# What is a good alternative to Norton and McAfee anti-virus programs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857 "2008-12-27T17:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/1 "2008-12-27T17:12:31Z")
I used to use Norton on my computer until it hogged all my system resources and made my computer really slow. Then I switched to McAfee, and it seemed OK for a while, but now it’s clearly hogging all my system resources and making my computer really slow. Is there a good alternative to these programs? ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/2 "2008-12-27T17:18:34Z")
AVG anti virus. ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/3 "2008-12-27T17:19:46Z")
I’ll second that, Freeware, have used it with pleasure for over 3 years. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/4 "2008-12-27T17:25:11Z")
I use Avast, though from previous threads on the topic, it seems on a par with AVG. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/5 "2008-12-27T17:28:02Z")
I will third that. I have used AVG for years and it has done its job while taking up only a modest amount of resources. The other major free anti-virus is [avast!](http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html), which some people prefer. ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/6 "2008-12-27T17:37:20Z")
It isn’t free, but I have been using [ESET](http://www.eset.com/) with great success. It’s usually pretty highly rated by PC World and others. I was using the free version of AVG, but when I got a new laptop a few months ago – with Vista on it – AVG messed with my Word Docs, so I couldn’t use it anymore. I’ve been very pleased with ESET. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/7 "2008-12-27T17:37:29Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Is there a good alternative to these programs? Just to offer alternative thinking. I quit using anti-virus programs 10 years ago. No virus infections. All the commercial and freeware antivirus programs are performance degraders and in any case, they are worthless for zero-day infections. The practicality of this approach depends on the type of websites you visit, whether or not you share your computer with children, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/8 "2008-12-27T17:59:08Z")
Does you ISP offer a security setup? Mine does, and aside from taking about 1 minute to scan email, no problems. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/9 "2008-12-27T19:19:21Z")
> [@Ruminator](#): > > Just to offer alternative thinking. I quit using anti-virus programs 10 years ago. No virus infections. All the commercial and freeware antivirus programs are performance degraders and in any case, they are worthless for zero-day infections. > > The practicality of this approach depends on the type of websites you visit, whether or not you share your computer with children, etc. AV maybe, but you can pick up some nasty Malware anywhere. I suggest Kaspersky. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/10 "2008-12-27T20:29:48Z")
> [@Ruminator](#): > > Just to offer alternative thinking. I quit using anti-virus programs 10 years ago. No virus infections. All the commercial and freeware antivirus programs are performance degraders and in any case, they are worthless for zero-day infections. Yea, I had huge problems with Norton hogging resources, so just decided to forgo anti-virus ware five or six years ago. Never had a problem. Dunno if I’m just lucky or not, but it does sort of seem the cure is worse then the disease in some cases. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/11 "2008-12-27T20:58:42Z")
TrendMicro. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/12 "2008-12-27T21:19:15Z")
I got Vista and I have tons of memory and it came with Norton trial and it SLOWED Vista to a crawl. No matter what I did I couldn’t find how to fix Norton to be able to use it with Vista. Eventually I uninstalled Norton and then downloaded AVG which I found to be very good so far. The one thing is if you use AVG, I would disable the automatic link checker IF you find it slowing down things too much. ---
**Author:** ![MrBerious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MrBerious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrBerious)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/13 "2008-12-27T22:18:52Z")
avast! picked up a virus on my thumbnail drive that AVG missed. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/14 "2008-12-27T22:40:45Z")
I prefer Avast to AVG these days but both can get the job done. AVG seemed to want to get out of the free anti-virus software business at the same time that AVAST was vastly improving theirs and it shows in the latest releases. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-alternative-to-norton-and-mcafee-anti-virus-programs/478857/15 "2008-12-28T19:04:04Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I prefer Avast to AVG these days but both can get the job done. AVG seemed to want to get out of the free anti-virus software business at the same time that AVAST was vastly improving theirs and it shows in the latest releases. I agree. I used AVG on my wife’s computer and Trend Micro for some time on mine, but when it was time to renew, tried Avast. It is very good, and in fact I bought the Pro version as you can tweak more settings. Still keep the free one on my laptop. It is interesting to note above that some just don’t use anything. In many years, I have never had any of the programs detect a virus, but my anti-spyware picks up quite a few malware items. Anyhow, I set AVG to automatically update definitions and run once a day. Ditto with CounterSpy and I run Ad-Aware manually. Years ago I gave up on the awful bloated and annoying Norton and McAffee as they caused more problems than they solved. Back in the old days, Norton was a great program.