Are Free Antivirus any good for your Computer?

[Chessqueen]

I know that Norton 360 and Kaspersky and other commercial are excellent to protest your Computer with expensive Database, and Chess Softwares, but my questions is there any free Antivirus that does the same as commercial Antivirus, or NOT really you get what you pay for ?

Note: What is your opinion about Avast, and AVG

[MikeGL]

I know that Norton 360 and Kaspersky and other commercial are excellent to protest your Computer with expensive Database, and Chess Softwares, but my questions is there any free Antivirus that does the same as commercial Antivirus, or NOT really you get what you pay for ?

Note: What is your opinion about Avast, and AVG

I'm sure you already heard the quote, if it's free then you are the product.
I was bitten by both Avast and AVG so never used them again since 1999.
Maybe their management already changed, haven't kept track of those companies. But I was once bitten, so twice shy.
Their modus is fake virus pop-ups and it made me so upset so uninstalled it after reading some negative software reviews.

I think in the chess world, anti-virus software are a hindrance because you need max cpu performance for any chess position
so you need to disable your anti-virus if you want to get a better NPS.

YMMV

[Collingwood]

I know that Norton 360 and Kaspersky and other commercial are excellent to protest your Computer with expensive Database, and Chess Softwares, but my questions is there any free Antivirus that does the same as commercial Antivirus, or NOT really you get what you pay for ?

Kaspersky has a free version. I see no reason to upgrade from the free to the paid version. (Whether one should use either version is another question.)

[jdart]

Windows Defender is bundled with Windows now. That is probably all you need.

[Modern Times]

Windows Defender is bundled with Windows now. That is probably all you need.

Yes, that is what I rely on. Over the years I've had various free products but at the end of the day Defender is sufficient for me, and is all I've ever used with Windows 10. If I had an older version of Windows then the situation would be different.

[Uri Blass]

I know that Norton 360 and Kaspersky and other commercial are excellent to protest your Computer with expensive Database, and Chess Softwares, but my questions is there any free Antivirus that does the same as commercial Antivirus, or NOT really you get what you pay for ?

Note: What is your opinion about Avast, and AVG

I'm sure you already heard the quote, if it's free then you are the product.
I was bitten by both Avast and AVG so never used them again since 1999.
Maybe their management already changed, haven't kept track of those companies. But I was once bitten, so twice shy.
Their modus is fake virus pop-ups and it made me so upset so uninstalled it after reading some negative software reviews.

I think in the chess world, anti-virus software are a hindrance because you need max cpu performance for any chess position
so you need to disable your anti-virus if you want to get a better NPS.

YMMV

INPS are not everything.
I think that it is better to have 10% less nps relative to not being protected against viruses.

[M ANSARI]

Nothing is free unfortunately and most likely you will end up with malware that tells you that your computer is heavily infected, or you get annoying subscription requests after you install the product telling you that your trial period is over or that you need to pay to really get the "full" protection. Probably the safest if you use Windows is just get Windows Defender as any updates also will have anti virus updates.