I also had serious problems with the new version of AVG until I disabled features like the linkscanner and resident shield. Now everything’s back to normal, it’s a fine program.
On a related note, what are your opinions of Ad Aware for spyware?
The upthread recomendations are all fine. I would add that I wouldn’t wait for the Norton trial period to expire. IME it causes far more problems than it catches. Specifically, it is a resource hog and noticeably slows applications.
Sublight: Ad-Aware is fine, but I’ve been happier with MalWarebytes lately. I suspect Ad-Aware might be popular enough that the malware authors are testing thier stuff against it…nothing but a guess that is, but it seemed like it caught everything a few years ago when I started using it, but the last couple of infestations it missed a couple things that MalWareBytes caught.
I just got a new laptop, too. Based on comments I’ve seen on this board, I went with Avast. Haven’t played with it yet, but it’s already updated once.
I’ve loaded AdAware and am considering a couple of possibilities for a second malware fighter. (Most of the recommendations I’ve read here and gotten from our support folks at work are to use two…) I’ve used Spybot Search and Destroy as the second in the past, but saw it got a lower review from CNET than a couple of other options. I’m considering TrendMicro’s Hijack This. Anyone have experience with that? Here’s CNET’s list with editor and user ratings. Other recommendations?
I was also going to mention Web of Trust. I just started using it with this laptop (which is two days old, so no experience yet), but thought it sounded good.
GT
NOrton Symantec security suite is known in the business as “crapware”: it’s generally given away for free with a new PC to a) create an addiction to it, and b) artificially inflate the apparent worth of the PC by bundling it with supposedly valuable software.
AVG was a great free alternative, up until July of last year when it (seemingly) fired its programmers and replaced them with drunken monkeys and marketing sleazeballs. Since last July, AVG has been justifiably accused of massive false harmless positives, eating up Internet bandwidth, missing important viruses, and mistakenly treating as viruses perfectly legitimate parts of Windows, ZoneAlarm firewall, and Adobe Flash!
I’d put my “money” on the free version of Avira (downloadable from CNET). It finds significantly more viruses than the other big-name antiviruses, including Eset Nod32, Norton Symantec, and MacCaffee.
BE AWARE, though, that Norton Symantec security suite is more than just an antivirus. If you remove it, replace it with a decent free firewall (Comodo? Sunbelt Personal Firewall?) and free anti-spyware like “Spybot Search & Destroy”.
Ad Aware from Lavasoft is second-best compared to (free) SPybot Search and Destroy… but on the plus side, it’s easier for a novice to use than Spybot, which requires you to do a lot of non-intuitive clicking to update, immunize, scan, and heal.
BE AWARE there are fakes with names very similar to AD-AWARE!!! For example, there’s a fake program called Adware and another named ada-ware that charge you money, and actually downloads spyware and viruses onto your PC! D’oh!
I’ve heard good things about Microsoft’s free Security Essentials. It’s available at http://www.microsoft.com/SECURITY_ESSENTIALS/
So long as you have a “Genuine” Windows installation, it’s free. I’m trying it out now on one of my virtual machines. Doesn’t appear to be a huge resource hog, and the installation was painless - took about five minutes to install, update itself and start a basic scan.
I came in to add that it’s working okay for me on both XP and Vista 64. The UI is slightly on the simple side, and there’s a bit of the ol’ gulf of evaluation when you use it to scan single files via the context menu, but overall it’s pretty good.
(As an aside, it refuses to be installed on server OSs, which is lame 'cause our unlimited-install, single-physical-machine licence is for Server 2008.)
I’ve both heard and found that Window’s built in firewall from defender (Vista+ at least) is more than good enough, you don’t really need any extra software there. I’ve also had issues with Comodo and Zone Alarm on both Vista and 7 so YMMV and all that.
Either AVG or Avast is fine. I prefer Avast, especially because it gives a audio warning when a virus is detected. The fakealert virus doesn’t do this, so it’s easier to tell that the warning is bogus.
The Windows firewall does a good job of protecting you from incoming threats. But firewall software protects you if a virus sneaks in. It will alert you if an unknown program is trying to access the Internet from your computer. It’s a useful extra layer of protection.
I recommend you take a look at the links on this page at TechSupportAlert.com. This will cover all your antivirus, spyware, malware, and general PC Security needs. The best part is that every piece of software that is recommended is FREE.
Closing another zombie thread.