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Good Free Antivirus

[Deleted User]
[Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
edited 14 April 2021 at 9:46AM in Techie Stuff
I am using Bitdefender free and find that it is way too slow (it takes a good 2 hours to scan my 1Tb SSD)
What is the current best free antivirus that is faster than Bitdefender ?
Also Bitdefender free has no "quick scan"

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Comments

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    wongataa said:
    If you are using Windows 10 just uninstall Bitdefender and use the free built in Defender anti-virus.

    Is DEFENDER really any good nowadays though ?
    It seems to go in phases - sometimes good, sometimes bad
  • IvanOpinion
    IvanOpinion Posts: 22,132 Forumite
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    edited 14 April 2021 at 12:08PM
    Defender is perfectly adequate for most peoples needs.
    Whether or not a virus detector is good or bad can hinge on the time of the day the software was tested ... yes really.  Group A may received an update against the latest batch of viruses while Group B does not get updated until later in the day.  So if the test is run in after Group A is updated and before Group B is updated then Group A may come out on top.

    However, since Group B's update may contain additional updates, if the test is run after Group B is updated then it may come out on top.

    I have seen magazine reviews of anti-virus software were two reviews, 3 months apart, are virtually the reverse of each other.
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
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    Is Bitdefender known to be a heavy resource user
    According to my Task Manager - it is using 80% CPU (an i5) and 474Mb of RAM just to scan - which is absolutely ridiculous
  • wongataa
    wongataa Posts: 2,729 Forumite
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    Deleted_User said:
    wongataa said:
    If you are using Windows 10 just uninstall Bitdefender and use the free built in Defender anti-virus.

    Is DEFENDER really any good nowadays though ?
    It seems to go in phases - sometimes good, sometimes bad
    It is perfectly good.
  • mark55man
    mark55man Posts: 8,221 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    same question but Ubuntu desktop (sorry OP for hijack your thread) - our old windows laptop finally did my OH head in so I repurposed it

    we used defender and its a beast on a slower laptop but never had any AV problems
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Defender it is from now on then,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
    Bitdefender has taken 3 hrs 21 mins to reach 98% scan - of 121 million files and so far found no viruses !
  • pogofish
    pogofish Posts: 10,853 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If only we had a sticky/guide for this...?
  • pbartlett
    pbartlett Posts: 1,397 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 14 April 2021 at 1:55PM
    you could alter the settings to specify it doesn't scan specific file types eg jpg, mp3, wav, txt etc
  • Belenus
    Belenus Posts: 2,781 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 14 April 2021 at 4:23PM
    Deleted_User said:
    Defender it is from now on then,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
    Bitdefender has taken 3 hrs 21 mins to reach 98% scan - of 121 million files and so far found no viruses !
    121 million files? Is that a typo?

    I have about 334,000 files on my 500gb SSD for Windows10 and apps etc and about 50,000 files on my 1tb data disk.

    You have 315 times as many files as I do.
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    Salesman said, “We haven't got a Volkswagen Golf in the showroom window.”
    The man replied, “You have now mate".
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