BitDefender Free

[KSoD]

Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition offers baseline protection against viruses and all other types of malware. Using #1 ranked antivirus technology, it will detect and clean e-threats without causing slowdown or requiring configurations.

So for those of you who would like to have the best security package in the world but dont want to pay top dollar for it, BitDefender has a FREE AV for Windows.

Free Antivirus Software - Download Bitdefender Antivirus Free

I have personally just installed this myself to give it a test drive. I have used their products before and have been a big users of MSE as well. I have let Defender in Windows 8 handle all of my protection without a hitch. But seeing this free app has warranted some testing.

So far I have to say that I like what they have done. They have taken the best part of their protection and made it a worry free system. There is no interaction that must be taken. The app scans by itself without prompting. Not much more you can really ask for. After some use I will post back with more results.

 

[carnageX]

Hmm, interesting. Since MSE's starting to be a little bit lacking according to the AV reviews out there, I may look into this to replace it.

 

[Joe C]

Thanks K, I'll try this out on a couple of XP boxes I have around here. I've always have been a big fan of MSE and I normally do not pay much attention to the monthly reviews because they are always changing, but if MSE is continually on the bottom after several months of reviews then it might be time to start using something else

 

[Yevrag35]

I'm tried BitDefender on my desktop, and it locked down my computer (too well if you ask me).
I have partially questionable programs (exe's, vbs's, and batch files) randomly on my hard drive and my network drives. What I noticed was, immediately, BD did a quick scan and deleted all of these "questionable" files, without even asking me. Luckily, every deleted item shows up as a notification and will ask you if you want to recover it (but I had to do this individually for every single one). Once I went into the settings, I made exceptions for them in the real time scanner. But once I went to run one of them, it deleted it AGAIN! (because it blocks the process from running too, but that also deletes the file entirely again). Got all of the files back once again, ran one to make sure it worked, and like clockwork, it was deleted again (this time it was blocked by the firewall and then deleted). Also, obviously moving the file absolutely destroys this process as well. After that, I said F*@$ it! and put MSE back on.

I don't deal with those programs on my laptop, so I'm trying it on there now. So far, no complaints.