Anti Virus Software top ones for a home PC desktop

RoyceSraphim

Okay, speed edit. Family needs antivirus software for the desktop PC. Which ones should they get? Norton Antivirus is out of the picture because it seems to be a pain in the ass most of the time.

SirUltimos

It sounds like they're screwed. Symantec doesn't like it when you try to install one copy on two computers.

Of ocurse, I don't have much experience witht hem so I could be wrong.

Aridhol

One original key = one upgrade.
You're screwed.

RoyceSraphim

Thank you for the advice, now what antivirus do I recommend to them?

Aridhol

I personally like Either F-Secure or Kaspersky AV, also NOD32 gets good reviews.

deadonthestreet

Windows Live OneCare

Boot2TheHead

AVG

Senjutsu

deadonthestreet wrote: »

Windows Live OneCare

Cute.

I'd vote NOD32. Extremely easy on system resources, but quite thorough.

Aridhol

one care is ass. AVG is the best free one I guess.

HarshLanguage

AVG free edition, great program, doesn't cause any trouble

GABBO GABBO GABBO

I've been using Avast! Homeâ„¢ but I think it may be the cause of my performance issues in wow.
It's a decent antivirus solution though, as it's completely free.

Xantus

avira Antivir

just admit it. germans do it better. and for free.

Dírhael

NOD32 is excellent, and the one I'd recommend. As an alternative, you could also check out Avira Antivirus which is another great one (although, there's no Vista version released as of yet so I suppose that could be a problem for some).

Ruckus

I've been using AVG Antivirus at home.

At work I use McAfee's Enterprise stuff. Both have worked excellently for years.

Airan

AOL Antivirus Shield.

It's a reskinned and slimmed down version of Kapersky AV, so it should be good (Kapersky itself gets good reviews on average).

imbalanced

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Avast. It's got a decent interface, does the antivirus stuff pretty well, is FREE, and doesn't use up a lot of resources.

http://avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html


EDIT: Oh yeah, what Manifest said.

GABBO GABBO GABBO

imbalanced wrote: »

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Avast. It's got a decent interface, does the antivirus stuff pretty well, is FREE, and doesn't use up a lot of resources.

http://avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html


EDIT: Oh yeah, what Manifest said.

I'm gonna disagree with the "doesn't use up a lot of resources." bit.
I sort of suspect that it does. I'm gonna uninstall it and try NOD32 tonight. I'll post what I see here.

Senjutsu

Might as well link to the latest antivirus test report. and the comprehensive results (it doesn't like hot-linking, apparently, drag to the address bar).

The take home message is that OneCare is complete shit. NOD32, my personal fave, comes it at 96.71% of all viruses, just under the top tear. Personally I think it's light weight more than makes up for it's fractionally less accurate identification of some obscure variants.

Zxerol

Once, I was dicking around and wrote a program that spawned a thread with an empty infinite loop. When I compiled it, NOD32's heuristics kicked in and immediately nuked the .exe, telling me it detected an unknown, possibly malicious program.

No reason why I mentioned that, I just thought it was kind of funny. NOD32 is pretty nice, though.

Dírhael

Senjutsu wrote: »

Might as well link to the latest antivirus test report. and the comprehensive results (it doesn't like hot-linking, apparently, drag to the address bar).

The take home message is that OneCare is complete shit. NOD32, my personal fave, comes it at 96.71% of all viruses, just under the top tear. Personally I think it's light weight more than makes up for it's fractionally less accurate identification of some obscure variants.

That's just one test though. NOD32 usually comes out at the top, and the same goes for Kaspersky & Avira as well. Who is *the* number one varies from test to test so you can't go wrong with either one.

deadonthestreet

Senjutsu wrote: »

deadonthestreet wrote: »

Windows Live OneCare

Cute.

It is pretty much ideal for them though. It is no-hassle, easy to use, and plenty effective.

Darlan

What is wrong with One Care? I'm on the trial right now, just hopped on for fear of Vista incompatibility with other virus programs.

Rohan

Avast! is brilliant, and not as annoying as AVG. Both are free, though Avast! does require you to register.

Senjutsu

Darlan wrote: »

What is wrong with One Care? I'm on the trial right now, just hopped on for fear of Vista incompatibility with other virus programs.

Virus protection that fails to adequately offer protection against viruses is generally not a good choice. Especially when it costs just as much as more effective solutions.

Incidently NOD and Kaspersky at least are also Vista compatible right now.

Lord Jezo

Airan wrote: »

AOL Antivirus Shield.

It's a reskinned and slimmed down version of Kapersky AV, so it should be good (Kapersky itself gets good reviews on average).

Seconded.

http://www.activevirusshield.com/antivirus/freeav/index.adp?

It might be "AOL" but only in name. It's a really good FREE virus scanner that doesn't take up much memory. It has all the power of the big name ones because it is a big name one, just made free and green, and an AOL logo stuck on it. For something like your parent's PC you can't go wrong with it. Doesn't come with loads of extra crap you need and it will run silently in the background.

RoyceSraphim

I just need an antivirus program that doesn't demand too much. I am one of the more computer literate people in my family and they just don't listen to me when they need to. Before I forget, should I uninstall NA?

bigwillch

RoyceSraphim wrote: »

I just need an antivirus program that doesn't demand too much. I am one of the more computer literate people in my family and they just don't listen to me when they need to. Before I forget, should I uninstall NA?

Definately get avg! http://free.grisoft.com/, it is both resource and user friendly, is free and excellent.
Yes, uninstall NA before installing avg.

Hugs and kisses

BiggNife

Dìrhael wrote: »

Senjutsu wrote: »

Might as well link to the latest antivirus test report. and the comprehensive results (it doesn't like hot-linking, apparently, drag to the address bar).

The take home message is that OneCare is complete shit. NOD32, my personal fave, comes it at 96.71% of all viruses, just under the top tear. Personally I think it's light weight more than makes up for it's fractionally less accurate identification of some obscure variants.

That's just one test though. NOD32 usually comes out at the top, and the same goes for Kaspersky & Avira as well. Who is *the* number one varies from test to test so you can't go wrong with either one.

I knew AntiVir was good, but I didn't know it how good it was. Nice to see a free virus scan getting such a high rating. I've used it for about a year now, and I've had no big problems. In my experience, its scanned viruses that AVG did not, so I'm very happy with it.

Also, I seem to remember NOD32 getting very crappy reviews in PC Magazine. Yet, they consistently give McAfee and Norton good reviews. Are "the big two" really as bad as I've heard? Considering their popularity, theyre almost never mentioned in these threads in a positive light.

Senjutsu

BiggNife wrote: »

Also, I seem to remember NOD32 getting very crappy reviews in PC Magazine. Yet, they consistently give McAfee and Norton good reviews. Are "the big two" really as bad as I've heard? Considering their popularity, theyre almost never mentioned in these threads in a positive light.

I saw at least one review of NOD32 in PC Mag (7.5/10 or some such Edit: 4 out of 5, apparently. I must have been thinking of some other mag). Their complaint was entirely that NOD's UI is more tech friendly with a bunch of customization options and less shiny and hand-holding. No attempt to test how effective in virus protection it actually was. That wasn't their concern.

In general things like Avira, Kaspersky, and NOD do really well in security researchers pitting them against live viruses, and Norton and McAfee win the consumer reviews for marketing and ease of use. A lot of people feel that Norton and McAfee have become seriously slow and bloated in recent years, and they probably only hold on because they have brand recognition and marketing their better competitors can't match.

imbalanced

Senjutsu wrote: »

BiggNife wrote: »

Also, I seem to remember NOD32 getting very crappy reviews in PC Magazine. Yet, they consistently give McAfee and Norton good reviews. Are "the big two" really as bad as I've heard? Considering their popularity, theyre almost never mentioned in these threads in a positive light.

I saw at least one review of NOD32 in PC Mag (7.5/10 or some such Edit: 4 out of 5, apparently. I must have been thinking of some other mag). Their complaint was entirely that NOD's UI is more tech friendly with a bunch of customization options and less shiny and hand-holding. No attempt to test how effective in virus protection it actually was. That wasn't their concern.

In general things like Avira, Kaspersky, and NOD do really well in security researchers pitting them against live viruses, and Norton and McAfee win the consumer reviews for marketing and ease of use. A lot of people feel that Norton and McAfee have become seriously slow and bloated in recent years, and they probably only hold on because they have brand recognition and marketing their better competitors can't match.

And for the love of god, don't get Norton Systemworks. It just says, "Hi computer, I'm going to fuck you up and you're going to blame spyware when it's really MEEEE!" You don't know how many times as a systems admin that someone's network or Internet-based programs weren't working, and all of that magically disappeared as soon as I uninstalled Norton. Nobody ever asks what antivirus software should they NOT buy, so I'm going to do it for them: Don't buy Norton for anything ever. They will fuck your computer up and you will hate everyone and everything OTHER than Norton because you won't know their software is the one fucking your shit up.

Paladin

get a firewall.

Viscountalpha

BiggNife wrote: »

Dìrhael wrote: »

Senjutsu wrote: »

Might as well link to the latest antivirus test report. and the comprehensive results (it doesn't like hot-linking, apparently, drag to the address bar).

The take home message is that OneCare is complete shit. NOD32, my personal fave, comes it at 96.71% of all viruses, just under the top tear. Personally I think it's light weight more than makes up for it's fractionally less accurate identification of some obscure variants.

That's just one test though. NOD32 usually comes out at the top, and the same goes for Kaspersky & Avira as well. Who is *the* number one varies from test to test so you can't go wrong with either one.

I knew AntiVir was good, but I didn't know it how good it was. Nice to see a free virus scan getting such a high rating. I've used it for about a year now, and I've had no big problems. In my experience, its scanned viruses that AVG did not, so I'm very happy with it.

Also, I seem to remember NOD32 getting very crappy reviews in PC Magazine. Yet, they consistently give McAfee and Norton good reviews. Are "the big two" really as bad as I've heard? Considering their popularity, theyre almost never mentioned in these threads in a positive light.

If they give norton and macafee good reviews then they are definitly not to be trusted. Norton sucks hard. I know for a fact that current virus writers go out of their way to disable norton before the infection starts rendering it useless. I've seen this in person.

Oh I gave norton the pinkslip because it would go out of its way to fuck with my settings. NOD32 plays along nicely with me. Its constantly updating which makes a huge impact if im going to get infected or not.

Boomer

3rd'd!

activevirusshield.com

AVS is Kaspersky rebranded by AOL. It's very low resource dependent and very good. Updates about 10 times a day in the background. Also has some antispyware functionality, but not near enough.

Good stuff, and it comes with a 1 year registration for free.

I use it on 27 pc's at the internet cafe I manage and it has never missed a beat or caused a problem.

RoyceSraphim

So I am going to install Avira, any downsides to this program?

edit: actually, how do i turn off NA?

edit x2: DAMMIT! AFTER I DOWNLOADED THE STUPID AVIRA INSTALLER PACKAGE, THE STUPID FREAKING EXTRACTOR KEEPS SAYING A FILE IS CORRUPTED AND BREAKS THE OPERATION!!!

Sorry for the rant, trying another mirror now. I am much calmer now.

Boomer

Royce, thats fate trying to tell you to go with AVS instead.

Search your feelings Royce,you know it to be true.

RoyceSraphim

Okay, things are working much better with their computer now and antivir seems to work okay, though every time it detects a virus, it pauses everything until I take action. The main problem affecting their computer now seems to be this file call sissmvc.dll which is in \windows\fonts\ . AntiVir cant seem to do anything with it and keeps popping up.

Recoil42

Xantus wrote: »

avira Antivir

just admit it. germans do it better. and for free.

Seconded.


Uses less resources than AVG or AVAST, much cleaner interface, and scores better than most PAY programs.


Read:

http://wiki.castlecops.com/AntiVirus_Comparison



http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129521-c,antivirus/article.html

Top dog, according to Cleminti's tests, was G Data Security's AntiVirusKit (AVK), which nailed 99.5 percent of the malicious code. Not far behind were AEC's TrustPort AV WS, at 99.4 percent, Avira's AntiVir PE Premium, at 98.9 percent, MicroWorld's eScan antivirus, at 97.9 percent, F-Secure's antivirus, at 97.9 percent, and Kaspersky Labs' AV, which stopped 97.9 percent of the malware.

Better known products such as Symantec's Norton antivirus and McAfee's VirusScan posted results of 96.8 percent and 91.6 percent, respectively.

Viscountalpha

As long as its not norton or macafee, you should be fine. Its really sad that AVG is superior to norton.

Triko

I wish I read this thread before blowing $70 on Mcafee Internet Security 2007! The damn thing slowed my computer to a crawl after only 20 minutes of turning the computer on, and I put it up with it for over 2 agonizing weeks because I paid $70 for it @#$#@$%#!!!!!!!

I'm going to try one of the free Antivirus recommended on this thread, and pretend I paid for them instead.

Envy

And to think I was going to go home and put Symantec Corporate on my computer. Looks like Antivir instead.

Mr_Grinch

Am I the only person that doesn't run an antivirus or software firewall? Router handles the firewall side of things and on the odd occasion my pc acts suspect I troubleshoot myself.

Blatently this is a terrible idea for your parents though!