Anyone know good free anti-virus and malware programs?

I got a lovely new computer for my birthday but the anti-virus software has expired. I've never had spyware software and I suspect my system is just loaded with crap.

I had some good programs on my old computer but its monitor died, and I forget what my old anti-spyware software was. I had AVG but had a hard time getting it to run.

Thanks in advance

Want an illegal copy?

AVG

Avira AntiVir

Spybot

Malwarebytes

Windows Defender

Ad-Aware

Those are all free. Don't bother with the subscription-based ones; even if you do pirate them, they're just not as good as the free ones.

Did you remove your expired antivirus program before installing and running AVG?  That might be the problem.  I use AVG Free with no problems now -- but had to take my computer to the shop after uninstalling Norton, which apparently wants to live on one's system forever despite expiration.  @@

I run Ad-Aware, Spybot, and sometimes Malwarebytes.  Generally, you need to run more than one malware remover to get them all, and sometimes you need to run them multiple times.  Those three have gotten rid of some pretty nasty garbage for me. 

Sometimes these kind of programs view other programs like them as malware, so you may have issues because of that.  Those three tend to play nice together, although, I think Ad-aware and Spybot both report each other.

You really need an anti-virus program as well as an anti-malware program, and you really should just put up the money for a commercial anti-virus program (I've had more luck with Mcafee.)  Never buy anti-malware, even Norton and Mcafee don't work all that well, because a lot of the programs out on the net that ask for money are actually malware gates. 

If you end up with some infections that keep coming up, type its name in google and see what other people have used to get it off thier computers, sometimes you need one particular anti-malware software to get rid of the really nasty ones.  (Of course I mean the software recommended by other people on forum boards and not pop-up/window warning recommendations that viruses will sometimes give you.)

I've also found that trying to get a working defense going on an already infected computer is really hard.  If there's nothing you need on the system, or you can get it off easily, you might think about running the re-install disk so the computer's just like it came out of the box. 

I use PC tools spyware doctor and i like it cheap if you consider the cost of getting fixing the pc if you get something

Get Spyware Terminator (Free) and McAfee ($50/yr.)  The combination ROCKS!

I use Avast for virus protection.

AVG Free sucks.  It's now a resource hog.  I used to use it but switching to Avast was like: "Where have you been all my life?!"

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

Want an illegal copy?

 Oh ho...a use for CC that I was previously unaware of.  Distributing pirated software?

UBUNTU LINUX :)

Other than that Avast, Adaware, and Spybot Search & Destroy are the windows staples used by many consultants to clean up MS Windows Systems.

I use AVG in addition to Super Antispyware.

AVG is particular sometimes and skips things when it scans. Super Antispyware is awesome for getting rid of spyware and viruses. It cleaned out the virus I had that AVG and MacAfee could not get rid of.

Original Post by _qwerty_:

AVG

Avira AntiVir

Spybot

Malwarebytes

Windows Defender

Ad-Aware

Those are all free. Don't bother with the subscription-based ones; even if you do pirate them, they're just not as good as the free ones.

I also recommend Malwarebytes. My boyfriend works for a computer company and has his degree in electrical engineering and computer science, and this is what he uses at work for the customers and on his own machine. I've never had any problems with it!

The antivirus I use is symantec corporate edition. It's very lightweight and you can set it up to run weekly scans. I got it from my college though, so I'm not sure how much it costs or anything. It's been keeping my computer safe for 4 years!

check out kim komandos site she has lots of free downloads

digital goddess

i use the free program from my isp (shaw in canada).  have been using that for three years, on three different computers, with good results.