Postal Letter - What is the best free virus protection software?

What is the best free virus protection software?

I have Windows XP, just wondering about free virus protection. Also, is it as good as the ones you have to pay for?

Public Comments

AVG antivirus
Search and do the research into which free software apps are best, and recommended by respected online people like Leo Laporte.
Avast malware bytes and spyhunter free detection scan.
Do this on-line scan first : http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html only if you might be worried that you could be infected now. then go and get avast for full time protection, you can not get a better anti virus system for free. it has many features you will have to pay for in other systems. http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html don't forget to register or you will only have it for 60 days by registering you will get a licence for a full year. just re-register at the end of the year to get another one year licence. if you feel you would be even safer with a firewall also then try this one it's also free and it has no conflicts with avast http://www.pctools.com/firewall/ ☺
Here is a nifty informative site to go to to see all the results of the Anti-Virus products out there...AV Comparisons.org
It's better to stop thinking "antivirus" programs will protect you. Instead you should: 1. Set up and use almost exclusively a limited user account. http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/archive/2004/06/17/157962.aspx 2. Google the phrase "social engineering" and read the first five results. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22social+engineering%22&btnG=Google+Search 3. Install Windows updates automatically. http://www.updatexp.com/windows-automatic-updates.html 4. Use Firefox with the NoScript extension. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/722 5. Turn off autorun in Windows: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/967940.mspx 6. Don't pirate music, movies, or software
Totally FREE antivirus programs with real-time protection: 1. avast! Home Edition 2. AVG Free 3. Avira Personal 3. Bit Defender Free 4. Comodo Additionally, install SpyBot Search & Destroy - free antispyware with active monitor.
I've tried a lot of different things. Avg, Norton, etc. But they are all extremely slow and cost a lot. I've had really good experiences with this thing called Adware Alert, they use a really good shared and daily updated directory of virus and it's free. Again in my experience this is A++ software and I haven't got a virus since. You can download it here, pretty sure it's free: http://www.adwarealert.com/index.php?hop=enterworld
The best free one would be AVG. Also its very easy to use. Here is the website where you will find it :) http://free.avg.com/