Recommended non-nagging free anti virus?

[AdamD]

I've always been a fan of free antivirus vendors such as AVG and Avast, but I notice both now have semi frequent popups that come up from the taskbar area with upgrade offers and "special offers" on the paid products.

First it was AVG, so I Removed that and went with Avast, but now even Avast seems to be pushing about 5 a day on my PC

Are there any others that anyone recommends?

 

[LeadCrow]

'360 Total Security' is really good and can be extended with Bitdefender's engine/definitions as an extra, but there's some stigma against it since it's from China.

Honestly, if you can get it cheap, it'd be better getting Kaspersky for now (a month's unrestricted trial is available). They plan to extend their regionally-restricted free edition to worldwide availability later this year.

 

[doubt]

Are there any others that anyone recommends?

Security Essentials

 

[AdamD]

Thanks LeadCrow, yea I do get a free license for Kaspersky's internet security from my bank, but I always seemed to have issues with it
I'll give it another go, it's been a while.

 

[Num7]

Eset NOD 32 works wonders and won't slow down your PC. It's not very expensive either.

For a free AV, I think MS Security Essential is better than the others like AVG and Avast.

 

[eva2000]

not free but i use WebRoot Secure Anywhere https://www.webroot.com/au/en/home/products/compare

they have free trial so you can try it out

https://www.webroot.com/blog/2017/06/27/petya-based-ransomware-assaults-global-networks/

 

[H-DB]

As a website administrator I would never risk using free antivirus software. I consider my computers to be tools that I use to build my website and would not want to use a computer that might put my website at risk.

 

[onlinestaff]

Avast has always been simple and straight forward with me, it does not slow down my system.

 

[Ryan Ashbrook]

I've used Avast for as long as I've been using Mac (about... five years now?) and I've never had a single issue.

 

[Pete]

I've used Avast for as long as I've been using Mac (about... five years now?) and I've never had a single issue.

I hope they secure your machine better than they secure their own. (Their SMF instance got hacked a while ago, mostly through their own incompetence.)

 

[HotRodCarts]

Windows Defender has worked fine for me.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Windows Defender has worked fine for me.

The latest real-world protection tests run by http://www.av-comparatives.org suggests Windows Defender is currently one of the best anti-virus products available for detection but it is also one of the worst for false positives.

The other product with a lot of mentions here, Avast also come out very well, comparable with Defender but with almost no false positives.

 

[rakovsky]

Norton seems to be a little nagging, but not beyond what I can tolerate. For example, it has popup messages if I'm watching a movie that say that it is running background tasks while I'm supposedly being inactive. Maybe there's some way to turn that message off, but it's not awful, just annoying.

 

[craigForo]

I use Microsoft's security suite. I haven't had an issue yet.

When I have a doubt I use https://www.virustotal.com/gui/

 

[zappaDPJ]

I think it's worth emphasizing that what works well today could easily head south tomorrow with antivirus products.

I also rely mainly on Microsoft for computer security but it's currently not the best with a 98% detection rate in tests done here: https://www.av-comparatives.org/tests/real-world-protection-test-feb-mar-2021-factsheet/

On the other hand it has a very low false positive rate (2) compared to other products which is a complete reversal from the last time I posted in this thread.

The current top of the pile are Avast, AVG and Trend Micro with 100% detection rate but all with very high false positives.