[jackflash1991]

My McAfee subscription is going to expire soon so I would like to know what the #1 free antivirus program is. Tried AVG a while ago and it was ok. I know the top other two are Avira and Avast. Which one is the best? I do not need a lot of features like Email scanner and stuff, just based on the detection of viruses is what I want. I am running Vista and I still have not detected one virus with McAfee so I do not plan on buying any more subscriptions.

PS: I already have the spyware covered with the Webroot Spy Sweeper subscrition (detected only 1 threat in whole 6 months) and spybot (detects threats about every other scan).

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I personally don't like either Avira and Avast myself for various reasons. My favorite free AV is AOL Active Virus Shield. It uses Kaspersky's awesome definitions, but AOL just put their name on it.
http://www.activevirusshield.com
Note- Make sure to UNCHECK the Security Toolbar, it will install the AOL toolbar, you DO NOT want it.

Please follow the tutorial HERE to install and setup Active Virus Shield to give you the best protection possible.

[MoNsTeReNeRgY22]

I personally don't like either Avira and Avast myself for various reasons. My favorite free AV is AOL Active Virus Shield. It uses Kaspersky's awesome definitions, but AOL just put their name on it.
http://www.activevirusshield.com
Note- Make sure to UNCHECK the Security Toolbar, it will install the AOL toolbar, you DO NOT want it.

Please follow the tutorial HERE to install and setup Active Virus Shield to give you the best protection possible.

[jackflash1991]

Is the reason that no one else uses it because it just has AOL on it. Also what are your reasoning for not liking Avira and Avast. Was it features or was it because the detection was worse.

[MoNsTeReNeRgY22]

Well I dunno about the AOL, but if my parents wouldn't keep renewing my NOD32 subscription(Best Shareware AV IMO) I would definately use Active VirusShield. All it does is say AOL, uses Kaspersky defintions like I said earler. As for not liking Avira or Avast, I thought detection rate was HORRIBLE also gave me a lot of false postives on my test machine. So overall just gave up on both of them.

[MoNsTeReNeRgY22]

Which Anti Virus did you end up using?

[jackflash1991]

I have tried AOL Active Virus Shield but for some reason during the install I get an error. I uninstalled McAfee first so I don't think it is conflicting with anything. I think the software is not Vista ready. Any suggestions on how to fix it or which AV do you think is the next runner up?

[arborman]

I personally don't like either Avira and Avast myself for various reasons. My favorite free AV is AOL Active Virus Shield. It uses Kaspersky's awesome definitions, but AOL just put their name on it.
http://www.activevirusshield.com
Note- Make sure to UNCHECK the Security Toolbar, it will install the AOL toolbar, you DO NOT want it.

Please follow the tutorial HERE to install and setup Active Virus Shield to give you the best protection possible.

That is good advice, and mostly what I wanted to add too.

In the last on year, I have used the following on my XP rig

AVG - Uses the least amount of system resources, easy to configure. Detection rate not that great.

Antivir - horrible. Sucks up system resources. Would NOT auto-update...I had to manually d/l definitions. An irritating 'Buy Antivir' window used to pop up occasionally, sometimes when I was playing online. It has even crashed on me once or twice.

AVS - so far, the best of the lot. Kaspersky engine, reliable updates and good detection rate. Highly stable too.

[starjax]

For free anti virus solutions we recommend Avast or AVG free edition.

[MoNsTeReNeRgY22]

ON what Starjax said, many of us though in the Malware removal community are putting Active Virus Shiled in our prevention speech and are reccomending it to our users.

[jackflash1991]

I don't think that AVS is Vista ready or I just can't install it so I am trying out Avast.

[MoNsTeReNeRgY22]

Totally forgot you were running Vista

I know AOL AVS only supports the following OS's

(Windows 98, 2000, ME & XP)

and Avast is compatible with Vista

Edited by MoNsTeReNeRgY22, 27 June 2007 - 12:21 AM.