netdef ([info]netdef) wrote,
@ 2008-12-03 01:15:00
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List of reputable Anti-Malware/Virus suites that have free editions or fully functional trials
My top list of reputable Anti-Malware/Virus suites for Windows that have free editions or fully functional trials.

They're in no particular order of effectiveness at the time of this writing . . . these are all genuine and are usually listed within the top 10 AV products as tested by VB100. I am posting this as a reference because there are way too many pop-up ads for so called free scanners that are actually Trojans in and of themselves.

Remember that you should only run ONE real-time protection product at a time on your system. Don't install two or more and expect your computer to be stable.

Links provided in clear text so you can examine them for funny business.

SunBelt Software: Vipre - 15 day free trial. (Fully functional, Virus, Rootkit, Malware/Spyware protection and cleanup. Very useful for emergency cleanups.)
http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Home-Home-Office/VIPRE/

ESET NOD32 AV - 30 day free trial. (Mostly fully functional, Virus, Malware/Spyware protection and cleanup.)
http://www.eset.com/download/free_trial_download.php

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 - 30 day free trial. (Mostly fully functional, Virus, Malware/Spyware protection and cleanup.)
http://www.kaspersky.com/trials

Sophos AntiVirus - 30 day free trial. (Fully functional, Virus, Malware/Spyware protection and cleanup. Free Rootkit analyzer also available, see below.)
http://www.sophos.com/products/small-business/eval.html

Sophos Anti-Rootkit - Free version. (Fully functional within the scope of the intended use, that is to find and delete rootkits - but it's not going to go after other malware or viruses on your system.)
http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/sophos-anti-rootkit.html

Avira: AntiVir - Free version. (Good protection and system scans, but pops up nag screens from time to time asking you to upgrade to the pro version.)
http://www.free-av.com/

Avast!: Home Antivirus - Free version. (Good protection etc, free virus definitions seem to be about 4 days behind -- but I cannot prove that.)
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

Grisoft: AVG - Free version. (Good protection etc, as with Avast the free virus definitions seem to be about a week behind -- but I cannot prove that.)
http://free.avg.com/

Since someone may ask -- I personally use the first on the list. It provides excellent scan and cleanup features including a special safe mode scanner and a boot-time rootkit scanner. Its real-time monitor has very low impact on system performance and the program has a very clean -- even simplistic -- UI.

(10 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]taomagicdragon
2008-12-03 03:28 pm UTC (link)
Got to love Avast! Only problem I have is trying to run AC with it on a Vista 32-bit OS, any ideas?

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[info]netdef
2008-12-03 05:10 pm UTC (link)
No direct experience with that exact scenario, but some thoughts:

1) Many games don't like real-time protection running in the background. You can either pause the protection during your game - or if your AV settings support it you can add the games executables to the AV's exclusion list.

2) If you are running Decal with AC most AV's will have fits under Vista - since memory insertions are not allowed by normal users. If you don't mind playing the game of risk you could change the properties on the programs by selecting "Run as Administrator" . . . (XP allowed this by default.)

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[info]romperwebby
2008-12-03 03:50 pm UTC (link)
thanks for posting this - just in time to send to my husband before he calls a repair man, hopefully...

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[info]netdef
2008-12-03 05:10 pm UTC (link)
Hope it's helpful to him!

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[info]spurious_logic
2008-12-03 06:46 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the list. I haven't tried some of these and we just got hit by a lot of malware recently.

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[info]netdef
2008-12-03 06:49 pm UTC (link)
You and many others. This holiday season looks to be shaping up to be the worst malware surge in history - and much of it is trying to sneak under peoples common sense defenses by pretending to be Anti-Virus protection.

Thus a list of (some of) the real scanners . . .

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[info]mcfnord
2008-12-04 02:49 am UTC (link)
I use ClamWin. It's totally free, though I'm not sure if it's competitive. It has caught junk once or twice. I also try to be smart (running as normal user, staying patched, minimizing surface exposed to internet).

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[info]arc_stormcrow
2008-12-04 04:34 pm UTC (link)
That's what I run too - I've seen it listed as comparable to some of the Big Name AVs. Though I've also used the Kaspersky stuff, especially their on-line scanner.

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[info]netdef
2008-12-04 09:43 pm UTC (link)
ClamWin is better than no protection, but it's history by independent testing labs has been spotty - sometimes excellent and sometimes . . . not. That's the main reason I did not include it on the short list.

Question though: last time I tried it personally it did not perform real-time protection on downloaded files. One had to manually scan everything to be protected. Has that changed finally?

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[info]mcfnord
2008-12-05 02:28 am UTC (link)
i don't know but it sounds like a serious shortfall!

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