Free virus scan for a pc

bigfoot3000 | 22:31 Sun 04th Apr 2010 | Technology

12 Answers

Ive searched google and Ill be honest with you I don't understand the jargon, are these sites actually free because many offer 30 trials etc, Does anyone know any free ones, and what exactly is the process, do you download these and then they highlight and then search and destroy all the bugs on your computer?

Recording from tape to CD

Has enyone out there a spare unused RAC Sat Nav CD?

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CuteToni

Go to Filehippo.com, download AVG free, Spybot search and destroy and follow the guidance.

bigfoot3000

Question Author

Thanks cute toni, avg free 9.0 and spybot search and destroy are two different downloads, is there any particular order I need to do them in?

Buenchico

Any site which offers a free online virus scan is almost certainly trying to sell you something. AVOID!!!

To amplify on CuteToni's post, the essential security elements on your PC should be a firewall, an anti-virus program and anti-malware sofware.

You should have just ONE firewall running (to avoid software conflicts). From XP onwards, Windows has included its own firewall which runs by default. It's less than perfect; most people would suggest that you should use the free version of either Zone Alarm or Comodo.

You you should also have just ONE antivirus program running. The most popular free products are AVG and Avira. (Those programs scan incoming files and also carry out scheduled scans for anything nasty).

You can have as many anti-malware programs as you like (because they run 'on demand', rather than 'in the background', so avoiding system conflicts). The most popular products are the free versions of AdAware and SpyBot Search & Destroy, together with the excellent MalwareBytes.

Commercial software (such as that offered by Norton or McAfee) usually provides a complete suite of programs, to cover all three functions. However such software can often slow your computer and provide little (if anything) which you can't get for free.

Chris

Buenchico

Your most recent post wasn't there when I started typing (very slowly!).

You can install AVG and Spybot in any order.

Chris

bigfoot3000

Question Author

Thanks again chris!

Skids

Windows Defender from Microsoft is free.
Comodo is also free and allows you to monitor and control everything that is going on, to the point where you can specify that a particular computer can connect to your computer via a specific port for a specific task. Or you can set it to various default settings so it's not complicated. I like it for the Internet connection monitor which tells me exactly what programs are connecting to the Internet and, more importantly, what incoming connections there are.

tamborine

standard free-loads with XP only....all switched off! If/when I get a virus I just re-load Firefox and it's all sorted. Rarely update willingly but occasionally find pc automated to update by Firefox.

If it works, dont fix it.