free antivirus

[mammajamma]

Was using a friend's laptop online when a "Microsoft Windows" box popped up listing 5 worm and trojan viruses that had been detected. It then gave a link to an antivirus program.exe that I should go to. I closed out the window and went to run his antivirus program, when I found out he had none. Spyware and adware, yes. Which made me question how the 5 viruses were detected in the first place.And was his antivirus program taken out somehow. I suppose I should download a good free antivirus program  for his laptop now. Which one would you recommend, and was perhaps the "5 viruses" notification some type of virus itself?Thanks for any suggestions.  He's running Windows XP.MJ

[doris13]

mammajamma this happened to me.windows will not tell you there is a virus.if you wrote down the virus info look it up on the internet.malwarebytes took it right out for me thank god but it took a while because this so called antivirus would not let me do anything.i too have windows xp and my computer repairman told me xp is too easy to virus.that anitvirus program is a bigger virus.if you need to go to system restore don't until you know the virus is clear because if it isn't it can still infect everything.

[BOOPSAHOY]

I use Spybot Search and Destroy(free) and Mcaffee from AOL (free)-5 yrs no problems knock on wood.

[mammajamma]

Doris...interesting to know this happened to you.  I closed out the window immediately and the laptop doesn't seem to operate any differently. I thought about system restore and I will probably do that if my friend says ok.Thanks for the input.Boops.................  thanks for the program suggestion. I will probably use that  for my friend's PC.

[BOOPSAHOY]

Your very welcome mammajamma!

[doris13]

the version of malwarebytes i run is also free.it runs a quick scan but it scans every program.mcafee told me no virus when i ran the program but i knew better and ran malware and it told me 5.the virus hit me while i was reading the las vegas review-journal;should have take that as a hint to stay home,lol.

[BillyJoe]

All I can add is be careful !! There are programs out there that are "free" to detect viruses, but then charge a fee to have you download a program to remove the viruses it "found". What it actually does is, collect your fee, and once you download it, THAT is actually the code they want in your system !! Yes, it says it removed the found viruses, but it made them up anyway in the free detection program, so you never had them to begin with. What you now have, and they actually got you to pay for it, is spyware / malware or any other assortment of intrusive code running in your computer.   

[estes1]

i use spybot.on my old windows xp i ran a free program to detect a virus and it gave me a virus.if one pops up again i shut down quick.i run windows 7 now

[shadowman]

I use AVG free version. It's one of the best around. Billyjoe is right. You might hot have had any virus.

[mammajamma]

well I went to Spybot  but it's only free for 30 days now  so it saysthen I did another search and found that AVG was in the top ten free antivirus downloadson my own PC I've been  using PCtools  but my (cheap) friend doesnt want to pay for anythingthanks to all so far for the input!  appreciatedMJ