Urgent !! Antivirus for PC. For just one time use.

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Stone_man

Which is the best antivirus software for a PC? 

I plan on installing an antivirus program, running a complete scan, and then reinstalling Windows by downloading the ISO image from the official site. However, before doing so, I would like to determine if there are any viruses on my PC. This way, I can avoid backing up and keeping any infected files or software. 


Could you kindly suggest the best antivirus that offers a free trial without requiring a credit card?


I am not interested in Avast, even though it is free for a lifetime, as I have heard mixed reviews about its effectiveness.


I have also heard that McAfee is the best in the market, but if there are any other antivirus programs that are even better than McAfee, please recommend those as well. Norton could also be an option. 

Please confirm if McAfee allows a free trial period of 30 days without cc.

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Budding Star Budding Star
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As far as i know, almost all antiviruses have trial period without CC.

McAfee and norton solve the purpose.

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Do they allow to scan during boot? I want to scan complete system 
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Generous Generous
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kespersky

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I have heard about it few times, is it best in market?
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Benevolent Benevolent
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McAfee has been piss-poor for many years now. Norton not much better. Kaspersky, Bitdefender, Eset NOD32, Avira, Malwarebytes etc. are amongst the better performers. The second if frequently available for really cheap at times on Amazon. I had stocked up several years worth annual subscriptions some years back. Kaspersky gives much more freedom to the user though and conflicts with less stuff.

Benevolent Benevolent
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Anti malware scanning at boot is also an option.

Deal Newbie Deal Newbie
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Use the free version of all of them. 5X filteration

Flame Flame
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Then I think it will require whole day. Complete scan takes at least 2-3 hours for my pc.

But I think I will execute your idea

Deal Cadet Deal Cadet
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Try k7 

Deal Newbie Deal Newbie
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None worth their name provide adequate protection against zero-day attacks.
I am not saying this to show them in poor light.
ibm.com/topics/zero-day
Even the likes of Apple Inc. and others are not always able to address those (threats) in a timely manner. flying horse emoji.

With that said, hopefully you might want to use a decent firewall, if on an otherwise unprotected network.

Symantec markets their enterprise products under the Symantec branding and the consumer/retail use products under Norton branding.

Back in the day, the Symantec heavyduty 'all in ones' used to be a RAM killer.. so I personally preferred to use their firewall only.

Good that Avast is not on your radar. Hopefully AVG, McAfee too are not.

For non active or storage only drives, partitions.. one time comprehensive scans using various Microsoft utilities and anti matwale softwares, anti virii and some similar ones from Comodo, Norton, Symantec ought to be enough , I think.

While for ongoing use, if one can be cautious not to teether to unknown sources and save from plugging in random flash media (thumb drives/ pendrives), optical media.. then

I think inbuilt Microsoft products are sufficient too (@cybertechie might disagree, now too). But if one does put in place proper sand-boxing and does not use problematic browsers, applications and stays away from clicking on unwanted links.. even basic/advanced freeware from Microsoft, Comodo are enough too.

(𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫/𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐧𝐚𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧) 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐃𝐎 𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐛𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐧𝐠.
Comrade Comrade
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window defender is best not required anymore

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I have few .rar files containing images only. It detects them as virus even through there is nothing in them. 

I will never be able to trust windows defender
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Mobile Guru Mobile Guru
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malwarebyte is best to detect things where other antiviruses fails so when i suspect anything i scan with malwarebyte trial one and call it a day

Deal Newbie Deal Newbie
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Use Malwarebytes

Comrade Comrade
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Eset is best..

Deal Cadet Deal Cadet
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Three months Avira Premium Trial  is there , you can get 

Community Angel Community Angel
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Just use inbuilt windows security. Nothing else is needed. 

Talk-Of-The-Town Talk-Of-The-Town
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If you just want to use it once, try Hitman Pro

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I finally tried four different software programs. In my case, Malwarebytes worked the best as it detected all ransomware. McAfee performed the worst as it consumed a lot of resources, but it was able to detect most viruses. 

Kaspersky was lightweight but didn't detect any viruses. Eset and Avira were both fine. 


However, none of them had the option to scan during boot, or at least I couldn't find it.

Thank you all for your input. The only virus/ransomware I had was an IDM crack, so it wasn't a major issue. Every antivirus successfully detected the Eicar test virus file. McAfee took a long time to scan the whole computer compared to the others. I ran a complete PC scan with all of the software.

This was my experience, and it may vary from PC to PC. Personally, I liked Kaspersky because it had a secure browser for financial sites and was lightweight. However, the only negative was that it couldn't detect any cracks. I even tested this online by uploading a cracked file to some sites that scan uploaded files with Kaspersky. Malwarebytes is my second favorite.

( After every scan, I used to restore viruses into their original location ) 

@HasdaChehra @demerius2020 @Jarvis.-. @rxgupt2 @Mohammed_aadil

Critic Critic
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Eset has moved internet security to its Home Security Essential version so no point in buying it now. Just directly get 1 device 1 user Home Security Essential plan for Rs.834 from here.

Cyber Security Offering - All-in-one protection | ESET

If it works well for you then only renew/buy next year. It is always recommended to use trial version of any security software on your windows pc first for a few days before buying because windows systems are unique so one can't predict how any security software will perform on their windows pc. The same security software which works well & fast enough on your windows pc might work poorly on your friend's windows pc with similar hardware.
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