MS Security Essentials (MSE) replacement

I'm getting increasingly fed up with MSE, especially the amount of times I see it consuming 25% or so of the CPU, scanning 20-30 files simultaneously - and it's not even doing a scheduled scan. At times the HDD is working so hard for MSE not a lot else gets a look in.

So...

Suggestions sought for a good free alternative. I've put Avast! on someone else's PC, not sure whether to try that on mine.

Thoughts appreciated.

Edit: I'm running Win7 Pro, though that shouldn't really be relevant.

Edited by cheshire_man (Tue 19-Aug-14 19:51:22)

I use Avast! as it runs alongside MSE.

Out of curiosity why both?

I believe that 2 virus databases are better than 1.

You don't have a residual scheduled task for MSE that is causing scans to occur twice etc?

Fair point.

I've checked through Task Scheduler in the Management Console, no sign of anything untoward. Though as the file checking seems to occur at any time, very visible using Resource Monitor, I'm inclined to think not.

Just give all the free options a go.

he probably doesnt, MSE has some kind of weird logic programmed in where it will run background scans (unscheduled) when system is idle and a scan hasnt been ran for a while.

Trouble is it runs background scans when I'm trying to use the PC, hardly when it's idle.

When I get time I'll try some of the free alternatives, I was looking for some personal views and/or recommendations as to the good, bad and ugly of them.