Free Antivirus

[Pluto_fan]

I think I counted up 7 votes for AVG, 5 for Avast, and 5 for Microsoft.
So I'm guessing I'll be OK with any of them. Thanks!

We could post this as a poll.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Are these Antiviruses easy to use? I'm not computer savy so I need something not complicated.

I'm not computer savy and I love the Microsoft, very user friendly. My computer that has it runs alot better than the one we have that had Norton and McAfee on it, in fact the hard drive burned out in that computer last week, although I know that has nothing to do with the Antivirus we had running on it.

Suzanne

 

[Halbleib1]

Are these Antiviruses easy to use? I'm not computer savy so I need something not complicated.

AVG is pretty easy to use. It will actually update automatically when you log on to the internet. I can not remember if you have to set that up or if it defaults to that though. Either way it is pretty easy to use.

 

[Ericandjenng]

I have one word of caution about the freeware programs. If you don't keep your system current, they sometimes stop supporting the older operating systems. This happened to us a few years ago with Windows ME on an old computer.

Currently I don't use a free one, I keep up the subscription with Norton and have not had any problems in 4+ years (knock on wood). Since opting to pay for the service, I have NOT had to restore my computer at any time in those 4+ years. But I had to on my previous computer where I was using the freeware.

 

[cglaura]

I have one word of caution about the freeware programs. If you don't keep your system current, they sometimes stop supporting the older operating systems. This happened to us a few years ago with Windows ME on an old computer.

Currently I don't use a free one, I keep up the subscription with Norton and have not had any problems in 4+ years (knock on wood). Since opting to pay for the service, I have NOT had to restore my computer at any time in those 4+ years. But I had to on my previous computer where I was using the freeware.

I've been using AVG free for years now, am on Windows XP from 2003. You just have to make sure to run the updates daily, and it will tell you when you need to install the new verison of AVGfree to keep your system current.

I also use it on a laptop w/ Vista and one w/ Win7.

I like AVGfree because it includes a realtime spyware/adware scan too (similar to the paid version of Malwarebytes). And a link scanner so if using Google, Bing, etc there will be a little green check mark next to the link so you know it is a safe link to click. Also scans emails in Outlook and Outlook Express.

Not sure about the other free av out there, they might have this too, just my experience w/ AVG.

I do run the free version of Malware bytes every few days also just to scan to make sure all is ok.