Free Anti-Virus Programs

Sophos Anti-Virus is free, easy to use, and effective. MacTech magazine turned me on to it.

www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/free-mac-anti-virus/

I used Panda for a couple years and it did OK, but almost impossible.

I'm using Norton, but it is expensive...
I'm very hesitant about downloading free antivirus protection

To get directly to the point - what is the best free antivirus product?

Thank you for your help

Hello Bob, I am writing from London. Whether you can offer a view will depend whether you have encountered 'Virgin' it's an isp, telephones etc. etc. I have them and they are very good. My only query is whether you have come across their anti spyware. Virgin had problems with the spyware for a while, then things bucked up.

If you have come across Virgin Media Anti-Spyware can you give me your view. It is a very heavy spyware and can be slow. I really would appreciate your professional view if you can do this. Thanks for all of the help and indeed the support often given.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I have not tried it. But if you think it's heavy and slow, why not go with a free alternative like MBAM? See http://askbobrankin.com/malwarebytes_antimalware.html

I have been using the free Avast program for about two years with no problem until last week. It stopped working completely shut down sending me a notice that my computer was unprotected. I was careful to always do updates etc. so I contacted their tech. support. After 3 hours, no kidding 3 they were not able to reinstall the program! The final tech. person a supervisor ended up installing Micro's Security Essentials so I would not be unprotected. They said I had some infections that needed to be removed professionally, offered to do it for a price. I asked several times why mine died only to be told the MSE they installed was a good product and work fine for me and my computer! Never suggested I fix the "problem infections and come back etc. Plus they had no answer why if I was using their product I got viruses in the first place!

i will be using a good one called zenok free antivirus 2012 is a good version ,nice GUI here is http://www.zenok.com/en/free-antivirus/ try and comennt :)

hai I use kasperasky trial version

hi , i think i have a trojan horse virus , when i put my flash into the comuter i found many shortcut folders named backup00M backup00G backup00D .... about 20 file , and then they goes , and when i put the same flash in another computer then i found these files , i used many antivirus and some of them detect these folder but cant find the source, are COMBOFIX software can solve the problem ? can u tell me about a free anti trojan ? plz help me

How about a 2012 update. I'm still running XP with the free AVG & ZoneAlarm. Now ZA has come out with it's own free anti virus app. Should I keep AVG w/ZA even though running two anti virus apps at the same time will slow everything down? Just drop AVG & use ZA? Or stay with the original AVG + ZA w/out ZA's anti virus?

I found your newsletter while searching for a new AV program, the one AV company I had used for about 2 years decided to turn it into ad-ware promoting a $ 10.00 upgrade to my $ 39.00 subscription of last March. About every 10 minutes a popup blasted onto my screen. I complained about it and the AV company said to just ignore it, yea right!

Anyway, thru your site I followed links to an independent software testing company that did a test of about 20+ AV programs, some free others not. I found my old AVP was on the bottom third of the list and about 1/2 of the free AVPs were better than my old AVP.

I downloaded and installed Panda on my desktop XP computer. It's a Cloud AVP. So far, I like it. It is conservative with PC resources and ranks well at detecting viruses without too many false positives.

Do you have any views about a Cloud AV program? I have reservations about putting personal information in the Cloud but I can't see much wrong with a cloud AV program.

This is their home page;
http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/forHome/

I like your news letter also. It is shedding new light on some issues like de-fragging a hard drive that I had never considered.

i had seen only anti-virus software,so can i also get free pc performer/speed maximizer?

I use System Mechanic Pro.Have tryed all the free ones over the years but thier only half good as the paid ones.Will stay with System Mechanic Pro.

You may have mentioned it in the past and I thought it was silly, but the "pirate talk" that can be set as an Avast software language option breaks up my day in a wonderfully happy manner - it is awesome.

Warning re: AVG "Technical Support". AVG's "FamilySafety" is a paid add-on ($20/yr.) A look at the forums will give anyone a clear indication of how frustrating it is trying to get the product to work and get any kind of support.

Well Bob You Didnt Help Me At All ,All I Wanted Was To Get Protected From Virus Free Clean My PC But I Dont See Anything Thats FREE So Us Poor Pepole Just Have NO LUCK In Your World Thanks Alot Pal........

EDITOR'S NOTE: Not sure where you looked, but I have lots of recommendations for free anti-malware and PC maintenance tools on AskBobRankin. Try here:

http://askbobrankin.com/free_antivirus_programs.html
AND/OR
http://askbobrankin.com/free_pc_maintenance_tools.html

Bob, I really enjoy your Newsletters and look forward to them. I wanted to mention to you some Freeware Programs that I have been using for almost a year and they are extremely good. I have these on my PC: Kingsoft Anti-Virus, Kingsoft PC Doctor and Kingsoft Office Suite.

I have Charter for my cable and also internet. So I get F-Secure free, but I uninstalled it as it just bogged down my PC. I use the free AVG now. What is you thoughts on F-Secure?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I have not used it for years, but I hear good things about F-Secure, and it scores well in the lab tests.

Hi Bob,

I've been using Comodo Internet Security for the past several months and have been impressed; for best results, however, the default installation requires tweaking to enable the full sandbox capabilities of the program. I'd been using Norton Internet Security for the past couple years; no problems, but just decided to see what was available in the freeware arena. I'm thinking of giving Emisoft's Anti-Malware (it's both anti-virus and anti-malware) a try. Have you or your readers had any experience with that one? Emisoft doesn't include a firewall, but the free version of ZoneAlarm has always served well in past usage.

Generally good article but it definitely needs updating, especially since it is featured in your site menu.

Microsoft's antivirus is getting better and is only good for _casual_ users who don't do much and also don't know much. False positives are essentially zero but detection is still not very good (2013).

CA detection is sub par when compared to AVAST, AVIRA (formerly AntiVir), and AVG and has been for years.

For 2013 I prefer AVAST for its performance, features, and interface, then Avira, then AVG (no rootkit and other missing features) but all are good if supplemented.

BitDefender Free is hard to find on their site and is offered some years and not others. For 2013 it has very limited features (e.g., it just removes any malware it finds -- completely unacceptable to me) but great detection. It might serve for those who otherwise default to Microsoft or are given CA for free by their internet service provider.

McAfee has fallen down over the last few years. Norton has improved over the last few years.

A couple of the cloud scanners are decent (e.g., Panda) but they don't (or didn't) provide protection when disconnected from the web or if the connection to their server fails for any reason -- AND USERS ARE NOT WARNED, so appropriate for supplemental use only.

You should also mention several of the supplemental scanners available. I use BitDefender Quickscan online scanner for a quick (2 min) check of loaded processes, startup programs, etc. It reminds you to run it every few weeks.

OPSWAT has an interesting free metascanner that I like to use. The Metascan Client was updated in early 2013 to scan loaded processes (

The HitmanPro free trial doesn't expire as long as you don't try to use its removal tools nor register it. I use it every time I boot as a supplemental scanner but it definitely affects performance on older or lighter systems while it is running. It also supports full system scans.

Add periodic Malwarebytes (MBAM) and SuperAntiSpyware (SAS) scans to AVAST/AVIRA/AVG and one of the above tools and while you may get an infection, at least it will be found.

My non-tech-friend-recommendation for 2013 is AVAST (or AVIRA or AVG if already used/recommended by someone else) plus Hitman Pro and BitDefender Quickscan.

I also _always_ submit any downloaded files, attachments, and any file flagged by another tool to an online metascanner which uses 20 to 45 different antivirus engines:
a) www.VirusTotal.com now owned by Google and upgraded to support 64MB files (add VTUploader to submit files via the context menu; also integrates with Firefox downloader and probably soon with Chrome);
b) www.metascan-nnline.com from OPSWAT with a 50 MB limit; or
c) vscan.jotti.org (slower, fewer engines, smaller file limit; search for JottiQ tool to submit files via context menu)

I do a full scan with Avast once a week. My question is on the rare occasions it finds something is it better to delete it or move it to the chest? Or does it even matter? Thanks

Re: free anti-virus program. There's a program that is available to all Comcast (Xfinity) subscribers free. It is called Norton™ Security Suite and it is almost identical to Norton 360. Comcast is bad about telling its' customers about this, so there are lots of Comcast subscribers that don't have it. Here's the url...http://xfinity.comcast.net/constantguard/Products/CGPS/norton/?cid=NET_33_641