Hello, I have windows XP Pro, and I was was wondering what is the best free Anti Virus program better than the Windows XP Pro Firewall. Thanks for any help...
Running the OS in Ram is another alternative to avoid infection of virus. Once it occurs, just reboot the computer and all viruses will be destroyed.
get AVG antivirus and like skyphone said run your computer in ram when surfing the internet. I use "returnil" everytime I surf the internet, it's the best antispyware program out there and will not slow down your computer(it actually makes it a little faster) and it's free. If your using internet explorer you definitely need "returnil" eventually something(virus) is going to change your homepage. http://www.majorgeeks.com/Returnil_Virtual_System_Personal_Edition_d5702.html
It won't help if they write themselves to the restore points.. xp runs like crap in ram because it can't find it's paging file.. it's only useful for doing a clean of the self replicating trojans. It's a common fallacy that running xp totally in ram prevents virus infections.. it can't because it still has to access the 4 or so gigs of system files and other crap..Running a live cd version is safe, as long as you are happy to do no read/writes to the hdd, or anywhere else for that matter.. Windows is insecure full stop! I have had a few problems with certain virus/trojans in the past with AVG not being able to delete or quarantine them.. Avast seems to do a better overall job as a general purpose antivirus, with avg antispyware as a replacement for adaware/spybot. But if you ask me, the BEST free antivirus is Linux or Unix. Keep your ram for doing stuff, not keeping malware out.
Just giving an opinion based on real world use of both programs. IMHO avast does a better job of catching malware before it installs, and handles any it finds a little more adequately than AVG. AVG failed to deal with the "trojan-generic-downloader.xxx" series of malware which includes a hidden ftp web application and keylogger. They were detected, but on attempting to remove or quarantine the malware was not disabled and managed to dupilcate itself seemingly endlessly. IMHO that is a fail for an A/V solution. Just because one particular person has not encountered this kind of malware in the wild does not mean others are also safe from it. If that was the case there would be no malware circulating and every new virus would infect every computer worldwide... The question is "what is the best" which is subjective at best, and asking opinions from the informed. As an IT professional who has used many many free and paid a/v solutions over the years I can only give my honest opinion, based on real world findings. To do otherwise on such an important subject would be unethical. Sorry for the lecture, but blindly shouting "use this because I do" isn't good enough. and BTW.. I use none of the above on my machines. I install avast antivirus and avg antispyware on customers machines because I feel it does the best job of protecting their security and my investment of time spent cleaning and restoring the machines that "other" paid antivirus solutions have failed miserably to protect.. As for running totally in ram I'm assuming they are going on about disabling the page file.. pro's and cons to that.. have a read and decide. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000422.html I can still se no advantage to be gained from running xp totally in ram from a security viewpoint. Unless you load the OS from read only media every time it is still as open to infection as running normally, because as you shut down windows will save changes and settings to the HDD.. which means writing to system files and restore points. These changes and any malware will then be loaded and run on the next restart.
If the OS is running in Ram as virtual image without connection to the hard disk or it is bootable from CD/DVD/USB Flash which can be unpluged after booting, then it should be safe enough to avoid infection of virus.
avast 4.8 is one of the best. saved my bacon a few times using file sharing programs. good for trojans and updated daily. been using it six months now and so far,so good.
I haven't done much testing with it, but version 8.0 of AVG just recently became available for free. http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download?prd=afe I've installed it on a few computers. So far the biggest difference that I've noticed is the change in looks (new GUI).
@jony218 major geeks is a good/okay site but dont link to their download, i just found some not to legitimate ones AVG..... the magical link of wonders http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/292257 -tripplite
