What other free virus program other then Avast would you all recommend.. ?

Thank You..

Also , and why...

I want to change from Avast to another..

Why don't you like Avast? I've been using it for years... I like it.

Microsoft Security Essentials, which comes free with Windows 7, works very well.
I use it together with Malwarebytes.

Gil.

I use AVG on my two computers that do not have MSE.

I use the free Microsoft Security Essentials along with Malwarebytes Pro. Avast is supposed to be one of the best free ones out there, but I hate that they nag you to register the program every year. I've worked on several computers where they were no longer protected because they didn't renew. I know it's no big deal once a year, but several of my people are in their later 70's and early 80's and they are intimidated by the whole process.

I always put MSE on these computers along with Malwarebytes Pro and the requests for "HELP!" have become almost nil.

Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Pro, for sure.

That's exactly why I got rid of the paid version of Avast. They drove me nuts with their constant nagging, then when I tried to uninstall the program, I had a devil of a time doing it. Some people actually have to go to their website and download a special program to be able to uninstall Avast. Ugh.

MSE is FREE and combined with Malwarebytes Pro for real-time protection from malware does a great job of protecting my computer.
And for MBP you only pay once and it's yours forever.

Gil.

Gil.....That's what happened to me...I couldn't uninstall the program.....

It all started with an update.. That It requested which I did....WELL...The problems started big time....Internet explorer wouldn't work at all....Could not do a system restore at all...The window came up blank......What a mess, when I tried to uninstall No good.....I had to do a complete restore from CD to factory settings....

Hate Avast...Will never use it again...

That's actually pretty common for antivirus. If they made an antivirus that unistalled easily from Add/Remove Programs, a virus could uninstall it. So nearly all antivirus have proprietary uninstallers.

Whenever you uninstall an antivirus, you should seek out the removal tool from the website of the antivirus company. If you don't, you can have all sorts of trouble later on if you switch to a different antivirus.

Revo Uninstaller works wonders , especially the pro version , which will work on 64 bit systems . The standard version of Revo will not .

Avast! is like any other program, some people have problems, some people don't. I switched to Avast! because of two other programs I found very intrusive, and so far I've had no problems.

What use is an AV that is vulnerable to a virus because it's easy to remove the AV yourself with Add/Remove Programs?
I really don't follow you there.
If a virus can get past the AV's guard for any reason, I don't want it and I doubt anyone would.

If the ability to remove it through Control Panel is an Achilles heel for an AV, I wonder that I've never had a virus on my computer.
I've used a number of antivirus programs in my time, most removed for becoming bloated, and I've never had to go to the company's website to get a special program to uninstall it, although I came close with Avast.

Gil.

Norton and McAfee are two I've had to use a removal tool for.



And it appears that this is a LOOOONG way from true, even for the most touted anti-virus software. Got this in a news feed the other day.



The Anti-Virus Industry's Dirty Little Secret

Nothing is perfect and all these companies can do is try to stay ahead of the bad guys. My mantra is the user is the #1 defense against malware.

What Draclvr said. No antivirus is 100%.
There are also virus that change their signature (and file names) on every infection, so even the most complete set of virus signatures is not going to protect you from everything. Heuristic (behavioral) scanning is supposed to help with that, but can result in false positives (like blocking games from making saves or even running at all in some cases).


Besides the Norton and McAfee removal tools, I've also used the removal tool for Trend Micro. As far as I know, all antivirus have some form of removal tool to get the last bits out. Those last bits may or may not conflict with other antivirus that you may want to try out instead. I've seen computers that couldn't access the Internet or carry on other normal functions because they had remnants of old antivirus battling it out with the current antivirus.

Despite the dirty little secret(s) something is better than nothing.

Indeed, Homer... I'll take 80 - 90% protection any old time! Add in safe practices by the user, that number approaches 100%.

In 14 years of heavy home usage I have never had one single virus - ever.

Drac....

I never had a virus either...My troubles started with a program update from Avast...

Maybe the program had a defect...I don't know...But .Avast was constantly asking to Update, Update....

My SIL in Cabool, MO has Avast but she also has dialup which is slower then*****. She is not on the internet very often. She used to take her computer into Houston, MO to get Avast updated but has no way to get there now that her husband is gone. If I downloaded Avast to a flash drive when it comes due for renewal, would I be able to put it on her computer? Do I have to uninstall the old Avast first? Is there any way I can download updates to a flash drive, then put them on her computer?

Flutist,
It looks like you can download Avast updates here
http://www.avast.com/download-update

You may also have to periodically install the latest version of Avast, which means downloading the installer. It looks like you do that here (at least for the current version, maybe not for future versions)
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe
or here
http://www.avast.com/download-thank-you.php?product=FA-AVAST&locale=en-ww

Save those to your Flash drive.

What about critical Windows updates, does she still manage to download those? If she is still using XP, then all update support for that stops fairly soon to leave any users' computers vulnerable. More recent Windows versions still need to be updated regularly with security patches.

And Avast virus updates?

Well I decided to buy a new computer with windows 7......

XP in April will stop being updated by Microsoft...Plus most programs will not update on XP..

Oh well

XP is now obsolete...

Well, I continued using Windows 98 for years after Microsoft stopped supporting it -- not as an online OS, but as a gaming OS. I still use Windows 98 for certain games (though mostly in a VM). I'll continue using XP after Microsoft stops supporting it, again as a gaming OS. It's not like it will suddenly stop working when Microsoft stops producing critical updates.

Well yes, using XP is fine if you only and ever use the computer offline.

The exception is when you go online. An unsupported/out-of-date Windows system online is open and vulnerable. That's important to stress.

I agree , Rushes

Gaming off line would be fine...

I would love to have kept windows 98 as well as XP, but...Hubby would kill me... Theres no room...