Recommend a free antivirus for PC

[ILLMAS]

Can someone recommend a antivirus (preferably, used by computer builders)  that is out there for free?  

Thanks

MAS

[FDNY]

I have used Avast in the past, seemed to work OK but I think it uses a lot of resources.  I've also used Comodo firewall (recommended by Mr. Normal) that worked well too.

[Lee B]

I just use the Windows free firewall and anti virus program as my active security.

Then I use Malwarebytes as a passive backup.

Different security programs are good at different things so there isn't any one program that will catch everything.

As different people have said many times, the best defense is you.

I don't use my business computer for anything personal plus the only searching I do are business related so that limits my exposure significantly.

[Abby Normal]

Comodo is good. I use it on my virtual machine.

[Lee B]

One other thing, since I have switched to gmail for business and outlook for personal, the number of junk and scam emails has dropped to almost zero.

[PaulH]

Panda was someone's (maybe PCWorld's) top rated free AV program 2 or 3 years ago, and I've been using it ever since with no problems.  Last time I checked there was another rated higher, but I don't remember which.  Panda's free version was hard to find on their website--they make it made easier to download one of the paid versions.

[Abby Normal]

https://fossbytes.com/10-best-free-antivirus-software-list-2017/

I would stay away from the Russians and the Romanians.

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

The best is using one's own grey matter to control the impulse to click.  After that, I use the current Windows solutions, since they do not guess at the future (lie), and cause false positives.  I then, just for "fun" use various free offerings, manually, just to "see" what they report...

Whatever you decide to use (if anything) make sure it is checking for and installing updates at least once a day.  If you get a security alert, manually check the file using virustotal.com.  With common sense, you actually need to protection, since you are really protecting yourself from your own mistakes.

[ILLMAS]

Thanks everyone, I decided to go temporarily with Avast, I say temporarily because I needed a software to remove various virus from my associates computer and now that they are gone I am just going to go with Windows Defender.

[Roberts]

If you have Windows 10, Defender is perfectly fine. Just do an occasional sweep with others (I do them every other week).

As was said by cbslee, since I moved my email address to being handled via Google and everything goes through their system - I get next to nothing in spam. My corporate email address was transferred to google last summer and their spam blocking system does a solid job. I use Thunderbird as my email client software for accessing the account.

 

 

[Medlin Software, Dennis]

Do check your spam every few days.  The free providers do not always play nice with each other, and one may block another for some period of time.  Sadly, the only way to avoid dealing with spam, is over time, use your own filtering software, which you control, on a mail server you control.  Gmail is likely the best automated system, but will still push messages you want to actually receive into spam.