what's the best free virus program for Mac?

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What's the best free virus program for the Mac?

You will find this User Tip on Viruses, Trojan Detection and Removal, as well as general Internet Security and Privacy, useful:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2435

The User Tip (which you are welcome to print out and retain for future reference) seeks to offer guidance on the main security threats and how to avoid them.

Not just for viruses, but removing all the duplicate folders and tuning up my mac.

That is a different question all together. Many problems are caused by not keeping sufficient free space on your start-up drive, which should be at least 25GB or more.

Try ClamXav.

Rudylover wrote:

What's the best free virus program for the Mac?Not just for viruses, but removing all the duplicate folders and tuning up my mac.

I am not aware of any program that meets those needs and is free. If there was it would probably cause you as many problems as the ones they sell.

Thomas Reed lists some free alternatives in his article http://www.reedcorner.net/beware-mackeeper/ .

Randy Singer has some ideas in this article http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html#software .

A sluggish and slow Mac can have nothing to do with malware and/or duplicate files.

If you realy want a free anti-malware tool clamav (already mentinoed) and the free Sophos product are reputable solutions.

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-ed ition.aspx

Common casues of slowdowns are not enough memory, and not enough free HD space on your boot drive.

There will be varying opinions, but sometimes ensureing you have a reliable backup (better yet, 2) of your data, erasing the HD and re-installing the OS can be a good idea. It is certainly overkill in some/many situations, but you can spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly why you Mac is slowing down if there's some sort of software issue, and not just a lack of memory, storage, CPU speed, etc...

You may also consider posting as much info as possible about your setup and when it slows down. There could certainly be a simple fix, but you'll need to privide the good folks here more info....ther are a lot of folks who know way more than I do who may give you a more simple and elegant solution.

Jeff

Thanks for the referral. Cheap and Effective Tool!

Rgds

MBM

How can ever be shown to be effective when there are no active Mac Virus?

Same was true 3 years ago when the recommendation was made.

Lanny wrote:

How can ever be shown to be effective when there are no active Mac Virus?

I receive requests for help handling infected files on their Mac almost every day. Most are Windows only or potential phishing e-mails, but probably once a week there will be at least one OS X Trojan or Adware infection found. And that's only from user that need help. I have no idea how many others there might be.

But you are mostly correct in that the only known Mac Viruses found in-the-wild are Word Macro Viruses targeting small groups they hope have not kept their software fully up-to-date. Everything else are other types of Mac Malware, most of which are prevented by the OS X Quarantine, Gatekeeper and XProtect systems. Only Adware and Tech-Support scam pop-ups are prevalent in today's environment.

But you are mostly correct in that the only known Mac Viruses found in-the-wild are Word Macro Viruses targeting small groups they hope have not kept their software fully up-to-date.

More than mostly correct, as those Word Macro Viruses only apply to Office for Windows users, not Office for Mac users.

Lanny wrote:

More than mostly correct, as those Word Macro Viruses only apply to Office for Windows users, not Office for Mac users.

Actually, I have a sample Word Macro Virus that will impact OS X using Office for Mac 2004.