# What's a good free anti-malware software? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 4, 2023, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615 "2023-01-04T01:20:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/1 "2023-01-04T01:20:49Z")
What’s a good free anti-malware software? Anything out there, for a desktop? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/2 "2023-01-04T01:39:32Z")
Moderating: As this is a matter of opinion, let’s move this to IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/3 "2023-01-04T01:40:13Z")
What operating system do you use? (i.e. Windows 11, macOS Ventura, Ubuntu Kinetic Kudu, Fedora 37, etc. All are available on desktop.) Best is always a matter of opinion, but on my Windows 10 machine I use the built-in Microsoft Defender. To the best of my knowlede Apple provides built-in anti-malware through Notarization and XProtect. I’ve used AVG and Avast but wouldn’t recommend either due to annoying popups. Most of the paid products (Norton, Avast) are decent if you happen to have the subscription maybe through a bundled product. Malwarebytes used to be the best scanner (meaning you use it in addition to other always-running antivirus software), and probably still is though I don’t bother these days. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/4 "2023-01-04T01:40:13Z")
malwarebytes. I guess. > [@Max\_S](#): > > Most of the paid products (Norton, Avast) are decent if you didn’t start a thread about free software. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/5 "2023-01-04T01:42:35Z")
nm nm ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/6 "2023-01-04T01:45:18Z")
Yeah, I realized but then a lot of people might actually _have_ a “free” subscription bundled with their PC or XFinity service or something like that. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/7 "2023-01-04T01:49:59Z")
I did some research on this recently when MalwareBytes allowed my wife to accidentally access a phishing site. I switched her to BitDefender, which gets very good ratings. It did prevent access to the site which got past MalwareBytes. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/8 "2023-01-04T01:53:43Z")
I’ve heard good things, but I’ve never used it personally and didn’t think it was free. With Malwarebytes it’s only ever been really good for scanning, not real-time protection. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/9 "2023-01-04T02:17:09Z")
Their web site layout doesn’t make it easy to find, but there is a [free version of BitDefender](https://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html). ---
**Author:** ![doc481](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@doc481](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doc481)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/10 "2023-01-04T02:19:23Z")
I use Malwarebytes and C Cleaner. both have free versions. I am checking out BitDefender, also heard it’s good. They do have a free version to . ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/11 "2023-01-04T14:11:46Z")
At least on Windows, my semi-informed attitude for several years now has been that the built-in, free, automatically updated, and guaranteed compatible Microsoft Defender is all an ordinary PC user needs. The other anti-malware suites, kind of like “registry cleaners”, are legacies from an earlier era with no real reason to exist beyond market inertia & user ignorance / apathy. “My last computer had it, so I must need to put it on my new PC.” No; no you don’t. Someone who has those more sophisticated needs isn’t the sort of person who asks these questions on a message board. It’s somebody who writes or tests security software for a living, goes deliberately trolling for infections to create countermeasures, etc. That ain’t the OP. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/12 "2023-01-04T14:35:08Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > I’ve used AVG and Avast but wouldn’t recommend either due to annoying popups. The free version of Avast has two modes of operation. One is its normal mode, which is extremely annoying to the point where I would classify it as malware. The second is Silent Gaming Mode, which cuts out most of the annoyances. It still periodically tells you that you have “issues” to resolve, which are all basically that you aren’t using their pay version. I consider this to be intentionally deceptive and underhanded, and I will never use their pay version as a result. I used to use AVG but it got too bloated and slowed down my systems too much. I have no idea what it’s like these days. ---
**Author:** ![Keith1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Keith1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keith1)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/13 "2023-01-04T15:50:55Z")
The free version of Avira Security is decent, without being too intrusive, as freebee versions of software tend to be, forever prodding you to upgrade. I think worth mention is that a lot of people, if those I know are any indication, install software and call it a day. One should use the options available to setup the software to one’s requirements. Yes it can be confusing. Why there’s always a manual/help available. The best anti-virus/malware/spyware is and can be co-related to a person’s common sense. Now; what did I do with that email from Walmart that offers $100 just to fill out a survey . . . ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2023, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-free-anti-malware-software/977615/14 "2023-01-04T23:00:26Z")
Thank you all. 🙂