Is free antivirus just as good?

[xxsleepyxx]

Or is the paid version definitely more protective and effective?

[Paltik.45acp]

I have the Avast free version and it seems to be doing a good job of keeping my laptop virus free.

[Vacaville]

I have the Avast free version and it seems to be doing a good job of keeping my laptop virus free.

+1 on Avast. I've been using it for the past couple of years.

[ldivinag]

microsoft's security essentials is free and i use a lot at work to get rid of crap that mcafee enterprise version doesnt.

[Doheny]

/\/\ Ditto. It's real good.

[psssniper]

malwarebytes

avg

spybot

all free and good stuff

[ShootinMedic]

+2 for Avast! I have been using it for years and have never had any problems with it.

[Ricky-Ray]

I have been using AVG free edition since 2001. It's worked well for me.

[patriot_man]

avg is great

[i1800collect]

Microsoft Security Essentials

Malwarebytes

SuperAntiSpyware

All 3 are free and have served me very well.

[Rhythm of Life]

Avast!

AVG is second place IMO.

[Turo]

microsoft's security essentials is free and i use a lot at work to get rid of crap that mcafee enterprise version doesnt.

That's what I'm using, and it's done great for my roommate for a few months now. (computer science major, so I trust what he tells me.)

[Brianguy]

AVG and Avast! are the best

[Dangerpin]

As an IT consultant that serves many medium and small businesses I find that many companies classify the laptops they provide for workers to use at home as "home computers" and therefore feel they should be able to use AV products that are free for home use.

While I don't agree with the policy, it has shown me how home products perform, or fail to perform. Avira seems to lead the pack in false positives, which ends up causing other problems but is otherwise really good possibly even better than Avast. The downside is it ends up using a ton of memory compared with competitors. AVG is actually pretty poor at catching issues overall. Right now I'm pretty impressed with MS Security Essentials.

All that being said, I use ESET NOD32 at home and recommend the business version of it to my clients.

No AV product will catch all forms of malware. Antivirus products aren't designed to catch spyware and other malware forms. So as others have mentioned use dedicated malware scanners like Malware Antibytes, Spybot and Superantispyware for regular scanning and Combofix for cleanup of serious rootkit issues.

[locosway]

I never understood the need for AV software. I never had an issues on Windows and I didn't run any software. My wife doesn't have any issues and she doesn't have software. Even if I didn't use Linux, I still wouldn't run AV software, I'd just keep my PC up to date and not watch free pr0n.