Free antivirus software article

bixie · 8 November 2012 at 6:52PM

I have been a happy MSE user for a couple of years till last September, when I received an ‘at risk’ message (not necessarily a virus) due to error 0x800106ba; the program couldn’t be sorted nor updated. A Microsoft Solution operator offered via email various solutions but none worked, he finally suggested to type a long address in the middle of which I read ‘logmein’. I declined and that was the end of their support. I then contacted my tech guy who could not clear the problem, does not believe in free software and strongly advised me to install F-Secure - around £ 40, but much cheaper than my guy’s time and assistance. Does anyone know anything about it?

stepmadlin · 25 February 2013 at 10:16PM

Help! Just tried to download the free microsoft software as my Norton expires in 7 days and it said the file was corrupt.

waddler_8 · 25 February 2013 at 10:22PM

Delete the file & re-download it.

What version of Windows are you using?

Download the correct file for you computer from here:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-all-versions (Scroll down to English)
Save it to your desktop.

Be sure to remove Norton before installing MSE.

http://www.norton.com/nrt

koru · 27 March 2013 at 5:20PM

I'm surprised not to see any mention that many broadband providers give you free antivirus. For instance, O2 give you McAfee, and I think Sky does too.

Former_MSE_Becca · 27 March 2013 at 5:23PM

koru wrote: »

I'm surprised not to see any mention that many broadband providers give you free antivirus. For instance, O2 give you McAfee, and I think Sky does too.

Thanks Koru - I'll check it out

MSE Becca

debitcardmayhem · 27 March 2013 at 5:23PM

koru wrote: »

I'm surprised not to see any mention that many broadband providers give you free antivirus. For instance, O2 give you McAfee, and I think Sky does too.

I know Easter is just around the corner but that Chocolate Teapot needs to be re-shaped to qualify as an Easter egg

topbuzz · 29 March 2013 at 11:05AM

Good article, but as an update to the article, CheckPoint, who make ZonaAlarm now do a Firewall & Antivirus Free version (1PC only).
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/free-antivirus-plus-firewall-install-steps.htm

Have been using ZoneAlarm products for a number of years on 3 PC's with no problems. So that's the firewall and antivirus protection done.

Next I use MalwareBytes free edition for any additional extra manual scanning.

And for free on-line backup I use my free SkyDrive (Hotmail/Live account) as I had an email address with them for some years so I was entitled to upgrade from the free 7GB to the 25GB. It synchronous with my 3 PCs effortlessly.

Or if you are with Virgin Media (or about to join), a good tip is go with the top fastest BroadBand service (100MB), enable your free 'Backup & Storage' which means you get unlimited storage, then ring up a month later saying you don't want it, downgrade to the slowest (and hence cheapest) broadband service (30MB) and you STILL get unlimited storage space! You can have up to 5 unlimited accounts on your virgin media email account - so that covers my 3 PC again for backups.

All this for free (well apart from the Virgin Media fee).

Free Office Tools:
SkyDrive also allows you to use Microsoft Word and Excel for free on-line using your SkyDrive account. Google Docs is fine but I didn't get along with it. Or you can still get Microsoft Office 2010 Starter for free which has Word and Excel. They are fully working apart from you can't run or create macros and no referencing (ie figure or table numbers). Plus they run ads in the bottom right hand corner (not intrusive, all MS products anyway). Will work on Win XP, Vista & 7. But not Win8.

More info on what you get here
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/starter-help/introduction-to-office-starter-2010-HA101886942.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA010380218

But MS stopped it once Office 2013 came out. You can still get a copy if you search for it. Download here
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/downloads/3250058/microsoft-office-starter-2010/

JamesK10 · 30 March 2013 at 2:51PM

Well this is the best place to post my story and let's hope it doesn't become a rant.

Avira Antivir might be totally free but to cut a long story short they have totally screwed up their most recent Spring 2013 full program update.

Even if you've paid for the Premium version, you are better off uninstalling what's on the machine before trying to download any version all over again - including if you respond to one of their smaller pop-ups. Try to do the requested update with the existing version still on the PC and the upgrade process sometimes grinds to a halt.

To add insult to injury, after the Spring update on my PC which I did willingly, it missed a trojan and AVG caught it, thankfully before any real damage was done. It was worst on the Vista PC where it felt like the internet connection was deliberately throttled due to the old spec - the newer and faster laptop was allowed to update with no problems. AVG came to the rescue again but at the end of that trial I'll be shopping around to make sure there's one that's happy with anyone sticking with Vista - OR one with a defined cut-off date when we know they won't support the machine any more.

They've messed up bigtime and I'll be shopping around this coming year. Just goes to show price isn't everything including when it's free!

jillliv · 14 August 2013 at 1:20PM

I am surprised http://www.superantispyware.com/ has not been mentioned,it is fantastic

I was watching a film on Netflix recently and my sound just died.Everything I tried didn't bring it back,I thought I would have to take it to a techie or buy a new PC.Eventually I ran this programme,it found a bug, it removed it and next time I switched it on the sound was back.

yoy · 20 October 2013 at 10:54PM

Hi

thanks for the posts.

Quite a few free anti-virus softwares are recommended in the article.

When I have looked at AVG and Avast , the free software, does not include protection for secured Banking and payments etc.

Catch 22

So which Anti-Virus software are available that includes ' secure Banking and Payments '

Thanks

yoy

Free antivirus software article

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