Free antivirus?

[django1]

What is a good , free and light antivirus asides from Avast?. I just took Avast off of the wife's laptop, it was making the processor go crazy and slowing everything down to a crawl (It is working fine on my desktop:scratchchin:)...

[tooskinny]

I use AVG free version on all my computers. Doesn't seem to be a computer hog at all.

[tthurman]

I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials since just after it launched. I never cared for the previous versions of MS AV but this one got really good reviews, isn't a resource hog (if you can believe that) and works well. I like that it updates when needed via automatic updates like the OS does.

I used AVG Free for years prior to this which I also liked but I got tired of having to update it as they dropped support for older versions. Note that I have several computers so it just causes me a lot of work.

[Jed M]

I use Panda Anti-virus. Its a cloud system so its really lightweight, I mean almost not even there its so lightweight, its reviewed well and most importantly its free. If I ever run into a problem with it down the road I will reexamine my options but so far I have been running 11 computers (My personal+My company's) for almost a year and not a problem yet.

http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/

Edit: I used to use Kaspersky but after my renewal was up I decided to move to something more lightweight and more "hands off". Its amazing how bloated those things are when you switch to a cloud system. Now if all my computers get grossly infected well then shame on me for being lazy and cheap but right now it has been a great decision.

[gonk]

I also use AVG Free, although I may also look at Panda.

[Cujobob]

I've tried them all and to be honest...I've found Windows 7 to be pretty good without one. They just became annoying.

[django1]

Thanks guys! I'm trying Panda.

[Sandbagger]

AVG seems to be the TOP of the FREE stuff, actually just got an 8 in this months MaximumPC.

I have only seen so-so reviews of Panda. I would Never use anything from MS for defense, its the most targeted stuff in the world, Defender has yet to EVER find anything that other things find.

Of the big dog names, I have probably used most of them, and the only one I found that I am willing to pay for, is NOD32, a very minimal intrusion into my computer. I wouldnt touch Norton if it was FREE!!!

[engtaz]

I use Avira Antivir Free. Best I can recommend.

[Steve_vai_rules]

MSE and avg are good, as is malware bytes.

Matt

[Mike4AU]

A friend of mine told me that Comodo was pretty good. I will probably try it.

http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/antivirus.php

[tthurman]

This website tracks and tests many of the popular and better AV's.

These threads seem to pop up frequently on the forums I read and typically everyone lists their personal preference. As for actual detection rankings etc here are the test results from May.

[dane]

Another AVG user here...