I tried avast but i hate the fact it continually shows there's paid version etc.......its like it tries to make you worry to pay

is there a free antivirus without all that

 

Been using Brain.exe for over 30 years now. It has never failed me.

 

I found both Zone Alarm and Microsoft Defender to be good. But it all depends on what sort of user you are. If you are someone who visits a lot of warez sites or downloads torrents then Bitdefender's Internet security at £21.99 is well worth the money. Though it is so good that it annoyed me until I leaned how to stop it from deleting my keygens and blocking the websites that I was using to watch football.

You also have to cancel before it renews at £50+ it then offer you a £27 deal. But I just stopped using it so that I could try out defender and I have found that defender does not always stop programmes from calling home. Also, Zone Alarm no longer gives me the option of blocking individual programmes. So it looks like I will be paying for another year of Bitdefender at £21.99.

But like I said the level of protection you need will depend on what type of user you are.

 

I go to AV-comparatives to re-evaluate my choice of AV every couple of years. At the moment I'm using Panda Dome, which hasn't ever nagged me to buy anything (so long as you make an account with them - temporary mail address will do). Windows Defender is perfectly fine though. I'm only using Panda Dome because Defender eats too much RAM and CPU for my taste.

 

After getting robbed for ~$10K in crypto due to malware I ponied up for Malwarebytes. For free file scanning it's hard to beat virustotal, but these days comprehensive RT exploit/malware protection (especially if downloading files from less reputable sources) is well worth it IMO.