My current anti-virus protection service is due to expire soon. Rather than just re-subscribe, I figure I’ll ask for advice. Anyone have recommendations? I’m not looking for anything too intensive - as far as I know, I’ve never actually suffered any computer virus attacks so my online practices must not be making me a major target.
AVG is a good, free option. They update frequently, and seem to be reliable in the time I’ve used their software (several months now). Just watch for their build expiration notice; they may direct you to a paid upgrade site, but you can just update the free version.
I used AVG’s free version for a year. Liked it so much, when the free year was up, I paid to keep it going.
I’m not very knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, and AVG was easy to download, install, and use. Perfect for someone like me.
I’ve used Norton and McAfee. I like AVG best.
Use Linux. That’ll do the trick.
I currently use avast! (Arrrr, ye scurvy dog: for fun, watch to see address where it gets its updates from.) I used to use AVG, but switched over when AVG had a streak of giving me way too many false positives.
<< Geek used to be four letters–now it’s six figures. >>
Another vote for AVG. It has run flawlesly for me over the past year or so.
Vote number… 4? for AVG. Good product, can still be had for free (if you don’t give up – their website tries REALLY HARD to direct you to the paid subscriptions!)
I like AVAST, but it can be irritating when you actually get attacked! 
Linux is great, but suggesting that someone replace their entire operating system seems a little out of proportion with the question.
What is your current AV?
Reason I ask is some AV applications burrow into Windows and other applications (such as email clients) so deeply that it’s nearly impossible to remove them, and you’re better off doing a complete nuke-and-pave wipe of the drive and a clean installation of Windows, rather than attempting to find all the little bits and pieces that are scattered around.
If you’re not feeling up to the task, it may be sadly true that keeping the existing application is the better option, but if you do go ahead with installing a new AV app, AVG and Avast are both very good.
Yeah! What a great idea! I’ll reinstall my OS, and then spend the next couple weeks downloading Windows emulators and tweaking all the programs I use on a daily basis in the hopes they’ll run as well on Linux as they do on a Windows system. Then I’ll spend more time learning the ins and outs of Linux since I don’t know it well. I’ll also start hoping that all the Windows software I need to use in the future both for my job and my own pleasure will work on the emulator, too. That’ll be a LOT easier than installing an Antivirus program! :rolleyes:
If virus protection protects you against viruses, what does anti-virus protection do?
Another satisfied Avast! user here. I switched over from AVG when I started having update problems with their virus signature files. I’ve been using Avast! ever since and have had great results keeping my pc clean.
It’s very important to protect your computer from both viruses and anti-viruses. Getting either one is bad enough but if you get both at the same time, your computer explodes.
AVG used to be the free leader until about a year ago. AVAST released a new version that is plainly superior to AVG. I read about the new development and switched to AVAST and could not be happier.
I strongly recommend AVAST over AVG even though there will be nice opinions floating around for AVG because they used to be the best free solution.
Best pay suite is Kaspersky. Get the suite and you get complete protection from Viruses and Spyware. It ain’t cheap.
Antivirus is a commodity like milk. All the major antivirus software are equally as good. Some will find a virus faster one time; others will find it faster the next time.
So, like any commodity, you purchase based on price. For antivirus, any legitimate free antivirus is perfectly fine (AVG, Avast!, Antivir, or, if you don’t like things beginning with “a,” Bitdefender). IIRC, AOL offers a free security suite using Kapersky, though there have been some issues about it, primarily because it’s serving up ads.
Also, check your ISP. I’m with Verizon, and they provide McAfee for free via MSN (which also has that deal). Since I get it free, I use it, but if they wanted to charge me a susbscription, I’d switch to AVG or Antivir immediately.
I’d agree that they are all about the same as far as finding and removing viruses. However, they’re not all the same in how they work on a day to day basis.
I will never go back to Norton because I’m simply sick of the bloat. I don’t like how intrusive it is and I don’t like how it slows down my computer because of its overzealous desire to tell me every few seconds how great it is. I’m sure there’s probably some controls I could set to make it a little less of a hog, but it’s easier to just use a different AV package that doesn’t do all that annoying stuff to begin with.
one more for AVG. But only if you are the type of person that leaves the computer on 24/7 and set it for some time you are sure you won’t be using it. AVG is very intrusive when it runs.