What is a good free antivirus?
- Thread starter farmerjohn1324
- Start date
Laquer Head
Well-Known Member
Avast is free.. register with email... real or b.s. ... activates for a year
Agent Smith
Well-Known Member
Bitdefender Free. Light weight, cloud based and pretty good. I have never had an issue with it. But if you use game hacks and such you don't want Bitdefender Free. In fact, you may not want an anti-virus at all. I don't run an anti-virus on my gaming computer in fact. And when I say game hack I don't mean cheats, I mean mods and such. But game hack/cheats will have issues with a Firewall or anti-virus too. Believe me. LOL
I need to mention that definition-based anti-virus isn't that effective anymore. I would in addition to an anti-virus use Sandboxie for your browser. Just keep in mind that if you update the browser you have to do it without Sandboxie. And I would allow access to the browser's profile folder so addons can update. That would be at reduced security however. Also, scan downloaded files at virustotal.com
I need to mention that definition-based anti-virus isn't that effective anymore. I would in addition to an anti-virus use Sandboxie for your browser. Just keep in mind that if you update the browser you have to do it without Sandboxie. And I would allow access to the browser's profile folder so addons can update. That would be at reduced security however. Also, scan downloaded files at virustotal.com
Most likely when you installed Avast, you opted to have the trial period of Avast Internet Security, 14 days or so I think. Somewhere in the program will be in option to go back to the free version, can't remember off the top of my head as I had to do it the other day to clients machine as they did the same thing. What I would do is uninstall Internet Security and then install the free version of Avast, making sure you do a custom install and uncheck everything but this.
Agent Smith
Well-Known Member
Since you might opt to uninstall Avast and reinstall. With Avast installed go to www.speedtest.net and do a speed test. Now uninstall Avast and do another speed test. Do you notice a drop in speed? I have had this every time I used Avast. Maybe it's different now, but I'm curious.
Edit- Actually, not sure if this would be a good test since Avast is now disabled since you had the 14 day trial and it expired. The driver might still be there and could show the slower Internet speed.
Edit- Actually, not sure if this would be a good test since Avast is now disabled since you had the 14 day trial and it expired. The driver might still be there and could show the slower Internet speed.