Best anti-virus?

I used Norton once, absolutely hated it.

AVG is much better.
 
I usually throw Avast on my Windows desktops. I hear good things about NOD32, but my safe Internet habits don't warrant the need for retail software.

Of course, you could just use Linux...
 
I have Norton on my work laptop...I hate it. Slows my computer down more than a virus.

AVG all the way.
 
Used AVG for a year or two, it kinda sucks compared to Avira TBH. It's been good.

both are free


I wouldn't touch Avast!

AVG simply has a lot of false positives
 
I got a bargain on Kaspersky and it's one of the top performers so I'm pretty happy with it. NOD32's good too, but Vundo slipped right past it on my gf's comp.
 
I use Avira Free. It isn't a very popular one like AVG, Avast etc but it seems to have a much higher detection rate(AND very few false alerts unlike AVG) which is almost up to paid AV's like NOD32, Kaspersky.

The only annoyance is a advertisement for the paid version after a update, but you can easily disable it.
 
Dinnesch said:
I use Avira Free. It isn't a very popular one like AVG, Avast etc but it seems to have a much higher detection rate(AND very few false alerts unlike AVG) which is almost up to paid AV's like NOD32, Kaspersky.

The only annoyance is a advertisement for the paid version after a update, but you can easily disable it.
Click to expand...
Surprising how few people know about it, considering it's rated higher than AVG and NOD32!
 
Kaspersky's what we recommend to all our clients. My only criticism is that it's a little too zealous and on occasion flags harmless files/activity. It's a bit of a system hog too. KA has a very cool admin kit for managing clients if you're looking for something for business use.

Avira's a great free solution and fine for a home PC.
 
Hectic Glenn said:
Surprising how few people know about it, considering it's rated higher than AVG and NOD32!
Click to expand...

Oh, NOD32 and Kaspersky were better 1 year ago, when I was searching the best AV for me.

Indeed, according to more recent tests Avira is better/equal.
 
Avira is an awesome free AV software. Equal or better than a lot of AVs that you have to pay for. Deffinetly better than Avast/AVG. Dump that shit.
Although I still have NOD32 on my main machine.
If you only rate the on-demand scanner and ignore false positives then Avira does VERY well. But it has fairly high false positives.
Most of NOD32's offense is from seeing how the apps are trying to run on your PC and they detect a virus by behavior a lot more rather than just checking it against a list. Meaning it does better live when the virus attempts something.
NOD32 still is rated the better AV. Avira gets docked for their high false positives.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests/archive PDF available
Rated by AV Comparatives in their latest retrospective test (nov 2008):
Advanced + = NOD32
Advanced = Avira + Kasp
Standard = BitDefender, AVG, Avast

False positives are bad because you may start to second guess your AV software. If you get a lot of them then you might dismiss a valid alert on real virus and infected files.
Or you may be deleting good files that the AV is saying is bad with the prompt. And it may be a file that is important for an app to run/uninstall that it can't without. Because it is often the files needing to access the registry that get detected as a virus (both valid and false positives).
 
Asus said:
Avira is an awesome free AV software. Equal or better than a lot of AVs that you have to pay for. Deffinetly better than Avast/AVG. Dump that shit.
Although I still have NOD32 on my main machine.
If you only rate the on-demand scanner and ignore false positives then Avira does VERY well. But it has fairly high false positives.
Most of NOD32's offense is from seeing how the apps are trying to run on your PC and they detect a virus by behavior a lot more rather than just checking it against a list. Meaning it does better live when the virus attempts something.
NOD32 still is rated the better AV. Avira gets docked for their high false positives.


False positives are bad because you may start to second guess your AV software. If you get a lot of them then you might dismiss a valid alert on real virus and infected files.
Or you may be deleting good files that the AV is saying is bad with the prompt. And it may be a file that is important for an app to run/uninstall that it can't without. Because it is often the files needing to access the registry that get detected as a virus (both valid and false positives).
Click to expand...

Try disabling the AHeAD heurestics, which you will be asked if you want to use them.
It's a mechanic to detect viruses which haven't been found yet. It seems to be working very poorly and inaccurate, it even detected my very first C++ program :(
But disabling it greatly reduced my problems, and the only virus it detected for me last year was a REAL virus.
 
I use Kaspersky and i'm very happy with it. The only issue i have is that it hates PCSX 2 and always tries to kill it even though i tell it is safe. Then again DEP also likes to kill PCSX 2 aswell and won't let me disable it.
 
Get multiple virus softwares and you'll be set.
 
Always use/recommend AVG free.

Been using it for years.
 
Avira 9 just came out a day or two ago. Or at least it notified me then.

It claims some improvements to performance and now includes some spy/malware scanning built in, though it doesn't feel any different besides the graphic. Not sure I believe in upstart malware software. No confidence. Anyway, I've got my own scanners for that, so no big deal.

the old version is still supported for about a year, so I don't see any reason to upgrade right away. Let it mature to be sure there are no serious bugs.
 
I'm using AVG free and I agree with G-Dub, absolutely no problems since I've had it, which is a lot better then I can say for other anti-virus programs.

Danimal is also spot on, it doesn't hurt to have a couple of anti-viral software packages.
 
I use Avira myself. Best detection rate out there. Doesn't use much memory. Has a good firewall too. Kaspersky isn't bad either. You can't go wrong with either one.
 
Norton has the best AV around!....
...
BAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
 
I switched from AVG to Avira last week and it seems to have served well.
 
Danimal said:
Get multiple virus softwares and you'll be set.
Click to expand...
I know you're being ironical, but I was asked by a girl last year to speed up her laptop as it was running slow. It took about 25 minutes to boot into a state where her 'My Computer' opened. Immediately I noticed she was running 3 AV programs alongside each other, and they were all eating up her CPU cycles on boot. Once wiped boot to open programs was 30 seconds.

EDIT: For actual input, I use Avira. I can't get rid of the popup though--don't have a 'local security policy' in my administrator folder. Doesn't bug me too much either way.
 
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