Free virus protection

[Molosh]

I've recently been using avast and it seems relatively effective.


As for checking files for potential malware I discovered Anubis today. Can't speak for its efficacy but seems like an excellent concept.
https://anubis.iseclab.org/

[Soso0]

In all seriousness, antivirus is obsolete anymore. It's ALMOST useless. You're better off sandboxing your browser sessions and running a VM. If you're tech-retarded, you should use an AV. Avast is a decent free one. If you have no qualms with piracy then I recommend pirating nod32 or kaspersky.

When my brother bought his new laptop he spent about $100 on an antivirus plus even more on warranty. I asked him why wasted that much money and he said just in case and because the people at the store recommended it. Now I'm not a tech savvy person but I'm no idiot either. Their whole purpose is to sell those products.  He could of just gotten a free one and saved that money for something more important. I was about to buy a laptop and the guy kept pushing me to buy the antivirus, I was like 'ill pass' and he kept insisting.

I always buy the warranty for accident protection. Right before it expires spill a glass of water, go in get a better laptop for that year at the price point from 2-3 years before. Golden. But with my iPad I flip out on the poor apple store funployees and make them give me a new one.

Fucking genius. I don't really have the extra money to spend on the protection tho... and would they actually replace it? I remember  back in 2007 my mother bought a laptop and my brother cracked the screen by dropping it. She was fucking pissed. She took it back to the gay squad at Best Buy and they refused to replace her laptop. A good $600 down the drain.

[vonunov]

Evaluate what you use the computer for and figure out whether you really need to be running Windows. If not, get into Linux and avoid most consumer-grade malware by way of incompatibility.

Otherwise, get Comodo Internet Security. Don't worry about the actual AV engine or firewall or any of that. Just use the bit that manages what processes are allowed to run. Start with a total blacklist and whitelist processes (their specific actions rather) as they try to run until all your usual stuff is allowed. Unknown processes attempting to run as well as files written in a driveby download will be caught. Don't approve blindly. Google the unknowns and you'll be golden.