."
that is a quote from their website. i can assure you that this is no scam (its hard to tell cause "nothing is for free") but this is..
here is the download link:
http://avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
i hope this helps
--- After seeing some of the other answers, i want to make sure you know that NORTON IS SPENDY. it takes up 100's of MB and it is a total memory hog, it slows start up time. and every time you renew your subscription, it constantly trys to get you to buy their latest version.. which costs 60 dollars... i mean sure it protects your computer and it does a great job at that.... but at 2 times the cost of others that do pretty much the same job!
---
if you simply dont trust the "free" anti viruses then may i reccomend McAfee? It is great, and less expensive and does the job... well.
---
I also see the Ken M stated Avast!.. thats 2 thumbs up! avast is not as popular as norton and mcafee so you will get fewer answers that state it. but again.. it is fantastically amazingly good.
2006-12-20 17:25:34 · answer #3 · answered by Oh, It's, Ohhhh 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Norton is terrible, AVG is no longer free, and adaware is not a virus program. I have found Avast! home edition to be about as good as they come, free or not. It does require registration to get a key, but it is painless.
2006-12-20 17:26:03 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
McAfee is the best for your Purpose.
Norton is good but will eat up lots of memory and system quite obviously becomes slow.
if you want some small free software then u should search it from downloads.com
2006-12-20 17:42:59 · answer #5 · answered by Ganapathy 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Norton is really good but pricy. I use AVG Free. The new edition 7.5 just came out. I highly recommend it if you are on a budget. Otherwise, spring for Norton.
2006-12-20 17:25:45 · answer #6 · answered by Mike J 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Norton offers the best protection, but it wouldn't hurt downloading for free WindowsDefender.com from Microsoft.com.
WindowsDefender takes care of spyware infestations.
2006-12-20 17:31:26 · answer #7 · answered by Dav83&8d 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Norton is good!
I tried to use AVG, but there are some virus/adware/spyware that this software can not remove (one of them is worm), still there.... I tried it, the reason why i switch to norton, if you dont believe you may try it, but i prefer Norton!
2006-12-20 17:26:14 · answer #8 · answered by james 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Norton
2006-12-20 17:22:07 · answer #9 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I work at best buy the best one I think in f-prot you cant buy it in store or at least I havent see it... on custmore computers f-prot is the best..in my idea... we use macfee,norton(good but uses to much resoureses),pc-cillin, avg( I have see it miss some viruses). If you want goto best buy and ask the preople at geek squard and ask them wich ones they like. you can also ask them about f-prot. which is on there mri disk.. but they probly will not promote it unless you ask because bby doesnt sell it. but they all use it
2006-12-20 17:40:45 · answer #10 · answered by Rob R 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋