MSE 4 or Avast Free 7, along with MBAM, are the best free choices available on the market. One good thing about Avast 7, it now has cloud based technology that protects the user between auto definition updates (which takes place several times per day). Once the threat is known, all users who are connected to the internet are protected.
For a while now, when one installs MBAM Free, they automatically offer a 14 day trial, it's almost the same as Pro, but the active protection is the same. Many times, at least once a month, Newegg has MBAM Pro for 50% off of full retail price. This is for Lifetime protection. I've never paid over $15 for this software, once only $12. Sometimes, Newegg even throws in a 4GB Flash drive to sweeten the deal.
The great thing about MBAM Pro (& the free trial), is that if one opens a download that's carrying a payload of malware, it's stopped in it's tracks. Also, it even stops many Web pages from opening from known malware sites, this is a very effective way to prevent malware from getting on your system. Plus it complements both MSE & Avast Free, or most any AV/IS suite.
The bottom line is, we have good choices that doesn't cost a cent. For years, that's the way I ran, Avast Free protected me very well between 2002-2009, until I tried MSE. MSE 4 was recently released, now I'm trying out what will be it's successor, just as I ran MSE 4 for 6 months before the general public got to. I get invited by MS to do this.
There's absolutely no reason, as in zero, why any computer user shouldn't run AV protection. The old excuses of "high resource usage" or "it slows down my computer" no longer holds water. Both of the 100% Free choices that I gave uses little resources, & MBAM Free only uses a little when ran. Even the Pro version has virtually no impact on performance.
It's also irresponsible not to run security software. I've heard the excuse "it's my computer, I'm willing to pay the consequences for what happens". That's not entirely true, & is BS. One infected computer on the net can infect thousands, especially the neighbors in the immediate area (those on the same main line), & I've seen this happen. If the user who makes this statement as an excuse paid up, the cleanup costs could easily go into tens of thousands of dollars.
For those who wishes to check behind their AV to make sure it's doing it's job, here's a good second opinion online scanner, & I highly recommend it, even to those who uses paid security products.
ESET :: Get a FREE Online Virus Scan This is best ran from IE, as more advanced options can be checked for during the scan.
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