I know the standard advice is to run several different ones at once, but here’s the deal.
My sister, who uses her pc as her livelihood, is currently without virus protection.
I have always either:
a) Relied on my educational institution for an anti-virus program, or
b) Used a mac (currently)
So I’ve never needed to worry about it. My sis has asked me to point her towards a good anti-virus program. I know there are free ones out there, and I know they’re just as good (or better, by some standards) as the expensive ones that bloat your computer and require a yearly subscription.
What should I tell her? Her computer is not terribly powerful, so she can only run ONE. Which one should she use?
I’ve had no problems with AVG. It seems to have a good detection rate, although perhaps a little too powerful in noticing false positives. It uses very little memory.
I used both Avira and Avast! and had very good experiences with either. No virus infestation, frequent updates. Good stuff overall. Currently I use Avira, because it use somewhat less system resources and seem to go smoother during updates (I set it to automatically download updates in background).
I checked those links, and it looks like Avira is name of company, and actual name of antivirus is AntiVir (or, as it’s listed on my PC: Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic). So look for AntiVir, not for Avira.
I’ve used nothing but AVG as an anti-virus for several years now, and been pretty happy. No viruses, as far as I can tell; and it’s light on resources, updates automatically, and runs unobtrusively. No complaints at all.
Just one thing, though: download it from www.download.com rather than the official AVG site; it’s much easier to find the free version on Download.
Or just use this link (from above). Goes straight to the download page on the AVG site, where you can either download from download.com or from Grisoft (the manufacturer).
I get McAfee free from the university. Leaving aside the question of hogging resources and focusing solely virus and malware detection, which is better, McAfee or the free version) of AVG? If AVG, will Ad Aware catch the cookies that McAfee does and that do not get picked up by AVG?
I’ve used Avast! for years and love it. I’ve had no virus problems since I starting using it. Norton didn’t work half as well even at infinity times the price of Avast!.
You absolutely and very truly do not ever under any circumstances want to have two antivirus apps installed on the same computer as they will try to beat each other to death in a digital cagematch.
If the PC was sold with a Symantec product on it, there is an eradication utility that you must run before installing anything else.
For the “belt and suspenders” crowd, there are also free web-based antivirus scans that are good. I use Trend Micro’s Housecall on occasion. If you’re wondering “what’s the catch? Why is this free?” Trend Micro makes its money on enterprise-level solutions for things like Exchange server farms, and they can afford a little generosity.
