Freeware antivirus program

[warpus]

Hey y'all

I was happily using the freeware version of AVG when I needed to disable it for a couple seconds.. and realized that no matter how hard I looked, I could not figure out how to exit out of all instances of the software. There is an exit menu but clicking it just minimizes AVG and doesn't actually close it.. When you manually kill the process using the task manager - it just come sback.

I did some googling and it turns out that you CAN'T quit at all.. unless you uninstall it. which I did.. but now I don't have an anti virus program running. what do you guys use?

I am running windows 7

 

[The_J]

I guess the other most widely used free ones are Avira AntiVir (which i'm using) and Avast!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

MalwareBytes I found pretty decent.

I think one of the other members here has a list to a site of antivirus tests so you might want to check that out. But I don't remember it.

 

[Narnia]

I don't know about any free programs to can turn off. Ironicly enough, although I don't know how to turn off any of the free antivirus programs, when I was using Norton 360 and needed it to pause it, I could turn it off without any trouble. All I had to do was turn on the 3 most resource intensive programs I had on my computer, and then while my computer was totally overloaded, I'ld have Norton try and run scans. It would crash every time . I'd then just restart my computer when I needed Norton working again. I don't like Norton, I had way to many problems with it.

 

[Zelig]

MS Security Essentials

 

[mdwh]

I now use MS Security Essentials - I don't know if you can quit the program, but it has an option to turn off "real time protection" which might be useful?

 

[Birdjaguar]

I used Avira free for two years and recently paid them back by buying the premium version.

 

[illram]

I think Avira and Avast! are the new hotness. AVG is old and busted. MalwareBytes's Anti Malware is also good but does not provide constant protection, although my jury is still out as to whether you need constantly-on anti-virus protection.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I use MBAM as my secondary a/v. Run it every second week to pick up anything.

 

[illram]

Yeah I should add that as far as actually fixing a malware problem MBAM is the only one I can personally vouch for as doing the job adequately. I fired AVG, as last time I ran into malware it could not get rid of it properly.

And when I say adequately, I mean it got rid of the most stuff it could and left a little as possible remaining to be fixed via hijack this or analogous down and dirty methods. (Which in my experience seem to be the only real way to 100% clear yourself of malware.)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Or redo the system. But that's a pain in the behind unless you did a system image or wotnot.

 

[Maximus74]

I was running MSE but my computer is a little bit too slow so I chaged it to ZenOK free antivirus. Those 2 are my favorites

 

[Narnia]

Hey y'all

I was happily using the freeware version of AVG when I needed to disable it for a couple seconds.. and realized that no matter how hard I looked, I could not figure out how to exit out of all instances of the software. There is an exit menu but clicking it just minimizes AVG and doesn't actually close it.. When you manually kill the process using the task manager - it just come sback.

I did some googling and it turns out that you CAN'T quit at all.. unless you uninstall it. which I did.. but now I don't have an anti virus program running. what do you guys use?

I am running windows 7

I just remembered something. I used to use AVG free (dumped it for MSE a while ago). When I was using it, I found that there was a way to disable it for a few minutes (I think 15 minutes at a time or something like that). You can't permanently disable it, but you can disable it for a little while. Don't ask me how, I forgot. I think there were instructions in the help pages however, if you still need to disable it, try looking there.

 

[Janig]

yes under Tools --> Advanced Settings, scroll down to the bottom and click Temporarily Disable AVG Protection. After 15 mins a popup appears but you can keep hitting it like the snooze button on an alarm clock. I use avg and its good.

 

[Mec AntiKythera]

I use avast! and find it user friendly and effective. It is easy to turn off. The new interface makes it a joy to work with and is a big improvement over the old one. The layout is clear and easy to navigate. I highly recommend it.