Which is the best antivirus (2010)?

**w31n3r** · February 8th, 2010, 04:02 AM

ok, this is one subject that may have been covered umpteen times before, but never loses relevance given the fluid nature of malware detection.

just wanted to know what anti virus zeropaid users use and how you feel about it. give a review and why you picked it. this could help others move to a better program and possibly save someone a lot of heartburn.

i've stuck to the popular free AV programs of today since the poll allows only 5 options, if yours isn't up there, hit "other" and specify it in your post.

feel free to fanboi and debate. i'll start...

i've recently switched to microsoft security essentials, and can't believe how good it is! it's got the best memory footprint IMO and is so light you don't even know it's there till it detects a virus. detection rate is great and i really feel confident even opening suspicious files now. i do feel it takes a tad long to run a scan, and removing a virus seems to take ages, but besides that it gets the work done pretty good. and i haven't come across "false positives" so far.

i highly recommend this to everyone. microsoft seems to be on a roll here with this after win7.

**Signa** · February 8th, 2010, 04:44 AM

I totally fanboy Avast. I'm not terribly happy with it's manual scan interface, but it catches all the attacks on my PC automatically. The memory footprint and performance hit is so negligible, I can't tell the difference from when it's running and not. My work uses McAffee, and it. is. AWFUL! I can hardly use my PC sometimes there. My brother uses AVG, so that one also comes recommended in my peer group. However, he convinced his friend to use AVG while I said Avast, and AVG failed him. So instead of switching to Avast like I told him in the first place, he went with Norton. Whoop-de-doo.

**w31n3r** · February 8th, 2010, 06:27 AM

avast used(?) to be a hog if i remember correctly, are you saying they fixed that with ver. 5?

another possibility that came to my mind, no AV AT ALL!! i know it sounds crazy, but a lot of seemingly technically sound people on life hacker seem to swear by it! router takes care of firewall, no script for the browser, malwarebytes anti malware for the occasional scan, and common sense for the rest. zero memory footprint. personally i think it's crazy, but very viable indeed...

**El Comandante** · February 8th, 2010, 07:18 AM

Originally Posted by w31n3r

i've recently switched to microsoft security essentials, and can't believe how good it is! it's got the best memory footprint IMO and is so light you don't even know it's there till it detects a virus. detection rate is great and i really feel confident even opening suspicious files now. i do feel it takes a tad long to run a scan, and removing a virus seems to take ages, but besides that it gets the work done pretty good. and i haven't come across "false positives" so far.

i highly recommend this to everyone. microsoft seems to be on a roll here with this after win7.

I agree. I switched over after using NOD32 for many years. MS SE is light, effective, well integrated with W7 and best of all ....it's free. An unbeatable combination.

**drtoker** · February 8th, 2010, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by w31n3r

another possibility that came to my mind, no AV AT ALL!! i know it sounds crazy, but a lot of seemingly technically sound people on life hacker seem to swear by it! router takes care of firewall, no script for the browser, malwarebytes anti malware for the occasional scan, and common sense for the rest. zero memory footprint. personally i think it's crazy, but very viable indeed...

This
Hasn't failed me yet, other then some minor spyware picked up by malwarbytes.

**RACKnRAIL** · February 8th, 2010, 08:04 AM

I've been using ESET Security on my main computer for years now. It has not failed me, so far. I use Avast on my TV computer, which I use very little, except for streaming media. I use Linux on my garage computer, which obviously speaks for itself. It's never had a virus...go figure.

The "best" is alway going to be changing. No one AV is 100% effective 100% of the time, as in new viruses and malware change faster then the definitions come in sometimes.

I think going without any is fine if you do regular back up images.

I must try out this new M$ security. Is it a firewall too, or just AV/Malware security?

**mountain_rage** · February 8th, 2010, 09:43 AM

Personally I've been testing out Avira for a couple months now, looked into it after installing windows 7, wanted something less memory intensive than Avast and AVG. It has been very well received by numerous people, and seems to perform well according to online test sites such as vbulletin. To be honest its not often that I require a virus scanner, but every so often there is a virus that pops up on websites such as this one where my practices would not have stopped it. Now I'm wondering if maybe I should look into Microsofts offering.

**rainbowdemon** · February 8th, 2010, 09:48 AM

I've been using AVG Free for years. Never had a problem!!

**drtoker** · February 8th, 2010, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by RACKnRAIL

I must try out this new M$ security. Is it a firewall too, or just AV/Malware security?

AFAIK its just AV/Malware since windows has a firewall, and this is by M$. I did install it on a clients machine, and ran a scan. Didn't see anything about a firewall, but wasn't looking because I assumed it was not there.

**mountain_rage** · February 8th, 2010, 10:38 AM

Doesn't appear to have a firewall, why the hell would they build in a redundant firewall? Quite happy to see Microsofts offering, looks like its a no bull virus scanner.

**YWD67** · February 8th, 2010, 11:25 AM

I use AVG but have had a few get by and were hard to root out. I use the free version of SuperAntiSpyware to get the real nasties out.
Works great.

Still have the old SpyBlaster running in the background and have SpyBot in stand by if I needed.

**RACKnRAIL** · February 8th, 2010, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by drtoker

AFAIK its just AV/Malware since windows has a firewall, and this is by M$. I did install it on a clients machine, and ran a scan. Didn't see anything about a firewall, but wasn't looking because I assumed it was not there.

I don't know about W7, but isn't the windows firewall for incoming traffic only? Not too effective, in other words.

**Signa** · February 8th, 2010, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by w31n3r

avast used(?) to be a hog if i remember correctly, are you saying they fixed that with ver. 5?

another possibility that came to my mind, no AV AT ALL!! i know it sounds crazy, but a lot of seemingly technically sound people on life hacker seem to swear by it! router takes care of firewall, no script for the browser, malwarebytes anti malware for the occasional scan, and common sense for the rest. zero memory footprint. personally i think it's crazy, but very viable indeed...

When I switched 4 years ago, it was a night-and-day difference between it and Norton. I was running a P4 2.8 HT back then. Since then, I've had a Pentium D 2.8 DC and now a i7, and I've never felt that their performance was taking a hit. In other words, I've always been running a super computer, so if Avast is a hog, my system might be able to still deal with it.

**YWD67** · February 8th, 2010, 01:42 PM

Mac and Norton were always memory hogs with any system I ran.

Had a virus slam through an updated Norton like a hammer through glass.
The virus turned off the Norton and SpyBot so they would not work.
The only thing that did work was The SuperAntiSpyware that had a seting that kept it from being deactivated.
It took almost two weeks of cleaning to get every thing out. Damn thing had a rootkit that was hard dig out.
Had to use KillBox to fianly git the last .dl out.

It is only going harder to kill the shit.

**HelenaP** · February 8th, 2010, 03:14 PM

HAD been using AVG since COSC 101 (almost five years) . Then they sold out to someone else and became harder and harder to find (I am VERY picky about where I DL AV from. I use PC World and try to get it from the site of original distribution, when available).

Seems Grisoft sold out and the new distributors (whoever the hell "They" are) had moved the free version to the bottom of the download page in itsy, bitsy, teenie, tiny letters ffs...

Since v8, it had become increasingly harder to find out who "They" were (saw a DL on PC World that was being distributed from the fricking Ukraine (nothing personal Ukrainian people)). PC World no longer had it at the top of thir AV DL list.

So one morning, about a month ago, I woke up to find my AVG telling me that I was "NOT SAFE" and "MISSING Critical Elements". It had stopped working. I downloaded (from my LT) another from PC World... (and using a little trick...renaming it)
... onto a thumb drive and tried to install. It failed (this is when I knew I was pretty f*cked). This had NEVER happened with AVG before (when Grisoft owned it).

I had already decided I was going to start looking for a different AV. This was a VERY stubborn virus that involved a rootkit (and THAT reeeeeeally sucked, considering I've only been infected once, five years ago, while I was running Norton). It took almost three days to sort it out.

So, I am using Avast atm. I have it set to run while I am sleep and it works fine. My computer is running great.

I've always thought Norton was a resource pig. I did like MacAfee...
(until they decided that if I wanted to keep using their link scanner, I had to agree to let them randomly and anonymously (SURE.) check out what I was checking out and report such and such , and I hit the

button (and yes, I know google does the same thing, etc.).

Regarding MS Essentials; mmmmmmmmhellno. I'm going to try Linux once summer starts.