what is the best antivirus for windows7

I am using windows 7 but I need your advice to choose the best security solution is the free antivirus software like avg enough to protect your system or I need to buy one

There is no best Anti-Virus, just better or lesser ones and no AV is foolproof, that doesn't exist.
If you ever get infected, don't be surprised, that is normal.
Don't spend any money on Anti-Virus, it isn't worth, use one of these freewares:

Microsoft Security Essentials
AVG Free
Avira Free
Avast! Free

Only one AV is allowed and watch out for false positives.
False positives are good objects, that were reported as virus/malware, don't remove these or you will damage your system.
Change your AV regularly, your new AV might find virus/malware, that wasn't detected by your previous AV.

Besides what the other poster has said, a malware scanner would be needed as well since most of todays infections are actually malware and not traditional viruses. I would suggest getting Malwarebytes Antimalware or Superantispyware, both are free and both have pay versions. If you want active scanning get the pay versions. Free versions are only on demand scanners.

In addition, you can install Sandboxie that puts your browser in a sandbox without bothering you.
While you are surfing on the internet, each bad object (and good object), caused by surfing, clicking or downloading, will be stored in a sandbox and won't hurt your system, unless you decide to keep it.

Keep in mind that internet is a dangerous area, full of traps and the main cause of all infections and troubles, so this is a pretty good protection. Sandboxie doesn't recognize virus/malware like a scanner, it only "isolates" good and bad objects in a sandbox as a potential danger, that's the philosophy.

The free version of Sandboxie is only comfortable if you use Internet Explorer as browser and has also less functions. If you don't like it get rid of it, at least you tried something new to protect your computer.
http://www.sandboxie.com/

There are many antivirus available but, as per my experience I would like to suggest you to try with
McAfee VirusScan Plus
VirusBuster
COMODO

Microsoft Security Essiential + malware bytes + Firefox (no script)

wow thank you all very useful information guys It my first time to heard about sandbox
I didn't use internet explorer but I like the idea of this stuff
I will give it a shot
also I will download a malware scanner
thanks Iam very grateful I fell I will learn alot from this forum

AV for Win 7

I'm using Comodo at the moment, it is a full version antivirus with a nice interface and it has a sandbox function plus it's totally free which is always nice. I use Ad-aware for random spyware scans, combined with Adblock plus and WOT with Firefox and I rarely have issues with viruses or malware etc.

I had Macafee AV on my laptop but in the last year they have been notorious for releasing bad updates which use to put my computer out of action for a couple of days, very annoying for what used to be a pretty good product.

Dramen.

I am using Avast free version for my Win7 PC, so far no problems at all.

ErikAlbert said:

In addition, you can install Sandboxie that puts your browser in a sandbox without bothering you.
While you are surfing on the internet, each bad object (and good object), caused by surfing, clicking or downloading, will be stored in a sandbox and won't hurt your system, unless you decide to keep it.

Keep in mind that internet is a dangerous area, full of traps and the main cause of all infections and troubles, so this is a pretty good protection. Sandboxie doesn't recognize virus/malware like a scanner, it only "isolates" good and bad objects in a sandbox as a potential danger, that's the philosophy.

The free version of Sandboxie is only comfortable if you use Internet Explorer as browser and has also less functions. If you don't like it get rid of it, at least you tried something new to protect your computer.
http://www.sandboxie.com/

Click to expand...

Google Chrome has sandboxing built in, IE is tiresome. Avast free has worked fine for me, coupled with superantispyware.

MSE cant beat that software, rock solid, thank you MS for finally releasing a solid VP app

Ok , so I was trialing Comodo, but when a trojan snuck past it and it never really found anything anyway, I figured I would uninstall and give Avast a shot, and see what all the fuss was about. One feature I do like about it is it shows you the progress of the scan as a percentage graphic scale, nice feature that a lot of paid versions don't have (yep using the free version). Not so sure the 24 hour clock feature for scheduling scans is that great though.

I also got rid of Ad-Aware because it was only finding like 3 possibles each time and replaced that with SUPERAntiSpyware which found 25 threats straight away so I was pretty impressed. I'm also using Malwarebytes and again seems pretty good. All three work great with Windows 7.

I love tweaking and fine tuning my computer. It's good to read what others are using on theirs to help make decisions on what to install and what not to.

Dramen.

Tally another one up for MSE, light and effective. ClamAV is also decent esp since it is free for businesses too, MSE is only free for personal use and soho use.

I would suggest you to try Superantispyware.
You might also use avast free version for Windows 7.
You need not to spend money to buy one for you.