Replacement for AVG Free

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I've been using AVG Free more or less since around 2003, although my ISP is Comcast/Xfinity and they offer Norton Security Suite to subscribers.
Back in 2009, NSS was really annoying, slowing down my computer, so I switched back to AVG.

However, lately AVG has been sending me at least one annoying pop-up ad for their products every time I log in, usually interrupting me at the most annoying time. Like making me get killed in a game.
I've done some searching and found that there is no way to get rid of it. I've tried everything written in this thread.
So, what antivirus would you guys recommend for a 5-year old 2.25mhz quad-core 64-bit Windows 7 computer with 6gb of RAM and little hard drive space left?
I have no budget for this, so I can either go with Norton Security Suite from Comcast, or I can go with a free option.
For nearly 15 years I've recommended AVG free from Windows 98 to Windows 8, so I'm not really familiar with the other options anymore.

 

As far as free options go, just use Microsoft Security Essentials/Microsoft Defender.
another free antivirus software is avast. i personally don't have any experience with it, but it rates pretty well on av-test. (be sure to check the comparative table for your OS on their site.)

 

MSE is fine for the vast majority of cases, unless you frequent seedy corners of the internet or habitually download executable email attachments. It's low-resource, reasonably effective, and completely unobtrusive. Standalone AV software hasn't been a thing for over a decade.

 

Well, I do want something that does provide some web protection, although Firefox is supposed to be pretty secure and as long as Java is disabled supposedly you won't get infected just visiting a web page unless you accept an .exe file.

 

I have Java, Flash, and JavaScript all enabled and I haven't had a single case of any kind of infection for as long as I can remember. The default protections of the modern browsers, combined with an efficient ad blocker like uBlock, will prevent any and all possibilities of getting a virus that is not entirely 100% your fault (i.e. you downloaded and executed something you shouldn't have). And if you happen to do something stupid like that, there's a high chance that MSE will take care of the problem just as well as any other AV software. Unless you have 10-year olds using your computer, anything beyond these simple measures is excessive to say the least.

 

Not a 10 year old, but an elderly person who has done stupid stuff. My mother fell and hurt her knee last year, for 6 weeks I had to literally carry her in and out of the house. I moved back in with her. Then I lost my job, and have only taken a part-time retail job to make ends meet, so there is no moving back out until I get a full-time permanent job.
She does use my computer, and she forgets how to use the taskbar to switch between windows.
_I_ was better with computers within a month of us getting an Apple IIGS at age nine than she is now.

 

Is she heavily into porn or something?

Older people who struggle with technology usually don't stray from their standard routines, which is in stark contrast with kids who can't wait to click on every single ad banner and install anything that even remotely piques their interest.

 

Well, I had to lock her out of the admin account on her own computer (which broke, the motherboard needed replacement, and wasn't worth it for an XP machine. It was also the computer I used before this one that I gave to her) because any time she was sent a link in an e-mail from that said "you need to install this to view this page", she would comply, and I frequently had to disinfect her machine, wasting the better part of a day if I had to reformat and reinstall.

The fact was that it was often viruses sent that would get through G-mail's web filters. She used the web interface for g-mail, disliking Thunderbird or Outlook and I _DID_ have AVG Free installed on her system.

Oh, and she has trouble retaining basic skills. I can't count the number of times I've sent her to run "Discovering Windows 98", or later "Tour Windows XP" over the years to re-learn the same basic skills. I just wish that Windows 7 came bundled with the same kind of basic tutorial.

 

That's odd, Gmail has some of the best filtering of any email service I've ever used. I can't remember the last time something managed to sneak through into my inbox, aside from the very occasional phishing email with a spoofed domain of origin.

 

Well, rather than being attached, it is usually a link to a website that then prompts her "you need to install this software to view this page properly", she obediently tries to do so, and gets infected.

It could be "you need to update your flash player" with a link provided, or something to that effect.

 

Wouldn´t it be more useful to create an own account for her in your Windows that only has limited rights so that she can browse the internet and send/receive emails but is unable to install anything?
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee623984(v=ws.10).aspx

 

Already done. As soon as I had to allow her to use my computer.
I'm just paranoid and want extra protection since she's now using MY computer and don't want to have to redo my own custom settings.

 

Understandable sentiment. I don't let anyone anywhere near my computer.

 

I'm not sure if I should necro this or start a new thread, but what would be good free antivirus to install on an old laptop running Windows XP, with a 1.6ghz processor and a gigabyte of RAM? (ACER Aspire 5570Z)
I might have to use a laptop soon, and I haven't used this old thing for anything other than watching movies and reading downloaded stories on the porch since 2011, so I wasn't worried about antivirus. It wasn't connected to the internet.
Right now it HAD AVG installed, which promptly updated to the latest version when I turned it on while plugged into my switch and it slowed the computer to a crawl worse than Vista ever did with this new "AVG Zen" thing. Removing AVG Zen was like upgrading from Vista to XP all over again, but now I'm without an antivirus.

Would Avast still work well with XP?
I can't afford a new laptop or to spend any money on this endeavor, as this will be a one-off thing where I'm going to need Word and probably Excel (already installed) and to access a company webpage that is supposed to work with IE6 (or so the login page claims).
Accessing other web pages would be for my own PERSONAL pleasure, and while not absolutely needed, it would be nice, and since it is MY laptop, I'd like the option with an unobtrusive antivirus installed.

 

If all you're doing is watching movies, browsing the web, and reading stuff, it might be worth considering installing a Linux distro. It's certainly gonna be a lot safer at this point.

 

I'm considering it, seriously.
I'm just not sure if I'll have time to find one that works for the laptop in question with minimal hassle. Every time I think of putting Linux on one of my really old computers, I think about the nightmare I had trying to get Linux to work right on a PowerMac 6500/300 around 15 years ago. I know it's a poor excuse.
That and I don't think I've used Linux/Unix since 2010 or 2011, so I'm a bit rusty.

If I could be assured it was as simple as download the CD image, boot the CD, shrink the Windows partition, create a Linux partition and swap partition, and run the installer and it would install everything smoothly without trying to find and configure obscure hard-to-find little technical details to get the video working and every other hardware component, I'd do it. However, I have no idea what distro would work well with this laptop and which ones need to go on a quest for drivers and technical data.

The above is not an absurdity, I had that problem with the aforementioned PowerMac 6500/300 at the start of the 21st century with YellowDog Linux 2.1-2.3. I had to find some obscure thing about the video hardware, something like /bandit/something I can't recall to configure X-windows and not get this horrible display using a fraction of the screen for the command-line only with the refresh rate wrong on the built-in ATI 3d RAGE hardware. Sorry, I don't recall the details, that was back in 2000 or 2001 and said computer died in 2009 when it kept powering up or resetting over and over and over again making the startup chime, and I, an A+ certified tech could not figure out what was wrong or how to fix it.

If anybody has an an Acer laptop that on the front says "Aspire 5570Z" and on the bottom says Aspire 5570-2067 that can recommend a Linux distro that is easy to install for it (with the correct drivers or easy to install ones, or can provide the trivia needed to install and configure said drivers), I'd be grateful.

 

I'd say start mainstream and work from there. Use a Kubuntu live image to see if it works on your laptop. If it works live, it'll probably work when installed as well. Don't go for vanilla Ubuntu since it's horrible. The biggest issue are usually drivers, but when it comes to Linux, older hardware tends to work better than newer one.

 

I don't know why I never considered using a live image for testing. I suppose there is no reason I can't use it for another XP computer I've actually been intending to make Linux an option for, but never got around to it.

 

I'm not sure if I should necro this or start a new thread.
I went with Avast. I also installed Avast on the replacement for the computers mentioned in this thread with Windows 10.
Now Avast is getting just as annoying as AVG was. Especially with the problem with the dialog box that "Unreputable browser extensions found", which then does nothing when I click "resolve" and never tells me what it is talking about, but pops up at least once a day. Also the come-ons for the optimizer that also appears once a day, and other pop-up come-ons that seem timed to interrupt me at the most annoying time.

So, if AVG is out, and Avast is out, what do you guys recommend for both my modern Windows 10 (pro) computer (whose specs should not matter as it's current enough) and the following older systems:

• Dell Optiplex GX110 with 1ghz Pentium III processor, 512mb RAM Windows 98SE/XP Pro dual-boot. (separate recs for 98 and XP acceptable, as I couldn't find anything except Avast 4 for Win98 years ago and I doubt things have improved)
• Gateway 4200DX (or was that Dx4200). 2.25ghz quad-core, 6GB RAM, Windows Vista Home Premium/7 professional.
• Acer Aspire 5570Z/Aspire 5570-2067 laptop. Windows XP. 1.6ghz dual core, 1gb RAM. Not a priority as I rarely use it as anything other than a portable DVD player, an e-reader for downloaded fanfic, or playing old games that have already been checked for viruses by other computers. I think I've used it for something else only once or twice since 2011, although I may have looked at www.fanfiction.net or run a quick Google search a time or two.