# Virus/Malware sofware recommendations **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 25, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248 "2010-10-25T03:57:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/1 "2010-10-25T03:57:05Z")
Does anyone have a suggestion for a good virus/malware protection program? Ideally something that does both in one nice package? Free is nice, but I’ll certainly pay $10 or $20 a year, particularly if that will cover both my desktop and my laptop. thanks ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/2 "2010-10-25T04:55:34Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Does anyone have a suggestion for a good virus/malware protection program? Ideally something that does both in one nice package? > > Free is nice, but I’ll certainly pay $10 or $20 a year, particularly if that will cover both my desktop and my laptop. > thanks Kaspersky suite. Best protection out there. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/3 "2010-10-25T05:51:43Z")
For 2010, [Panda Internet Security](http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/) seems to have won on all fronts, according to [AV-Test.org](http://www.av-test.org/certifications?order=protection_desc&lang=en). But that may be cloud based. What surprises me most is that Norton is actually doing fairly well for once. It actually beast Kaspersky on detection, albeit not on usability. And, of course, Kaspersky is still pretty strong. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/4 "2010-10-30T04:55:48Z")
Thanks all ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/5 "2010-11-01T03:00:18Z")
You can’t go wrong with any of the free products listed here: [The best free painting and drawing software - Gizmo's Best](http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/6 "2010-11-01T11:16:45Z")
> [@Dragwyr](#): > > You can’t go wrong with any of the free products listed here: [http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm](http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm) Agreed. AVG and Avast! are products I’ve used and recommended for several years. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/7 "2010-11-01T12:27:35Z")
I like the free versions of Avast anti-virus and Malwarebytes’ anti-malware. Avast does automatic definition updates, and I usually see that an update has been done at least every other day or so. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/8 "2010-11-01T12:38:57Z")
Microsoft Security Essentials. Takes up less processor time than any of the others. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/9 "2010-11-01T21:35:40Z")
Mac OS X. This is what got me to switch and it’s been wine and roses ever since. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/10 "2010-11-01T22:46:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Microsoft Security Essentials. Takes up less processor time than any of the others. I just recently switched from AVG to MSE. I found MSE was catching things AVG missed. I would also recommend Spybot and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. You can have those two as well as MSE on your computer at the same time. If you don’t want MSE than I would go with AVG or Avast. With AVG or Avast, I found them to slow my computer down to a crawl if I enabled the link checker. And this makes sense, since it is actually checking each link before you can go to the Internet page. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-malware-sofware-recommendations/558248/11 "2010-11-02T00:58:23Z")
Link checkers in general are overkill for most people. If your computer can handle it, sure, why not. But if you can’t, your still 95% as safe with it off–especially if you use an adblocker or Flash blocker and leave Java off by default.