Best free antivirus and opinions on cleaners,and other security needed?

[hpsauce]

Hello,

Recently bought a new laptop, and the trial antivirus expires in a week.

What are your opinions on the best free antivirus out there? eg,How would you compare Avira,avg,avast or others?

The shop who sold me the laptop had installed CCleaner and Glary Utilities. I've only used the ''cleaner'' on CCleaner, eg cookies,temporary files, history, but i havent used the registry tool. I check to see what i'm deleting on this, but what is your opinion on CC for all its functions, registry etc?

I used the one click option on Glary Utilities one time (curious)after checking the products reviews, but am now somewhat regretting it as i basically have no idea what it deleted on my registry.

eg, what is this one;

HKEY_CLASSES-ROOT\Typelib\F5078F18-C551-11D3-89B9-0000F81FE221}\4.0\helpdir

How safe are these 2 products for dummies and should i avoid messin with the registry or any other modules on them? I've read many posts on forums telling people to avoid them as people have problems AFTER using them(snake oil).

I'd be happy to learn to do all this manually on windows if it is needed.

Thanks for any help.

ps, any recomendations for other best software related forums also much appreciated.

[Bama19642]

Those are the two safest products for anyone to use in regards to cleaning junk and registry items. I've used and recommended both for several years and never had a problem or heard anyone else report having problems after cleaning their registry. I have no idea what that item you asked about, or any of the stuff either of those programs has removed for me, but it's never been a problem so far. If you did suspect a problem you can always use system restore to reverse any changes they make.

Most free anti-virus programs are going to perform well enough for the average user but more often than not people here choose Security Essentials from MS.

[hpsauce]

Bama,

Thanks for that. I'm currently in se asia, and my laptop came with a ...less than genuine windows7 OS, so maybe Security E is not possible?

How often should i clean the registry, and whats the worst that can happen if removing files and getting a problem? Would it simply be a case of removing/replacing the windows OS?

I clean the cookies,temp files, history, out using CC every other week.


Cheers

[Bama19642]

I'll preface this by saying we really frown upon using pirated software and don't offer help to those who use it. But in general using those programs every 2 weeks or so should suffice. As I said before I've never heard anyone complain or say they caused any problems, and system restore would fix any issues if they did. I can't really give you any advice other than suggesting you get a genuine copy of the OS. If you can't use SE then you probably can't install MS updates, and that would pose more problems than using either of the cleaners.

[roadrage]

I would like to add that also there is a difference from MS Windows here in the USA than Windows in another country, I read an article about this several years ago and I know it has changed big time do to situations that were forth coming and then others as well, I think the article was in reference about the control of how the system operates and the different bells and whistles you get with it, say compared to Linux of course which is free world wide, but as Bama point's out, most is pirated out of the country which there is no control of except with the registration which means no updates if it is pirated, now non MS products and apps to run with it is a different story, China may make the boards but the program run's the system...they both fold together so it is a kind of conundrum.

Addendum:yes i had a few beers

[Bama19642]

That may be the longest sentence I've ever read.

[GreekGodz]

I was imagining that sentence spoken with no solid breaths taken :P

I don't know if you are strictly looking for FREE but I have seen 50% off total defense for Mcafee and bitdefender online with coupon codes right now. Just thought I'd share. I'm sure there are free ones that do well but I feel more secure with all my personal computer use when purchasing a more legitimate program for these things.

[bucksfanjimj]

I wouldn't recommend McAfee or Norton to anyone. Avira, Avast and AVGFRee are pretty good as is Microsoft Security Essentials.

[Bama19642]

...
I feel more secure with all my personal computer use when purchasing a more legitimate program for these things.

Most free programs are legit. For the most part they offer basic A/V protection for free and include all the "bells and whistles" if you pay for it. But AVG, Avast and several others have been offering highly regarded programs for free a long time now.