My antivirus sucks. I currently have Trend Micro and I hate it. It absolutely shuts my computer down when it’s doing a scan, it finds 10-15 problems every single time, always the same stuff, but has no way to delete or quarantine it. My subscription thankfully ends soon so I want to know if anyone has suggestions as to what I should get next.
Take a look at Safe Eyes: www.safeeyes.com
Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s free and good: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx
For 2011, Norton internet security seems to be the highest rated from the most sources. Avira is also good and allows for a 60 day free trial. I think they also have a free version.
Since the answers will involve opinions, let’s move from General Questions to IMHO.
samclem MOderator
Seconding this. Microsoft was way late to the game, but they’ve done well recently.
Between Security Essentials and AdBlock Plus I haven’t had any problems in a couple of years. ABP has a pop-up add-on too, and running no-script is also recommended to me by my more computer knowing people, but I find it to be a pain to run so don’t with knowledge of the risk. I’m no computer guru, though.
No anti-malware suite catches everything so you really need at least 2 layers of protection. I would get one commercial program like norton and one free program like MSE (MS security essentials). I run 4 (NIS, Avira, MSE and Malwarebytes) but then I’m paranoid.
MSE. it’s the least intrusive in my experience. Symantec burned any chance they had with past versions of Norton.
I currently use Avira and Avast on different computers. They work well and easy.
Next up I’m going to try MS Security Essentials.
Another vote for Microsoft Security Essentials here.
Started using Avast several years back when I still had dialup. One of the few products who’s definition updates did not require megabytes of data transfer. I have had a good experience with it and the latest version still seems to be pretty easy on system resources.
I also run Spywareblaster as it is another low resource solution.
Does the age of my computers show? :-S
I’m about to switch to MSE for my own computer - I’ve installed it on a couple of others and I’m happy with it. I have used Avast and AVG in the past, but they seem to be bloating a bit now.
Yep. Norton/Symantec is indelibly stained by its past misdemeanours, IMO.
Emsisoft Anti-Malware 5.1 previously known as A-Squared Anti-Malware
Another vote for Avast.
MSE. Cheap, good protection, and doesn’t slow your computer. It’s as if they had some “in” with the OS manufacturer to make sure there were a minimum of conflicts.
MSE still keeps scoring rather low (PDF) on av-test.org. But it’s also reviewing the paid versions of other software, and might be treating the bloat as necessary.
Still, you can get Avira paid version free if you sign up for a free trial of some other software and then cancel. I’d assume it wasn’t legit, but it’s on Avira’s own website. (Warning, this will start a download of the free version. They’re sneaky: this offer is only available after you try to get the free version.)
Wow, with all the free choices available, I’d stay away from any company that thinks that kind of sneaky crap is acceptable.
Isn’t that page saying you have to jump through some link/shopping hoops to get a free copy of the premium version?