A friend of mine installed AVG on the machine I use today. My machine has never shown any signs of potential attack. I think AVG is the best, alongside with SMAD.
I honestly think that paying for an anti-virus might be a better option at times. Usually they have a lot more to offer protection wise and will last much longer than a free one. I would rather pay close to $100.00 for an anti-virus with good protection than a technician to fix my computer if something goes wrong.
I have used free as well as paid antivirus. In my experience free anti virus works as good as the paid ones. When I bought a computer, I was offered a paid antivirus for free (the scheme from the seller). When the liscense ended after one year, I did not renew it. I used a free antivirus and it worked as well as the paid version. I did not encounter any problem.
I use a paid antivirus because I get Norton Security Suite free from Comcast. Otherwise, I would be using a free antivirus. Having said that I have not had too much luck with free antivirus. I always end up getting a virus. Because they never work as good as a paid antivirus.
I don't even use a real antivirus anymore. I have Malwarebytes installed, and I scan my PC with that occasionally. It's pointless for me to use a free antivirus, much less a paid one, since I only got infected with one or two viruses, in like 7 years, and I immediately knew when it happened anyway.
Free anti-viruses are not good at all. If you want a good protection from viruses, I suggest that you buy the anti-virus software. My brother's girlfriend recently bought BitDefender for the whole family and we have a 1 year subscription with it.
To be straight and honest with you, I don't pay a dime on PC security as long as viruses are concerned. In fact, I was forced to uninstall the one that I had then on my laptop when the device started having issues with not connecting to the website and as a student last three years, I had no other choice than to follow a guideline I found on the internet about doing so. Since then, I've got no choice to spend on antivirus software.
I think I should have to slightly disagree with you here in the sense that most of the free anti virus software I used then and still used by those that I know worked really fine. The thing is that the paid options can give a better protection, but that doesn't mean disregarding what the free options can do as well.
