What anti-virus to get?

[Seaclam]

I have a new Windows 7 system and I'm wondering what is the best anti-virus out there that ISNT a resource hog. I had the Norton suite thing on my Vista 32 machine before and found it to be excellent. Better than the Kaspersky offering I had loved for years. As of late though, I have heard that Norton is pretty much a memory/resource hog and to stay away from it. Any thoughts?

 

[buzznut]

I have a new Windows 7 system and I'm wondering what is the best anti-virus out there that ISNT a resource hog. I had the Norton suite thing on my Vista 32 machine before and found it to be excellent. Better than the Kaspersky offering I had loved for years. As of late though, I have heard that Norton is pretty much a memory/resource hog and to stay away from it. Any thoughts?

Seems every year there is the "one to get", but for me I've always had good performance and great security with AVG free. I use it on all the machines in our house, that's about 5 PC's, plus my Mom's, and 3 sisters and one neice. Never had a problem and it does the job with little resource use. I highly recommend AVG. Plus I always use spybot, use a good spyware utility in addition to a solid A/V.

 

[nikorr]

And I recommend Avast! Free Antivirus 6.0.1289.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/

 

[nikorr]

Latest Norton is not like the older ones that think, that your PC was built to just power the norton AV.

But Kaspersky and GDATA with the Bitdefender are the 3 kings to pay for.

Read here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/antivirus-performance-benchmark,3045.html

 

[hunuok]

Either Avast or AVG.

Both are free and do a satisfactory job.

I did have a problem a while ago where I had a memory leak with AVG. I assume it has been rectified.

Norton was renowned for high resource usage and "taking control" of my system (I had problems with Internet banking).

Kaspersky is quite popular.

Try the free programs first.

 

[Alaskan_IT]

Microsoft Security Essentials.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

It's free and uses little resources. I dislike the free version of AVG because of the constant attempts to try and get you to upgrade to the paid version.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

BitDefender Suite and ZA Internet Security Suite (w/ Kapersky AV) for firewall, malware and AV protection. For AV it's hard to argue against F-prot ($30 for 5 PC's). Avast ois what I use where free is the only option.

 

[Alaskan_IT]

Free:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/collection/5928/2011_free_av.html
Paid:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/collection/6706/top_paid_antivirus_for_2011.html

Read the pros, cons, benchmarks, and overall reviews. Then, decide on an AV.

Edit: Just noticed these are outdated by about 10 months. May not reflect the newest versions.

 

[Parsian]

simple, I have gone through both McAfee, Norton, AVG Free, Avast but all of them have problems with either too much resource requirement, advertisement or etc...

I heard Microsoft is releasing a free security service. I got on it right away. I have been with Microsoft Security Essentials since day one and to this day, I have never had a better experience with an AV software. It is very optimized, very resource friendly, and gets the job done. Plus, it is Microsoft's own software trying to protect its own OS. That a lone is a good motivation for them to make things right and make you feel happy.

 

[Herr_Koos]

+1 for Microsoft Security Essentials. Free, lightweight, does the job, and never nags you.

 

[vitornob]

+2 for Microsoft Security Essentials

 

[cyberkuberiah]

+1 for AVG free

 

[cats_Paw]

I agree with buzznut, every year one is better than another . This in itself is as useless as trying to read the toilet paper, as by the time those reviews hit the streets, there are 20 new viruses out there.

Now, if you are paying for a software, you will get far better defence than freeware.
Norton is a very good software if you can live with doing many things manually yourself.
Its restrictive, so you need to work with it in order to get things running. becouse of this, its quite good.

Microsoft essentials are what they are called (essential to have) since they are free and dont interfere with others.

Now, in the freeware sector (the one i use) Avira antivirus, zone alarm firewall, and malwarebytes antimalware are my choices.

In my book, if i travel on unsecure webs, and when i run my defence system everythings is fine, then something is wrong. Since only zonealarm, avira and malwarebytes keep giving me warnings, i trust them over others.

I cannot recommend other software since i have not tried it personally, but i did hear that Panda lost a ton of its potential, Kaspersky started to constantly leak, and AVG or Avast report a 99% times "everything is fine" messege.

I cannot give any information on bitdefender, gdata or any others as i have not heard of them or had them.

 

[jsc]

Longtime AVG Free user, moving to MSE.

 

[Herr_Koos]

Longtime AVG Free user, moving to MSE.

Rather a drastic step for you, or not really? What swayed your loyalty?

 

[jockey]

Another MSE user. Thanks Herr_Koos, your advice convinced me to use it months ago.

 

[thegame8019]

AVG free is a complete and total resource hog. Watch it's 3 constant running processes in task-manager and the corresponding CPU usage. Not to mention the latest version is a complete and utter disappointment, they took 10 giant steps back with the scans and protection it supposed to give. The best one i have found lately is the new Avast free edition, it offers a gaming mode to make the footprint even smaller and a sandbox to test any new programs before install in a virtual machine. Well rounded secure and the footprint is so small you don't notice it.

 

[Herr_Koos]

Another MSE user. Thanks Herr_Koos, your advice convinced me to use it months ago.

My pleasure.

 

[nikorr]

I think, if people are choosing between the AVG or MSE, it is actually better to use MSE.


/IMHO/

 

[imostlydomurder]

Quite agree about AVG. Had all our office machines running it, low end Dell workstations, it repeatedly tried to kill them all, removed and installed MSE, hardly know its there. A far better offering.

Personally Norton on my home machine. Never know it is there, updates itself constantly and not a resource hog at all.

 

[thegame8019]

Quite agree about AVG. Had all our office machines running it, low end Dell workstations, it repeatedly tried to kill them all, removed and installed MSE, hardly know its there. A far better offering.

Personally Norton on my home machine. Never know it is there, updates itself constantly and not a resource hog at all.

Norton, and anything from Symantec for that matter are the biggest resource hogs you can put on a PC. Not to mention the fact that Norton has a very bad habit of treating other applications, including parts of your OS as viruses.