Expert: James Filmer - 11/25/2008

Question
Hi. I was just wondering if there was a free anti-virus program that I could download. I have a laptop with Vista and I've been using the free version of Ad-Aware 2007, but it doesn't do anything. It seems as though my internet has been freezing every so often lately. Is there a good, free program out there that can check for problems and fix them successfully? Thanks for any suggestions!

Answer
Vista doesn't have an anti-virus program. Only Windows Defender, which detects and removes most spyware, trojans and adware, but not viruses.

Ad-Aware 2007 is an anti-spyware application that detects/removes adware, but not viruses. You can continue to use it (more than one is suggested by many experts).

See: http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/a/freeav.htm
and/or Search engine results for anti-virus software reviews.

There are several free and free/trial versions. The most popular are AVG, Norton, Avast!, McAfee, Lavasoft, Trend-Micro, among others.

Use only one anti-virus program at a time.

Make sure your system has the latest system updates, have one firewall and one anti-virus program working properly on the system. If the freezing problem persists, it could be something unrelated to internet threats.