GRM Computer Gurus, have question.

I need to find a good free anti-virus. My free Norton trial is over. I'm cheap and don't want to buy an anti virus program.

Whats the best free anti-virus?

I use Microsoft Security Essentials. It was free an seems to work great.

I use Avast. I used to use AVG, but they kept getting pushier and pushier about upgrading.

The fact that I've settled on Avast isn't exactly proof that it's The Best, but now you've got one data point (EDIT: slower than ECM; make it two data points...)

Don't forget to uninstall Norton before installing something else. I don't know if the whole architecture has changed, but when I was doing tech support for an antivirus maker (12 years ago), one of the most common problems was having two installed at the same time.

er, what is the cheapest oil filter?

Symantic is an option, but I keep hearing the Microsoft supplied version is the best way to go:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

I will likely switch over to this at some point. I don't really have any issues with Symantic (they try to get you to upgrade when there is an update, but they do not bomb you with pop-ups or anything like that).

MS Essentials is pretty good, we've got it on a couple work computers with no issues. My home stuff run Avast's free edition with good effect - but it doesn't autoscan web pages or schedule some scans unless you get the paid version. Having said that, the Avast full version is around $50 for 3 licenses and is GREAT on the rest of our work computers.

Vipre is also well reviewed and reasonably priced. Don't know if they have a freebie or not though...

I've been using AVG with no problems. Then again, I'm not a computer guru.

AVG seemed to get more bloated and slow with every update, so a computer nerd friend suggested Avira. It's worked great for the last year or so.

EastCoastMojo wrote: I use Microsoft Security Essentials. It was free an seems to work great.

+1 It works. I use it on my eSATA drive Win7 installation. Otherwise it's Ubuntu Linux the other 99% of the time. It also works.

I got the IT guy to try out Microsoft Security Essentials on 4 of our 9 of our Windows 7 service computers. The 4 are all faster now than the others after 6 months of use. It seems to be a less bulky option in my opinion and it does seamlessly work with Windows for what that is worth.

MS Security Essentials.

Still running on my original Windows 7 install from two years ago, still runs just as quick and nice as the day I built it.

Without Norton, make sure everything stays up to date.

I'll look into the MS Security Essentials, thanks guys.

Avast is what I run on my windoze computers.

MSE and commonsense will get you through just about anything...

Make sure you do the full incantations regarding the Norton uninstall.