best *free* programs

L

lg96gt

New Member
what are some good free antivirus and spyware programs?
i'm currently using avg and love it but just curious if anything else is out there, thanks much.
luke
 
Adaware personal edition, i think, is a free adware program. I think spyware doc, or something with a similiar name (spyware blaster???) is free and good too.
 
Avira Antivir for AV, and both Spyware Terminator and SUPERantispyware for AS. Antivir supposedly has the best detection rate of the free AV varieties, at the cost of an AD every time it updates. Terminator is one of the only (the only?) free AS programs with both a form of resident protection and HIPS, SUPER is considered a heavy duty AS and accordingly, I've noticed it catch more in active scans when compared to Terminator. :)
 
Don't get me wrong, I mind the ad not. I've heard some negative talk around here though, some find it hard to swallow. What can you do? :rolleyes:

I've not encountered many FP's, that I know of. Of course it's generally hard to tell in normal operating conditions, unless you're testing for it specifically. The paid version of Antivir is rated in all Heuristic tests as quite competent, and this is good considering the engine used in the free version is identical.
 
As sort of a "+1".... I'm pretty fond of AntiVir PE Classic. One thing I have wondered about is that it says the free license is valid for (what looks like) three months from the installation.

Does it just stop functioning after that, or can the free license be renewed?

I would consider going ahead and paying for it if I didn't still have over 8 months left on my Norton subscription. Symantec has pissed me off one too many times.
 
No worries, I've been running it almost a year now, after 3 months it will revalidate the license for 3 months. It will continue to do this for the life of the program, I.E. till you get rid of it.

The differences between the free version and premium aren't much. Like i said above they both use the same Heuristic detection engine. The primary difference is access to a AS and Email scanner, a better update server access, certain command switches, maybe a couple other small things. If you have network access or Commercial intentions, however, Premium would be best for functionality or a clear conscious.
 
I started using SUPERAntiSpyware recently, and i find it to be one of the most powerful AS ive used. I scanned with Spybot, then adaware and each found nothing on my E drive, then after scanning with SAS, it found 34 items, sure not a load, but there was stuff there, and it found it.
 
If you don't mind paying, then go with Kaspersky or NOD32. I've also heard that BitDefender is great but drains resources.
 
Schmidt1989 said:
I started using SUPERAntiSpyware recently, and i find it to be one of the most powerful AS ive used. I scanned with Spybot, then adaware and each found nothing on my E drive, then after scanning with SAS, it found 34 items, sure not a load, but there was stuff there, and it found it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's great. I only scan with it like once a month, I use Spyware terminator 24/7 per it's resident protection.
 
Avast! FTW. It lets you know you have a virus the instant you get one and you can instantly delete it. I've ran it without a Firewall and haven't had any malware for awhile.
 
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