Best free anti-virus and [free] spyware remover?

ID:276651
 
Dec 31 2005, 2:08 pm
I really don't want to pay for another subscription for Nortan, so what's a good alternative for Nortan, but that's free?

I think the best spyware remover would be... Adaware...

What are your suggestions?
Dec 31 2005, 4:00 pm
For spyware removers, I use Ad-Aware, as you said, but I also team it up with Spybot S&D. You can find it on Downloads.com, and it's free. I usually run Spybot first, then let Ad-Aware get what it missed. You can also immunize your system with Spybot, and it will stop certain exploits from even happening, reducing the amount of stuff you'll get/have to clean up later.

For anti-virus, I use AVG Free Edition, seems to do a pretty decent job for me. I don't have any complaints.
Dec 31 2005, 6:03 pm
Microsoft's Antispyware program seems to be at the top of the food chain for Spyware stuff now (don't worry, Microsoft didn't design it, they just bought it.). As far as virus scanners AVG and Avast! are both pretty good.
Jan 1 2006, 8:44 am
In response to Nadrew
MSAnti-spyware doesn't seem to do the job for me. I have tried it, and it will normaly detect stuff, but rarely be able to remove it. And it has that annoying reporter whenever anything happens to the system(New reg entry and whatnot). Although I do recommend installing it, I recommend Adaware and SpyBot S&D with it.
Spybot has a lot of advanced features, try going to
Mode>Advanced, then go to the new tools sidetab.
All kinds of useful stuff. As for virus, AVG has done the job for me, so recommend it.
http://free.grisoft.com is the URL for the free version.
Jan 2 2006, 6:42 am
For nortan 2003 each time you reinstall it you get a year subscription, but anyway Panda
Activescan is a great utility for scanning and removing viruses, its online, free, and does a great job, it removes viruses, and detects spyware but doesn't remove it. Its updated regularly and is a great tool for keeping a clean
computer, its not as good as the active scan pro, or the actual software you can buy but it does a great job
Jan 2 2006, 8:08 am
In response to Strawgate
Also its not good to have more then one anti spyware program runing,it causes errors and such.
Jan 2 2006, 8:46 am
In response to Fire Dynasty
Panda Activescan is an online virus scanning service, similar to Housecall or whatever.

I don't think using Panda to scan your system when you have another anti-virus program already will really cause problems, since it doesn't install the actual program, just downloads the definitions and such that it needs.

But yeah, downloading and installing two different run-time anti-virus programs can cause problems.
Jan 2 2006, 12:05 pm
In response to Detnom
I knew this about anti-virus.

But I always thought it was better to install more than one spyware removing application?
Jan 2 2006, 1:06 pm
In response to Flame Sage
Yeah, that it is. I made my recommendations above. =)