Free Anti-Virus?

[OrlandoEastwood]

Anyone know of a good free anti-virus? My IE got a virus.

[PrivatePixel]

Both AVG and Avast offer solid anti-virus software that's free; even Microsoft Security Essentials (which I beta-tested) is pretty good. However, once you've become infected with a virus or malware, as a first step, you will need a standalone program to attempt a deletion. The following programs are what I would recommend:

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.41
• Norman Malware Cleaner
• Spybot Search & Destroy 1.6.2

You may need to run a combination of two or more of these programs to ensure that all possible traces of malware have been removed. Some malware may prevent access to such websites and/or programs from being downloaded; you may need to use a secondary PC to download these programs onto a USB flash drive, then install from there.

Following installation and a first pass at removal, rerun the program(s) to ensure that there are no remnants. Once completed, install an anti-virus program to perform a full scan on your hard disk's contents.

You should install a firewall as well to block unauthorized access of your PC while you're online. You have quite a few to choose from, including:

• COMODO Firewall
• Sunbelt Personal Firewall (previously known as Kerio Personal Firewall)
• ZoneAlarm Basic Firewall

When properly configured, your surfing experience should be, for the most part, uninterrupted.

Good luck.

[OrlandoEastwood]

Thank you! I tried Avast and it caught the problem within seconds of running it.

[sfmarine]

Avast is a good one. I have AVG on my desktop and it looks like it will not update after December...so you can consider it no longer a free virus software...it's a shame..stick with Avast!

[OrlandoEastwood]

Ok, everything was running fine. Then I left for a few hours and came home. I turned my laptop on and NOTHING is working. I scanned it again and it's got one and I deleted it. It's not letting me on the internet. I'm on my folk's desktop.

[Icecoldblue]

Avira

[PrivatePixel]

Originally Posted by OrlandoEastwood

Ok, everything was running fine. Then I left for a few hours and came home. I turned my laptop on and NOTHING is working. I scanned it again and it's got one and I deleted it. It's not letting me on the internet. I'm on my folk's desktop.

Did you run a malware remover (e.g. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.41) prior to installing the anti-virus program? Anti-virus programs, for the most part, are effective against viruses and worms, but less than competent (if not powerless) in dealing with malware, which includes adware, browser hijackers, spyware, keyloggers, trojans, etc. Anti-virus software is intended to be a first line of defence, but not the only line of defence; once you've incurred a malware infection, you need a malware remover, otherwise your problems will never disappear.

Download, then run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.41 from the official website; be sure to install the latest database to ensure that you have the latest definitions. If the malware is preventing you from updating the program's database, it can be downloaded directly through this link.