The latest "best FREE antivirus program"??

[a nameless entity]

According to both PC magazine and the Tom's Guide website it is once again Avast Free.


https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp

I found it interesting to note that Tom's Guide reports that AVG has been bought out by Avast, and the two AV engines were merged, making the latest version of Avast better than ever.

However, I just wonder if it is still possible to delete the little add on messages at the bottom of your emails that Avast used to add in. Or if there's a way to shut up any nags to buy the full program.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-antiv ... 588-5.html

Tom's guide still likes Malware Bytes Free as a good add on program.

https://downloads.tomsguide.com/Malware ... 25757.html

[Hook]

Hey Thank you nameless for posting this information.

[Hermskii]

You have to buy it to turn off the ads, Sucks. I have bought the full version of malware-bytes and no longer use virus scan software because they say it is so good, you don't have to. I'm a believer!

[EvilGrins]

Sounds good, I'll check it out.

[Kelly]

This is one of those times where you need to be honest with yourself and decide if you need AV or not. Personally I use Panda but it's almost always turned off. My main protection is never clicking on links I don't know, going places I shouldn't be, and also closing all the gaps on my browser (NoScript, UOrigin, couple other specific adblockers for YT). I scan every few days with MWB but almost never find anything. Once every couple of weeks I turn on Panda and let it update and do a full scan. I'm getting lax on that too because I never find anything.

All the above changes 180 degrees though if you watch *any* porn or sites like LiveLeak. The javascript on those sites that gives you the fantastic thumbnail previews? Well, there's a reason YouTube resists adding that feature.

By far your best defense is being smart. If you enjoy darker web activities you should learn how to sandbox. BTW, don't let *any* program access your email client. They are for sure reading and archiving your emails if you do. If I see "Email scanned by <whatever>" in the signature line you likely won't get a response from me.

[EvilGrins]

For awhile I was using both Malware Anti-Bytes and AVG...

...until a recent upgrade of AVG declared war on MAB and assassinated it.

I may try to install MAB again.

[David]

Well, I was doing my weekly check on updates and scans when I came across an update for Avast. After the update, I looked at the options for restarting and saw that Avast has jokes.

Avast Humor.jpg

[medor]

The best antivirus is a clone backup on a disk outside the pc.

[Hermskii]

Been a little while David. Good to see you still kicking. If I recall this is a new computer you have congrats. Still liking it? Avast has a pirate voice you can turn on too. Did you know that?

[David]

Been a little while David. Good to see you still kicking. If I recall this is a new computer you have congrats. Still liking it. Avast has a pirate voice you can turn on too. Did you know that?

I did not know that but I looked at the setting and saw where it was. That gives me an idea of doing that to my wife's laptop. It has been a while. Good to interact with you again Hermski.

[Hook]

Avast has a pirate voice you can turn on too.

A pirate voice ...
Arrr - AYE could get into that me-self!

Oh and Hi there David!

[Hermskii]

Let me know what you think. I liked it when I used AVAST.

[Hermskii]

I'm still using the paid for Malware Bytes version with no issues. I love it. I think it provides about 7 levels of protection with ransomware protections and other cool stuff. Note that I still have running full time the Defender or whatever it is that Microsoft offers. So I do have two different Anti-virus softwares running at the same time but they say these two together is OK. I don't notice any slow down at all.

[a nameless entity]

I went onto Consumer Reports' website and had a look at the latest ratings for the FREE and PAID antivirus software companies.

Interestingly, NONE of the free software protect email any more.

And not all of the yearly fee versions do either.
(Note that I'm talking solely about email protection here.)

Those that DO: ESET, Bitdefender, AVG, G DATA,

And those that do NOT protect email: Avira, AVAST, Norton, and McAfee.

Note that all of the above mentioned are the ones that CR recomended. I did not look at any others.
It's also odd that since Avast bought out AVG some time ago, and that the software engines are nearly identical, that only AVG of the two protects email.

[David]

The Avast Free Antivirus version 25.3.9983a does scan incoming and outgoing emails.

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