Free virus scanners

[RecT]

Are there any decent free virus scanners?

[Chris]

I personally use Avast, but I know that AVG is another good one.

[Mike_07]

I use McAffee and havent had any problems whatsoever!

[Chris]

McAffee is very good, but you can get a similar performance level without the expense.

[toshwriter]

Has anyone got any experience of ClamWin/Winpooch?

[WWP]

imo clamwin is crap when used by itself. it is mediocre when used in conjunction with winpooch. winpooch just adds functionality that shouldn't be required in an add on programme like trojan scanner and application limiter.

in fact, most of the winpooch functions are better replicated (dare i say it) by windows defender, which comes with both xp and vista. as for clamwin, i found it ranked the same as norton antivirus - ie it leaves a lot to be desired.

do you have a different experience?

[Edited on 25-12-2007 by WWP]

[toshwriter]

I haven't used it. It certainly seems fairly questionable to have the two separate components, but I was wondering if someone who'd used it could shed some light on how well it works in practice.

After years of using a version of Norton which I didn't (directly) pay for, I've installed Avast on my new machine. I had a look at ClamWin because I like to support open source.

Avast seems to be less of a resource hog than Norton (although I've not actually confirmed this).

[Whackmeup]

I've been using Norton but that's expired now so I'm considering going for a free one. Are they actually any good?

[RecT]

Yeah - more often than not better than Norton too!!

In my own experience, after deleting Norton and installing Avast, 2 or 3 viruses were instantly picked up which norton had obviously missed!