Just an FYI for others reading this topic.
An offer of free anti-virus software is essentially a
marketing technique...a way of advertising and enticement to get folks to try a product and if they like it, to purchase the full (or Pro) version which typically provides more features. Marketing and promotional strategies are built into the vendor's business model as part of their operating costs.
Bottom line...it's all about generating revenue and finding new and creative ways to do so. As such, users may have to deal with occasional nagging pop-ups or nuisance advertising and prompts to upgrade to the paid version.
By using such free programs, you are essentially agreeing to the terms of the vendor's service which includes those ads. In some cases you may be able to disable annoying pop-ups through the anti-virus settings if the vendor included an option to disable them. If the vendor does not have such an option listed, then your only alternative is to switch anti-virus software if the pop-up ads annoy you that much.
Also keep in mind that many anti-virus vendors are bundling toolbars and other software with their products as a cost recoup measure. In fact, all free Anti-virus programs now come with toolbars or other bundled software
except Bitdefender Free, Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows 8/10 Defender.
For those who do not mind paying, I generally recommend
ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus or
Emsisoft Anti-Malware as they leave a small footprint...meaning they are
not intrusive and do not utilize a lot of system resources.
Kaspersky Anti-virus is also a good choice for the same reason. If you don't want to pay then I would recommend
avast! Free Antivirus or
Bitdefender Anti-virus Free Edition if you prefer not to use MSE or Windows 8/10 Defender.
For more suggestions see
Choosing an Anti-Virus Program.
