In your opinion? Antivir and AVG seem to be pretty popular. I'm currently using Antivir and while I'm generally satisfied, whenever I'm playing a game and the software downloads updates, I'm automatically taken out of the game and back to the desktop. This is very irritating especially when playing a memory-intensive game such as Oblivion running with over 50 mods. What do you guys think is the best free anti-virus software available on the Net ?

AVG from my experience.

AVG for sure....but that being said the best anti-virus is common sense. You shouldn't really need a security software if your smart with how you browse the internet.

I use AVG and am satisfied, though I never actually get any viruses :P

It runs relatively well in the background. You may see a small pop up on the bottom left of your screen, but it goes away by itself.

You shouldn't really need a security software if your smart with how you browse the internet.

The only good anti-virus is not having shit-for-brains.

Killing all the children helps, as well.

AVG here.  McAfee came free on my computer, but it was horribly intrusive and difficult to work with for me.

"AVG for sure....but that being said the best anti-virus is common sense. You shouldn't really need a security software if your smart with how you browse the internet."

"AVG for sure....but that being said the best anti-virus is common sense. You shouldn't really need a security software if your smart with how you browse the internet."

Common sense will get you plenty far and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware covers the rest of the gap (linky linky). No real time scanning in the free version, but it sounds like you're not too concerned with realtime scanning and automatic updates anyway. Use it in conjunction with AntiVir and you'll be set; just make sure that you disable those automatic updates in AntiVir and whatnot that cause you so much headaches; as long as you stay on the ball, you'll be fine.

AVG is fairly mediocre, but it sure as hell beats ClamWin. Then again, what doesn't?

go to download.com and look at the popular ones all the ones mentioned here are there

AVG is on all of the PCs at home, works great. I even prefer it over full paid software like Norton... that crap eats your memory up.

Avira Antivir. works great

avg free is one of the best, but it wont help you much against spyware =(

AVG free for sure.

"AVG from my experience."

I use Avast Anti-Virus.....It has great protection services.

Me too. Avast works fine for me as well.

Avast rocks, AVG free had a lot of update server problems back when I used it, so I switched.

I've used Avast for years now and never had a problem.

Free security software is a good stop gap but ideally if you use the your PC often for financial matters and online shopping, I would say buy a proper package.

Like almost everyone else, AVG has been pretty good to me and I've been using it for years.

AVG, no doubt.

This just in.

AVG virus scanner removed critical Windows file

It's not like false positives are anything new, but that's pretty serious false positive.

All hail Avast.

"Free security software is a good stop gap but ideally if you use the your PC often for financial matters and online shopping, I would say buy a proper package."

"Linkyshinks said:

"Free security software is a good stop gap but ideally if you use the your PC often for financial matters and online shopping, I would say buy a proper package."

I see statements like this time and time again and dismiss them again.

There is nothing wrong with free security software, most do the job just as well as other pay for software does, if not better!
I use Avast as part of a multi-layered approach which includes free anti-malware (Spybot, Ad-aware, A-Squared, Spyware Blaster, Windows Defender and MVPS host files), free firewall (Comodo) and I do online shopping/online bakning etc without any problems."

As stated above free ones are ok... but if you want real protection I'd for for a paid package. I currently run McAfee which I have never had problems with. It runs quietly in the background of my machine and has never let me down. Theres also intergrated "Quick Clean" feature that keeps your pc up to date and running speedy, it scheduels things such as defreags and basic cleaning, eg reg cleaning. I'd say McAfee. Plus its not expensive. I have a 3 year liecence for 3 PC's which came to £60 GBP.

I used to really like AVG, but I think Avast is much better.

I got a pretty nasty virus while surfing the internet the other day and AVG let it through.  By the time the virus did it's work, AVG was broken and I spent most of the day researching for a way to remove the virus (I couldn't access any antivirus sites and google searches would direct me to ad sites).  In the end I had to go to Safe Mode, install Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware (after renaming the file), and run MAM (again, renamed) to remove all the nasty stuff so I could start doing a proper cleaning.

After getting everything cleaned, I was surfing the internet and Avast notified me the site I was going to was flagged for having malicious code.  This sold me on why Avast is better than AVG.  Also, something the author might be interested in is that there's an option to surpress pop-ups if a full-screen app is running (like a game).

zeus_gb also provided a great list of additional tools to have.

"I agree, i do say they are good, but if you run a business from home like I do I would advise anyone to get a comprehensive security package. Most of the free ones available have important options locked out until bought."

honestly - the best  anti-virus software i ever purchased was mac os x ;)

"AVG for sure....but that being said the best anti-virus is common sense. You shouldn't really need a security software if your smart with how you browse the internet."

Okay then, extension question to anyone who knows - which free security software works on a Mac?

www.trendmicro.com/housecall

most people who use AVG cant tell theyre infected because the software they use is garbage. Ive scanned known/common viruses with an updated list and it came up as nothing.

im convinced AVG isnt even anti virus software, so much as a mere program that has a progress bar that says no infections.

you can also try disabling the auto-update and manually start the update yourself (once a day) if it bothers you. I have used AVG in the past, but after using AVG 8 things went downhill from there. I also tried avast, but it seemed more memory intensive than AVG and it was slowing down my internet browsing so I switched to antivir and I'm happy with it.

AVG is good, but PC Tools is also very strong.

the good thing is, its next to impossible to get a virus for linux. the same cant be said for mac, and we all know the story with windows.

I've had good fortune with Avast.