Avast or Trend Micro

[Rememberthe90s]

Which is a better antivirus overall? I'm trying to choose between trend micro maximum security and avast free antivirus.

[Rememberthe90s]

I heard they are both good, but wanting to know which has a better detection ratio, and has more security features. If you can't answer this just close the topic i guess.

[digmorcrusher]

This is the type of question where you ask 10 people and will get 10 different answers.  I've used Avast in the past, it was good, have not used it in a couple of years now. 

Basically you should try both, see what works best on your computer. Avast has a free version,  do a custom install as there is a lot of extra features that you may not want. Trend may have a trial version you can try as well, I don't know.

I would think the difference in level of protection between the two would be minimal.

[Firefox]

There is no such thing as "the best" otherwise there would be no one else in the business.
 
Here is a List of well-known antivirus products use of any of these will help protect your computer.
 
A lot of reading here but if you take the time to read a bit of it you'll see why/how infections and general damage are so easily inflicted on the computer. There is also advice on how to prevent it and keep the system working well. Don't forget about good, solid backups of your data to an external drive that is not connected except when backing up your data. If you leave a backup drive connected and you do get infected it can easily damage, encrypt, delete, or corrupt your backups as well and then you'd lose all data.
Nothing is 100% bulletproof but with a little bit of education you can certainly swing things in your favor.

If you're not currently using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium then you may want to consider purchasing the product which can also help greatly reduce the risk of a future infection.
 
If you really want to discuss antivirus and other security products in more detail then the Wilders Security Forums is an excellent resource to do so as they support and discuss many products.

• How Malware Spreads - How did I get infected
• Best Practices for Safe Computing - Prevention of Malware Infection
• Avoiding those unwanted free applications
• A close look at how Oracle installs deceptive software with Java updates
• IAC / Ask.com toolbars
• Malwarebytes Unpacked Blog

[MichaelT]

I've been using avast! since it came out(I had the LCARS skin). It has had its share of problems in the past, and that I have personally experienced with it. Over all, it is one of the best I have used and have learned my lessons and have gone back to it time and time again. One BIG thing I learned from avast! and have carried it through to my other security software, virus/malware/security engine updates are fine on a daily basis, BUT the PROGRAM updates are best handled with an uninstall then install the new program. Avast! has caused me grief in the past with the program updates and the best and most stable install is the reinstall from scratch not patch and update. I do this for all my security software program (anti-malware/anti-virus/firewall) updates.