Opinions on SP2 and antivirus programs

Hi, I am gettting ready to reformat my machine and i had a few questions. Would anyone recomend that i instal SP2 on my freshly formatted system? I installed it when it came out, then uninstalled it cause it slowed my computer down. Also i was wondering which Anti Virus program people here recomend. I've gotten fed up with Norton and all the little stuff it hides on my comp..
Any opinions would be greatly apreciated.

 

ok thanks for you help Halo

 

I recommend NOD32, uses very little resources updates very often ane uses fery good heurisitics, only cost $39 dollars.

 

Absolutely.

Still you should get it -afterwards you can go to blkvipers' XP SP2 Services suggestions http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm and I bet that'd help.

This seems to be popular: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download955.html
as does this: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download886.html -If you wanna pay then I would suggest trying this: http://www.kaspersky.com/personal

EDIT***a *limited* cabability version of Kaspersky can be found right here on MG's at: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1023.html /EDIT

Hope I was some help.
-Yours,
522.

 

"Avast" anti-virus by Alwil software is my favorite freeware program. It is easy to use and gets the job done. It scans for viruses as information is entering your computer not just when it's too late. You can also customize the resident scanner to the amount of security that's right for you. You can also use the software's "virus recovery database" (vrdb) in case you are infected with a virus to restore your computer to a point when the files were clean. One little warning....if you keep your resident scanner at the highest security level it WILL slow your computer down just a little, but for me it's worth it. You can also install spyware blaster (fantastic program) and it does not interfere with avast anti-virus. It is also free software.

(spyware blaster works in the background blocking spyware from ever entering in the first place, you don't have to actively run it every week, but you will want to update it every now and then)

 

sp2 is now running on all of our machines - I'm reasonably impressed with it's stability and I recommend all our clients get up to SP2 + all the current patches.

As for AV solutions - we use, recommend and sell NOD32 - as someone already mentioned, it is VERY resource friendly, and we were so impressed with it, that we became resellers so that all of our clients could benefit from it at client pricing.

regards

Greg Hewitt-Long