# Antivirus Software - whats considered effective now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 22, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555 "2013-11-22T19:28:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/21 "2013-11-24T03:46:50Z")
hmm, I better stay away from Avast then. I admin computers in our dept and also we have a few in our conference room. Nag screens are the pits. > [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > I can’t tell if **aceplace57** uses a few PCs at work or administers a few PCs others use, but if it’s the latter this Avast problem is even worse. The popup is annoying and confusing to less wise computer users who will try to install the pro version trial, if they have administrative rights for some reason, or just pester you with questions because the damn popup scares them. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Me](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mr.Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Me)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/22 "2013-11-25T19:16:20Z")
I put Avast in Silent/Gaming mode (it’s in the Settings tab) and the popups went away for me, but I was ready to try something else if I couldn’t find a way to shut them off. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/23 "2013-11-25T21:26:52Z")
At the risk of being accused of threadshitting, one of the best anti-virus protections is a gullibility-awareness index. Need I say more? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/24 "2013-11-25T21:33:54Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > At the risk of being accused of threadshitting, one of the best anti-virus protections is a gullibility-awareness index. Need I say more? Considering your post #17…maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/25 "2013-11-25T21:36:05Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Considering your post #17…maybe not. Hey, there – I didn’t say it was a perfect solution. I said it might be the best, but not the only, one. Let me elaborate…I had just returned from a friend’s house, where I scanned his (obviously infected) system, removed some baddies, then I thought it might not be a bad idea to check my own…when the (bogus) Malwarebytes download exhibited some of the same symptoms as my infected friend, I took a step back and saved my own, personal ass. You bet…gullibility index is a good thing, but may not perfect. Nothing is. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/26 "2013-11-25T21:44:00Z")
The best solution is to keep up to date on the latest anti-virus rankings from independent sources, then check back every year( or maybe even less) to see the new rankings. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/27 "2013-11-25T22:18:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The best solution is to keep up to date on the latest anti-virus rankings from independent sources, then check back every year( or maybe even less) to see the new rankings. “rankings”? Please elaborate. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/28 "2013-11-27T21:10:11Z")
PC World compares anti-virals about once every year. They often have separate articles on for-pay and free versions though. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > The best solution is to keep up to date on the latest anti-virus rankings from independent sources, then check back every year( or maybe even less) to see the new rankings. Important caveat: anti-virals miss a lot. See post 13. The best defense is a multi-layered one and I tend to agree with Musicat that wetware is pretty important. For those interested, solid discussion of the most recent exploits (ZeuS has been particularly troublesome within the past couple of years) is available here: [https://krebsonsecurity.com/](https://krebsonsecurity.com/) ---
**Author:** ![jdc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@jdc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jdc)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555/29 "2013-11-28T15:10:54Z")
My company switched from Norton to Bitdefender to MSE due to problems with the former two products and reviews/price (free) of the latter. However, recently we had a rash of virus infections that would have been caught by other vendor’s products vs MSE and we read Microsoft admitting that they have an inadequate product. We are now deploying Sophos as it received good reviews, has very good deployment/management features, and also tested very well in our own internal testing. It also works on both Mac and Windows, although automatic deployment not working on MACs so far. Another nice feature of Sophos is that the licensing is per physical machine, so we can use it on Virtual PC installs as well as the main PC w/o running violating licenses. Norton, last I checked, does not allow this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antivirus-software-whats-considered-effective-now/674555.md?page=1)