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Good free anti virus? (for PC)

tech4all

tech4all

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 13, 2004
3,399
489
NorCal
First off: I know this isn't a Mac question, but this is the only forum I know of that gets a lot of traffic at this time of night/morning. So bear with me please :)

Ok I have this Pentium 3 notebook PC (yea, yea I know :eek: but its really not that bad aside from the spyware and it having Windows on it ;) ). It's Norton AV expired a while back this year and I don't want to renew the subscription or update Norton since I don't use this laptop for much anymore. But I would like to scan it for viruses just for the heck of it. Can anyone recomened any good free AV app for PCs? I checked Google but I'm too familiar with them. Any info/links is appreciated.

LOL, as soon as I finished that paragraph, I got a notice from Norton that my subscription has expired in RED. Makes you wonder if these computers know what we're typing :rolleyes:

P.S. I did see something about AVG on Google. Is that any good?
 
combatcolin said:
I have AVG (Also known as Gri Soft).

Make sure you also have either Ad Aware or Spybot to clear out internet related crap.
Click to expand...
Grisoft is the company which makes and distributes AVG. AVG is great, until you actually have a virus. It tells you, then does squat diddly to help...

If you're running Windows XP SP2, go through the 'protect your PC wizard' whilst acting like a moron "How can I get antivirus protection?" link, and get a free trial of F-Secure. It's, like, 6 or 12 months, or something.

Afterward, buy F-Secure. It's well worth it. Seriously.

Also, Spybot is a piece of s**t. Just run Ad-aware regularly, reches the parts other anti spyware apps can't reach ;)
 
tech4all said:
First off: I know this isn't a Mac question, but this is the only forum I know of that gets a lot of traffic at this time of night/morning. So bear with me please :)

Ok I have this Pentium 3 notebook PC (yea, yea I know :eek: but its really not that bad aside from the spyware and it having Windows on it ;) ). It's Norton AV expired a while back this year and I don't want to renew the subscription or update Norton since I don't use this laptop for much anymore. But I would like to scan it for viruses just for the heck of it. Can anyone recomened any good free AV app for PCs? I checked Google but I'm too familiar with them. Any info/links is appreciated.

LOL, as soon as I finished that paragraph, I got a notice from Norton that my subscription has expired in RED. Makes you wonder if these computers know what we're typing :rolleyes:

P.S. I did see something about AVG on Google. Is that any good?
Click to expand...
If you are an AOL subscriber, the AOL 9 Security Edition is available with antivirus software (from a respected vendor whose name I forget). The antivirus software works independently of AOL. It is continually updated, again independently of AOL.
 
On our Dell (virus/spyware free) we use Norton anti-virus/Norton Firewall and Webroot spysweeper
Using these three we have managed to stay virus free.
The beauty of using my imac is that i don't need to worry about doing virus scans (hogging cpu for ages), update definitions everyday (hogging broadband bandwidth) or experience any slow down due to viruses :p
oh crap didn't see the free part of the title, zonealarm is a good firewall i used to use
 
brap said:
Grisoft is the company which makes and distributes AVG. AVG is great, until you actually have a virus. It tells you, then does squat diddly to help...

If you're running Windows XP SP2, go through the 'protect your PC wizard' whilst acting like a moron "How can I get antivirus protection?" link, and get a free trial of F-Secure. It's, like, 6 or 12 months, or something.

Afterward, buy F-Secure. It's well worth it. Seriously.

Also, Spybot is a piece of s**t. Just run Ad-aware regularly, reches the parts other anti spyware apps can't reach ;)
Click to expand...

Well, AVG has never 'done squat diddly' when I've used it. It's removed most everything I've sent it up against (there was one worm it couldn't remove, and there was a freely available stand alone system cleaner for that from Norton). I would definately recommend AVG from Gri Soft.

Also, while I also recommend Ad-Aware, I would also recommend using something else with it, like Spybot. Ad-Aware is the best out there to be sure, but it WILL NOT REMOVE EVERYTHING. Several variants of the ROINGS malware app for one, is not even detected by Ad-Aware. Also, Spybot will run in your system tray and alert you when alot of things are being installed on your system. Ad-Aware's FREE version doesn't have that (the pay one does, though)... I am a prevention is the best medicine type of guy.

Anyways, that's my $.02...
 
Thanks for the replies! I have both Spybot and Adaware on the system. But whenever I get rid of the spyware/cookies and what not they just keep coming back. It really does have a bit of problems with it, I may just do a system recovery or something. But I want to do a virus scan just to see if I got any viruses on it. :)
 
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