Does anyone know of a good Free AntiVirus / AntiSpyware program?

[Killane]

I'm kind of sick of paying a subscription for these things. Is thois a case of ytou get what you pay for, or are there good free programs out there and if so can you point me in the right direction?

Something not too memory intensive would be nice as I'm on a netbook with an Intel Atom processor.

Thanks!

[Yare]

Avira Antivir Personal is what I use.

http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php

For spyware, I use Spybot.

[Ged]

Avast, AVG and Avira.. pick your poison. 

[TracerBullet]

Avira Antivir Personal is what I use.

http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php

For spyware, I use Spybot.

2nd.

[Oath of Happy]

I use AVG.  Its free, and my cousin who is a computer scientist recomended it to me.

[waywreth]

I use and typically recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.  It's free, and doesn't use a much memory.  
Link:  http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

I used to recommend AVG and Avast, but they take up to much system memory and provide needless (and in my opinion) annoying warnings.

I use Malware Bytes and Hijack This for malware/spware removal when needed.

[M.Solymossy]

I use AVG.  Its free, and my cousin who is a computer scientist recomended it to me.

I use AVG, and I'm a computer scientist

Although AVG takes up a significant amount of space, I still recommend it highly.  I never touch anything from the Matrix if I can avoid it (AKA Microsoft).

Malware Bytes is the only service I use for spyware removal.   That, and I delete it straight from the Registry, which can be tricky unless you know what you're doing.

[The Atog Lord]

http://www.ubuntu.com/

[M.Solymossy]

http://www.ubuntu.com/

He asked for an AV or AS program Rich, not for a OS Overhaul!

[Zherbus]

http://www.ubuntu.com/

He asked for an AV or AS program Rich, not for a OS Overhaul!

And savage issues with peripheral and application compatibility... but hey, it's pretty bullet proof.

[SiegeX]

Out of AVG, Avast or Avira, the latter (Avira) takes the cake for "best" AV software.  Although the gap between Avast and Avira is not a big one, the same cannot be said for AVG; so if you're running AVG I strongly suggest you install one of the other two.

Here is some empirical evidence to back this up:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_report25.pdf
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_report26.pdf

I'm not a computer scientist but I did spend the night at a Holiday Inn, oh and I also design ICBM's (the missiles not the team)

[CorwinB]

Add another vote for Avira. I switched to it because it was the only AV software that didn't crash under Windows 7 Beta in my specific configuration, and ended up switching to it for the long run (pretty reliable, decent memory footprint, and much, much less taxing for low end computers like my netbook)

[JACO]

AVG is too big and slow, just like Norton and Symantec. Use Avira or Microsoft Security Essentials if you want something free that runs with a smaller footprint and/or more efficiently.

For malware and other garbage don't install any other BS program, which will inevitably just slow your system down. Just use ComboFix when you actually have a problem (most serious problems aren't fixed by SpyBot or Malwarebytes anyway).

And yes, I support IT systems big and small for a living.

[M.Solymossy]

For malware and other garbage don't install any other BS program, which will inevitably just slow your system down. Just use ComboFix when you actually have a problem (most serious problems aren't fixed by SpyBot or Malwarebytes anyway).

And yes, I support IT systems big and small for a living.

I agree and disagree with jaco here.  Malware bites is pretty good but if you're savy, it might be better to delete them straight from the registry.  I'm not familiar with ComboFix, but I trust Jaco, so I'm going to try it.


Also, I was unaware of Avira, but I'm definitely going to try it after seeing all the good things said.

[Killane]

Thanks for the pointers everyone! Much appreciated. I'm gonna go with Avira, since that seems to be the one with the most consensus.

[SiegeX]

Make sure you put Avira's heuristic detection to 'High Detection Level' for both the 'Scanner' and 'Guard' by going to Extras -> Configuration or hitting F8

[Killane]

I installed this over my lunch hour today - took only 20 min including the first sytem scan on my Netbook. Very impressed with the speed of the app and the minimal memory footprint. Working very well. Thanks!