Anti-Virus Program recommendations
 

I just got a Vista machine and the McAfree trial period if over in a few days. They'll sell it to me for $69.99. Anyone have any suggestions from some of the resident experts here? No just upfront cost, but effectiveness, timeliness of them updating protection, etc.

Thanks very much.

I have Comcast and you can get McAfee for free from them..
T

Don't upgrade.. Just go out to a store and buy a 3 user version of your preferred Anti-virus software for about the same price. We've been using Trend Micro after Norton just got to bloated.

Avg

Hey dreizig

thanks I looked at roadrunner and they have the same deal. Just saved some money!

Another vote for AVG.

Its free for a private user and no where near the memory hog that most of the store bought versions are.

AVG is what I use. It's free, it works, and it doesn't kill the performance of the computer.

I took some advice from a previous thread on this topic and loaded up Avast....also free. I've now got adware up the yin-yang that isn't removeable. Popups from "Outerinfo" are driving me nuts. Pop-up software does nothing to stop it. Sometimes "free" isn't such a good deal.

Choc,

Try AVG. No popups and no extra crap loaded on your computer.

If you are going to keep windows, then consider this one more vote for AVG.

Personally I'd switch the computer to Linux or would've bought a Mac.

AVG here.

Try out NOD32, it's always worked well for me. I've also used it at an employer, and they loved it.

You could also try out the AV products from Trend Micro. We use their software at my current employer, and it seems like so far so good.

Both of the above tend to rate well on the AV tests.

Avast. AVG is very good also. Avast is like it's not even here other than nothing bad ever happens.

AVG here, but non of them are that good. I just found a bunch of viruses that had file names that were the same as windows programs. The files were supposed to be in system 32, but there were more than one file with the same name just not in system 32.

Kaspersky. One of the very, very best.

AVG is pretty good.

I've heard that Norton has a lot of vulnerabilities (virus makers deliberately try to circumvent it), although a lot of businesses tend to use it because it's an established standard and Norton has been around as a company forever.

Norton is horrible, plus you need a crow bar to get it offyour machine, same w/ McAffee. Avast rocks.

I have norton now and it's the biggest resource hog - have trend micro on another machine and it works well.

I think that's my problem with Trend. My God, this thing is slow and it's only a year old. Tell me more, please. And, how do I clean up the TWO previous anti virus in the machine? I mean thoroughly clean!

Avg!!!

Avast +2, never a virus, free, works for 32 and 64 bit windows OS/'s

AVG here. I was SO sick of Mcaffee and Norton. Fat bloated pigs. Always trying to up sell you some new upgrade that you don't want.

I am running Trend Micro here at rutgers, but it did not catch the spybots that were on my computer. I had one steal my VISA card data, and put fraudulent charges on it: ~$700 worth of ISP bills to comcast, verizon, etc...It is apparent that those bills were used to pay for illegal internet activity, and I would love to personally get back to the lowlifes who do that kind of stuff. It is a lot more dangerous than a simple virus.

So, I have downloaded Spyboat search&destroy, which did a good job at finding the bots. And it is free too.

Aurel

Great suggestions thanks everyone.

ttt.

I'm using Avira AntiVir. It's free if your a non-commercial user, otherwise you have to pay for it. Always works well for me, whether i use XP or now Vista, and was rated pretty high when i was searching for decent anti virus software.

I used to have mcaffee, all they are good at is charging on my credit card.
I installed trend micro PC-cillin (for free) and it found 12 viruses that mcaffee either didn't find or found and couldn't get rid of.
Oh, and good luck trying to get Mcaffee out of your puter, half the program is still loaded on my computer and I can't get rid of it no matter what I try. It's disabled but it's still there. They suck.

Edit, I also run ad-aware at least once a week and it always finds spy-ware.
Freaking scum lowlifes out there.

+1.......AVG!! Free version
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/us/frt/0

all of the below on the same comuter, use daily/weekly:
adaware
spybot s&d
avast
avira

and an occasional "free online virus check" housecall from various places
also use ccleaner to reset your index.dat files back to zero every year or so

I used Avast, but not anymore. While it ran in the backround w/o sucking up too many resources and didn't clog my computer with pop-ups (outer info or otherwise) it didn't prevent my computer from getting viruses. I had it on my kids' computer which I would reformat every week because it would get so virus clogged from MY Space and game site downloads. Avast wouldn't even scratch the surface at removing those viruses, so in my experience, it's worthless. I recently downloaded the Google-pack which I believe uses Norton and Spyware Doctor among other things. I also use Ad-aware and Hijack this. So far,so good. It's the longest that computer has gone w/o an infection. It's been about 3 weeks which is amazing considering that I was getting viruses pretty much the day after reformatting and installing Avast, among others. I might give AVG a try if this recipe fails me.

I'm useing CA ( California Associates ). Seems to work fine and doesn't slow down the PC. Not free however.

This Link will erase any and all McAfee products on your machine. The company sent it to me to erase and reinstall when their product screwed up their software crashes if I try to use Ad-aware or Spybot!).

AVG looks good for virus protection but what do you use for a firewall?

I use AVG but I googled Jessica Alba topless and got hit with a virus on about site number 12. The PC (XP Pro) was so messed up I ended up doing a rebuild. A friend uses AVG and has no problems, I dunno, maybe he's just not a Jessica Alba fan.

NOD32 or AVG

Norton works well, but uses WAY too much resources..

Is it possible to use AVG without removing Norton?

AVG....I have it on my home desktop and 1 laptop. The other laptop is a company machine with Norton, I like the AVG better. Our IT guy has AVG at home.

Another 2 votes for AVG. The scans don't bring the computer to a near stop and it's self updating which is great for my wifes machine.

I just finished "restoring" my year old HP desktop. Much faster to open programs and the new FIOS is awesome.

I have 2 problems: I lost all my apple music and I can't find a valid key to reload office (it was given to me over the phone by MS when I moved it into this one) I wonder if that is in the archives somewhere as I don't seem to have it written down anywhere.

And, I now have Avast. We'll see. I got rid off McAfee and Trend even going into the registry. That's huge for me.

Milt,

Pls get someone like Dave from the list who can hold your hand on this. Uninstall the programs but it never removes everything, and this is where someone needs a pro telling you what to remove and what to leave alone.

Then reboot the machine and give it a try. Now, that said, now old is the machine and how old is the last loading of Windows? If its been a year then if you really want to get it right best is to save all your data on a CD or memory stick and format the hard drive and re-install the operating system and start fresh.

Milt,

Pm or email me and I can send you a key for Office.