What is the best anti virus software to get?

What is the best anti virus software to get?
I am getting a new Dell laptop. I am spending about $1,400 on it and want to make sure it last and remains fast. I want to get a good anti virus software for it but don't want it to slow my computer down, but I do want it to fully protect my laptop from viruses and hackers. I am willing to pay money for it so whatever the best anti virus there is is what I want. I will have windows 7 professional on it as well.

 

I would go for AVG anti virus which is free to download but I wouldn't recommend in getting norton anti virus as this will slow down your computer and also crashes from time to time. That's my personal opinion.

 

You could pay for a good antivirus software and still get infected. Its all about the user and what people do on it. Personally I got Avast and Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware. Just check out the link Halo posted and find out what you like.

 

I'd suggest staying away from AVG myself. Mainly, because AVG 9 Free is fine, and is 53 MB in size, but the upgrade they have is AVG 10, and it is 136 MB in size, so that is just too HUGE in my book. I am currently using AVG 9 Free, but am looking for a replacement, myself. AVG was great, but the new upgrade is not so good, and causing lots of issues with different OS. Take into consideration the size of the file, when you are looking.

 

AVG is a no go. I had a laptop in my shop for repair the other day with 700 viruses. She had AVG installed.

Also, I personally use Norton Internet Security, and have for 6 years. And yes I agree prior to 09 it slowed down ANY computer MASSIVELY. In 09 however they fixed this greatly, now if you have a newer computer you'll barely notice it. Why have I stuck with Nortons for so long you ask? In the entire time, I have never had a virus that got past it. Never had a problem with Nortons crashing or interfering (except with the speed issue prior to 09), and once you've got it installed and set up, you don't have to do a thing, it does everything else by itself.

 

As previously said, it's all about preference and personal surfing behavior.

I used to like AVG v 7.5 free and under but AVG became very bloated after that mentioned version. Finally I had enough of them putting large amounts in MB of backups that showed up in CCleaner to be cleaned, so I switched to Free Avast. Am happy with it!!

Then Free SpywareBlaster, should be on every machine as it prevents all sorts of malware to get inside your machine in the first place.
Free MalwareBytes and SuperAntispyware on demand scans. These 3 need to be updated manually if you installed their FREE versions and are not really antivirus programs but malware etc.

Do you have WOT? I have that installed in all my browsers.

 

Yes, Oma, I agree. I am also dling AVAST to replace AVG 9. The AVG 9 worked very well, I was quite happy with it, but not the 10. Just too huge, and too many ISSUES with it. I don't think it gets along with XP at all.

 

If you want to pay i recommend Kaspersky.

If you don't i recommend Avira (good app' but it does have an annoying pop-up everytime it updates)


I concur with the rec' of staying away from AVG, i've never liked any of ther releases.



On top of an AV i use Comodo Firewall and MalwareBytes as a stand alone scanner.

 

Yeah, AVG started to put additional features in their UI which one usually did not want because they weren't free. That all started after 7.5. Became too bloated to my liking.

Now with Avast, I don't remember exactly how I did set it up, believe it was custom and did forgo IM and P2P shields since I don't use them anyway. I believe to have read somewhere that now there is no choice when installing it but one can click on the Avast in the Add/Remove Programs and change it there? As I said, don't remember. (bad memory) Perhaps someone with a better memory could advise you on that. :-o

Avast creates some logs that can get very large over time. According to their forum, one can do this to cut down on their size:

1. Open the Avast Settings, Maintenance section and in the auto cleanup lower the duration of scan logs. I have mine at 7 days and temporary log at 7 and 1 day respectively. In the "LOGS" lower the maximum size, I have mine set to 128 KB. These settings are set then. No further action is required.

2. Navigate to: Documents and Settings\All users\Application Data\Alwil Software\Avast5\log

Remove most of the info in LOGS mentioned below being:

aswAR1 (log) and
setup (log)

Remove part of both as the above-mentioned 2 logs can get humongous in size (MB). Since there are no custom or permanent settings for these 2 logs, I do this clean up once a month or so.

May sound complicated but it's not. You'll like Avast TeeCee.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

The free MSE does better than some paid for programs:

http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/top-stories/427301/microsoft-security-essentials-praised-by-expert

 

Sorry Samtal, I'd have to see that to believe it.

My Nortons regularly picks up attacks towards my computer while I'm surfing the web and warns me off suspect websites. Security Essentials comes with Win 7 and until today I haven't seen it do a thing. Today it picked up a program (that's not a virus) but was picked up by Nortons Heuristics, I therefore disabled Nortons and then MSE picked it up once I'd disabled Nortons. So I had to turn it off too ...

 

I have to agree with the general consensus about the new AVG being something to avoid. It was a fairly good AV program back with v8.5, and to a lesser extent with v9.0, but the new v2011 is crap-ola IMHO. I have seen it cause all kinds of strange problems including slowing the PC to a crawl. Anyway- to the main question: if you want freeware, I personally use Avira AntiVir Free. I also use Spyware Blaster (freeware). If you regularly use a USB flash drive on several different PCs including your home PC, I strongly recommend AutoRun Eater to protect the PC from infections being transmitted from a 'dirty' flash drive. Some other good freeware protection tools are: WinPatrol, Comodo Internet Security, SecureIT. Personally, I also run the paid version of MalwareBytes. If you don't mind spending a few bucks every year for quality protection, I would take a look at the paid solutions from Avira, and the paid solutions from Comodo (check out the list in the left column).

Good luck! I hope this helps!
:-D

 

MSE doesn't ship with Windows 7. It's a separate download. Windows Defender, which is not an antivirus application, does however.

 

Really? Strange ... I dunno how I got it on my computer then ...

My mistake, I simply assumed it did because it's on my computer ...

 

Maybe it's been installed as a recommended update or whatever, if you have Windows Update set to Microsoft Update (confusing, isn't it?).

 

Hi Oma, :wave thanks again, I'll let ya know when I get it installed. Good info on the keeping the logs small, I think that should be done too. Yeah, I can handle that, should just add it to my monthly to-do list!:-D

 

Yea ... I guess it's possible ...

 

For myself, I'm partial to Avira AntiVir backed up with MalwareBytes, SuperAntiSpyware and SpywareBlaster, all behind a Comodo firewall.
And all are free.

 

Anytime TeeCee. Actually it was me who asked those questions about the logs etc. in Avast!'s forum. Monthly to-do list or whenever it strikes your fancy. Unfortunately I was born way too organized, but it keeps me a bit sane when many others things happen. :-D

 

I used AVG Free for years before switching my broadband supplier and now I use their anti virus program PCGuard.

Which I find is really useful tool as it's a anti virus and firewall all in one.

 

With Black Friday coming up, you shouldn't have to pay that much. There are some great deals on laptops and PCs. Just enter 'Black Friday 2010' in your favorite search engine.
As for the best AV? Check out this site: http://www.av-comparatives.org
And here is a great article that compares Avira, AVG and Avast: http://dottech.org/freeware-reviews/14151

I believe the top three are Bit Defender, Kaspersky and ESET NOD32. If I paid over $1000 for a computer I would definitely not rely on a freeware AV. Research here http://www.av-comparatives.org and buy the best.

KevinGeek, I hope you aren't using two anti-virus apps together. That's a big no-no.

 

I think that article linked by Texan with the AVG-Avast-Avira comparison says all we need to know about free AV apps. If you're looking for security (and what else?), Avira is the way to go.... but I've been running Avira on my personal PC since v5 about 4 or 5 years ago, and have never changed. I've used AVG on other PCs (mainly because of the ease-of-use for noobs and the lack of a 'nag screen') and stayed away from Avast mainly because of the voice: "the database has been updated" screaming at 4am is not a welcome intrusion. But now it appears that Avira has dropped the 'nag screen' (I haven't seen it in over 2 weeks when installing Avira for the first time on a clean PC), and I know how to prevent the 'nag screen' should it still be active, I now install the free Avira on all my client's computers.

( :-o uh-oh . . . I've had some beers and now I'm rambling all 'self-righteous-like' roflmao )

:drink

 

That article's about 8 months old, almost a generation in A/V product terms.

The Avast! vocal notification on database update requires just a couple of mouse clicks to disable

 

HI Oma, I got it all installed, and updated, and it is REALLY nice! I did opt out of the Google browser, as I really don't need any more rolleyes and also opt out of the P2P as I don't do P2P, so don't need it. I do like the interface, tho. I did a full deep scan and came up clean, nothing found. Of course, I scanned with AVG 2 X a week, and updated it daily, so that was good. Yes, this is VERY NICE!

 

That's quite an exaggeration. That's an accurate review for the 2010 version of those AVs and the 2011's just came out. I am sure the author, Ashraf will be reviewing the latest as soon as they iron out the initial bugs. Meanwhile, there are over 200 comments under the article. Many are very insightful and current. The last comment was 3 days ago.

 

Great that you like it TeeCee. Avast! free updates twice daily. If you don't like the voice announcing updates, you can turn it off easily within Avast.

I tried MSE from MSFT prior to installing Avast and scanning took over an hour. MSE also slowed down my machine a bit. It also did show its updates in System Restore which I didn't like at all. From what I read, MSE doesn't seem to like Windows XP and I concur.

 

Microsoft Security Essentials... free, simple and effective.

 

If buying- NOD32
Free- Avira
I would not use AVG

 

Based on my understanding of the terminology, preventing hackers from getting in is beyond the capabilities of an anti virus.
Stopping Hackers is the job of a firewall, either a hardware firewall or a software firewall.
Although a hardware firewall is Most effective, a good software firewall will suffice.
There is nothing wrong with using both.

FYI, Web Of Trust (WOT) does not work in Opera as it does in Firefox.
I'm hoping that soon it will be possible to integrate WOT with Opera as this is
a great advantage for safe browsing.

Also, SpywareBlaster does not offer protection for Opera,
however Spybot Search and Destroy does offer some protection through it's Immunize function.

I'm still using Windows XP and happy with the following:

• Avast! Free with P2P Shield and IM Shield Off
• PC Tools Firewall Plus free
• Malwarebytes AntiMalware paid real-time scanning
• SUPERAntiSpyware Free for scans
• Spywareblaster
• Spybot Search and Destroy with Immunize

I used to have a-squared Free for scanning Only but it is no longer actively supported
and should be replaced with Emsisoft Anti-Malware which used to be a-squared anti-malware.