EPTI'm looking for the best most secure anti virus period. I had a very scary experience with a virus the other day and I've been looking for a good one, and I don't mind paying to keep my rig running smoothly. I just want to know what you all think is the best AV.
Best AntiVirus around
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Incursus
United States415 Posts
I'm looking for the best most secure anti virus period. I had a very scary experience with a virus the other day and I've been looking for a good one, and I don't mind paying to keep my rig running smoothly. I just want to know what you all think is the best AV. | ||
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skyR
Canada13817 Posts
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sur_reaL
Canada278 Posts
I tend to not go for norton or mcafee as they're just too bloated imo. | ||
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cerka
United States39 Posts
MBAM is a great anti-malware tool if you need that as well. | ||
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crazeman
664 Posts
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BobGayman
89 Posts
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Incursus
United States415 Posts
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Euronyme
Sweden3804 Posts
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LuckstYle
Germany181 Posts
lmao | ||
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smaugswe
Sweden121 Posts
But my quess would be like some kind of anti virus maybe AVG? And get some tools like Hijack this it would help alot  | ||
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EscPlan9
United States2777 Posts
AVG, Avira, Avast, Microsoft Security Essentials.... any of those should do you fine. | ||
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Imerej
Canada291 Posts
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judytuna
United States217 Posts
So instead I'm just careful about what I click on and I scan often. For browsing: - Firefox with adblock plus: http://adblockplus.org/en/ it's easy to set up - and, if you're super-paranoid or just want to be really safe, use http://noscript.net/ to make sure nothing gets run on your computer without your explicit permission. I used to use this but found that I was getting annoyed by having to manually give permission to everything, so I stopped. I would still recommend it though, lol. Scanning and removing viruses: - You don't even have to download and install a program for trendmicro's housecall thingy -- it installs something via your browser and scans your computer. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ - malwarebytes has been effective for me in finding and removing bad stuff: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php I work at a PC gaming cafe and used to care for the computers there, and I ran those frequently. They work! Anyway, just my opinion. You'll probably get a lot of people telling you that not having an anti-virus program running all the time is bad, but it's been working ok for me personally at home (mostly safe browsing i think). Good luck! | ||
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Filter
Canada620 Posts
Norton offers a free trial online as well, the free trial will harrass you a bit to purchase the full version but other than that it's great. | ||
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Almin
United States583 Posts
http://usa.kaspersky.com/products-services/home-computer-security/anti-virus I'm extremely satisfied with them. They don't block anything without asking you & block everything that is 100% certain to be bad. | ||
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writer22816
United States5775 Posts
Avira is just annoying sometimes with its false positives. So ultimately I ended up going with no antivirus. | ||
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Kamate
Romania580 Posts
But please, for a nooob's sake, let me know why and how Microsoft Security Essentials is good? I know I am getting old, but for me, years before, was a contradiction in terms.; Thank you | ||
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Fiercegore
United States294 Posts
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FeiLing
Germany428 Posts
Now you eliminate all that take too much resources. Now you eliminate all that cost money or have stupid ad popups. Now only MSE is left. And on top it's the only one that integrates into your OS directly, MS probably knows how Windows works better than the other guys :D | ||
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kiy0
Portugal593 Posts
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
I think you can't have MSE if you have a pirated Windows 7, so for me the only choice was Avast. I'm very surprised at the multitude of responses here, I think it's already been established MSE/Avast was the way to go, and there's even a few TL guides on the subject saying the same thing. | ||
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Neo7
United States922 Posts
On April 23 2011 09:34 Kamate wrote: Now ok, guys, I know here on TL , the best community ever, are a lots of guys who knows about computer stuff etc. But please, for a nooob's sake, let me know why and how Microsoft Security Essentials is good? I know I am getting old, but for me, years before, was a contradiction in terms.; Thank you The main selling points about MSE is that it's extreme low use of system resources and ease of use. It's designed to set and forget it and allow it to do it's job without the user having to do anything to upkeep it. While obviously not the best AV product in terms of catching and removing infections, it does do a good job at keeping you safe for it's minimal resource usage. | ||
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TMStarcraft
Australia686 Posts
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_od_feb2011.pdf | ||
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Omigawa
United States1556 Posts
Besides on the browser level, I use a mixture of Avast!, Malwarebytes, and Microsoft Security Essentials. I have Avast! set to scan every night at like 2AM and use the other two when I think I may have caught an aforementioned illegal stream virus or other related malware. | ||
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Sir.Kimmel
United States785 Posts
but honestly... I have a VM set up specifically for doing my online transactions... and when I'm done I simply revert back to a "safe" snapshot... same thing when I'm running a program that I'm unsure about or watching a certain stream... | ||
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writer22816
United States5775 Posts
On April 23 2011 09:50 Belial88 wrote: From what I understand, the 2 best antiviruses are also free, Avast and MSE. Norton takes up too much resource I think. Kaspersky, according to recent studies or whatever, has the highest detection rate (these quickly change though so that's outdated, but that's not to say they haven't kept up). I think you can't have MSE if you have a pirated Windows 7, so for me the only choice was Avast. I'm very surprised at the multitude of responses here, I think it's already been established MSE/Avast was the way to go, and there's even a few TL guides on the subject saying the same thing. Actually, its not hard to get a pirated Windows 7 that passes WGA. | ||
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ElusoryX
Singapore2047 Posts
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Samhax
1054 Posts
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Jaso
United States2147 Posts
And in my experience, I've never had to use any live-protection AV. Malwarebytes is by far the best on-demand scanner, and I've had no problems with it. | ||
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papyrus
Philippines716 Posts
On April 23 2011 09:50 Belial88 wrote: From what I understand, the 2 best antiviruses are also free, Avast and MSE. Norton takes up too much resource I think. Kaspersky, according to recent studies or whatever, has the highest detection rate (these quickly change though so that's outdated, but that's not to say they haven't kept up). I think you can't have MSE if you have a pirated Windows 7, so for me the only choice was Avast. I'm very surprised at the multitude of responses here, I think it's already been established MSE/Avast was the way to go, and there's even a few TL guides on the subject saying the same thing. I doubt it before, but I have pirated windows 7 and was able to install MSE. I guess im lucky or I installed a better pirated version. | ||
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Jaso
United States2147 Posts
On April 23 2011 12:36 papyrus wrote: I doubt it before, but I have pirated windows 7 and was able to install MSE. I guess im lucky or I installed a better pirated version. There's tons of ways to trick Windows into thinking you have a legit version... I'm on a cracked OS myself. | ||
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Sufficiency
Canada23833 Posts
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Sadistx
Zimbabwe5568 Posts
But if you absolutely have to use an AV, use MS security essentials. Free and definitely top5 by effectiveness. | ||
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_PI
United States60 Posts
I work in IT and honestly I just use MSE on my Windows machines. Unless there's some legal reason, or my client wants something with proper support, I recommend it as well. If they want proper support, I suggest NOD32. | ||
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5miley
United States64 Posts
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Saturnize
United States2473 Posts
+ Show Spoiler + But in all seriousness MSE is the best around | ||
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mizU
United States12125 Posts
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GTR
51507 Posts
just follow this and your computer will be safeguarded quite well | ||
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
I doubt it before, but I have pirated windows 7 and was able to install MSE. I guess im lucky or I installed a better pirated version. Maybe I'm wrong on it, I think there are certain 'issues' with MSE and pirated windows, but I'm not sure why or how. My w7 is cracked/activated, so I dunno. I'd like to get MSE because Avast may or may not have been causing issues with my PC (was having GPU driver issue, I think Avast could've been behind it, but I also have no clue. I don't have it atm and may want to switch). On some of my PC's I didn't have an AV and had no problem, I mean as long as you aren't downloading sketchy stuff and going to weird websites, you are 99.9% fine. Windows 7 Firewall is also really good. | ||
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Legatus Lanius
2135 Posts
On April 23 2011 13:07 Sadistx wrote: Best antivirus is to not download shit that contains any viruses or visit sites that try to execute malicious code as soon as you visit it (no-script/adblock) But if you absolutely have to use an AV, use MS security essentials. Free and definitely top5 by effectiveness. 'best way to avoid viruses is to not get any viruses.' yeah, thanks for that - knowing whether or not something has an embedded virus, thats cake. ive used mse for a year or two now after seeing it recommended in a thread, but noscript is what keeps me safe | ||
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Kwon
Brunei Darussalam41 Posts
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
It's kind of hard to judge what's a good AV or not. It kind of irks me when people say an AV is bad 'because I had a bunch of viruses'. The best AV won't stop every virus, and you need to update the definitions daily, if not hourly, as well as have peerblock, a firewall, and browser safety. There's a million reasons why you could've gotten a virus - you could've simply downloaded a file or installed a CD with something bad, so that your AV isn't scanning for it (ie you let it walk in), you could've not updated your definitions, and to say your system is good now could be because of a million reasons (your firewall is what's being good, windows updates, etc). When new viruses come out, no AV will stop it, so you just need to have an AV that updates regularly (which most do) and not be unlucky to catch it before you have the definitions for it. First, make sure the AV doesn't take up too much resources, some AV is worse than actually having a virus (norton, mcafee cough cough). You also should have multiple safety suites -firewall, peerblock, AV, malware scanner, windows updates, and smart computer use. You also shouldn't disable any features despite wanting to save PC resources, and put yourself at risk when you do so. Obviously everyone is going to disable parts of it, so you need to scan often and scan everything you download, and be smart about it and how you browse and use. It just really irks me that you'd post "it's bad I had to format my PC'. That could be million reasons, most probably your fault - be more descriptive please. Now I have no idea which AV to really use, I just know MSE and Avast are both really good and free, and that Windows Firewall and Malwarebytes are good too. You should have a peerblock if you download torrents, and be smart how you use your PC. You also can't realyl predict which one is the best, as it only takes a single virus to screw everything up,w hich just means they didn't update fast enough before your dumbass caught something. Just have *a* antivirus, a firewall, and scanner, and be judicious in your usage. I would recommend MSE or Avast since they are what most people use, but Kaspersky is great too. There are a lot of good ones. Just have one, and then be smart. I'd love it if someone could actually explain which is best, but how you use your PC should be first, not your AV. | ||
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cocosoft
Sweden1068 Posts
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Kwon
Brunei Darussalam41 Posts
Also, the virus prevents me from turning on the windows security and preventing me from doing a system restore. So I had no choice but to format. But the virus is kinda the shop's fault maybe now that I think of it, when I purchase my desktop, pirated stuff are already installed on it. Don't ask why, its common in my country :l And I take back what I said about MSE, wasn't really thinking earlier. and I'm hurt that you called me a dumbass, I know how to take care of my PC, I was just not lucky at that time :< | ||
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JetGillLee
Australia43 Posts
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henbobble
England51 Posts
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celious
United States195 Posts
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eight.BiT
United States240 Posts
On April 24 2011 00:03 JetGillLee wrote: Nod32 is good apparently.. Just be careful. eset nod32 is insane, i tried it for a while and it was good. trying to uninstall it was sure a fight though. | ||
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synapse
China13814 Posts
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
@Belial88 When I scanned with MSE, it didn't detect any viruses. Also, the virus prevents me from turning on the windows security and preventing me from doing a system restore. So I had no choice but to format. But the virus is kinda the shop's fault maybe now that I think of it, when I purchase my desktop, pirated stuff are already installed on it. Don't ask why, its common in my country :l And I take back what I said about MSE, wasn't really thinking earlier. and I'm hurt that you called me a dumbass, I know how to take care of my PC, I was just not lucky at that time :< Sorry, just got a little heated. I don't think that at all, I was moreso saying that about anyone who caught a virus like that  I heard AVG was pretty bad. As long as you have one I think you're pretty good though, all they do is lower the chance of getting a virus in the rare chance you get one because you're doing something sketchy. | ||
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UrASofty
Canada772 Posts
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Hokay
United States738 Posts
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
doesn't matter what anti virus you get, all of them are pretty much the same. just make sure u have malwarebytes. I don't like how malwarebytes doesn't do autoscans. So I have a quick question since I used Avast and willing to try something different (had PC issues 'around' the time I used it, I don't think it was the problem but now that I reinstalled windows I'm willing to try something else). I have pirated/activated w7, how do I use MSE? Or is there no issue with using MSE with pirated? | ||
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Legatus Lanius
2135 Posts
On April 24 2011 22:08 Belial88 wrote: I don't like how malwarebytes doesn't do autoscans. So I have a quick question since I used Avast and willing to try something different (had PC issues 'around' the time I used it, I don't think it was the problem but now that I reinstalled windows I'm willing to try something else). I have pirated/activated w7, how do I use MSE? Or is there no issue with using MSE with pirated? ahem, my *friend* has a pirated/activated windows 7, and he just downloaded it straight from the microsoft website. works/updates fine i guess it might depend on the loader youve got though | ||
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
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Legatus Lanius
2135 Posts
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schreddertt
Germany102 Posts
Oh, I also used G-Data once, super safe but resource hungry like hell. | ||
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arctia
61 Posts
Avast and Avira - both amazing, better detection rate than MSE, but overall more resource used NOD32 - the paid version is really really good, not sure about the free/trial Kaspersky - detects everything, more likely to run into false positives. Way too much resource usage though, and somewhat intrusive Norton - the newest version is really good in terms of protection. But it installs itself in so many parts of your system, it's an absolute pain to uninstall Comodo - it will block EVERYTHING. Takes a lot of customization to get it the way you want If you ask me, MSE + Common sense is the way to go. After three years, I finally managed to install common sense for my parents. No more problems. | ||
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OddBone
United States25 Posts
Use Microsoft Secuirety Essentials, has a 98% detection rate. AVAST! is very good too. Both free. | ||
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Gryffes
United Kingdom763 Posts
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JingleHell
United States11308 Posts
They've also fixed the thing where it would opt to do resource intensive stuff without asking while you're using the PC. Isn't bogging down my wife's C2D machine at all. | ||
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mav451
United States1596 Posts
On April 25 2011 01:22 arctia wrote: If you ask me, MSE + Common sense is the way to go. After three years, I finally managed to install common sense for my parents. No more problems. Wow good job. Getting non-tech users, much less parents/family to develop good habits definitely gets some applause from me. | ||
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Tracedragon
United States948 Posts
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JingleHell
United States11308 Posts
On April 25 2011 02:27 mav451 wrote: Wow good job. Getting non-tech users, much less parents/family to develop good habits definitely gets some applause from me. My dad set my mom up with a Linux PC. No market share? No viruses. My wife, on the other hand, is the reason we own Norton to begin with, I only ever really needed spybot for the more incessant crap floating around the more benign portions of the internet. My wife has either terrible luck or some weird pr0n I don't know about to get as many viruses as she does. Sad thing is, she works in IT, and 98% of the time, she can hand-clean her registry, but she still gets the things constantly. | ||
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thehitman
1105 Posts
1. Microsoft security essentials is not the best antivirus, in fact in most of the tests it scores in the middle of the pack, from about 20 other antiviruses. 2. Microsoft does not know best how to protect their OS, this is a common mistake noobs make, Microsoft antivirus team is actually not even part of the OS design team, it is a completely different team who Microsoft purchased. 3. Microsoft has purchased 3 anti-spyware teams as far as I recall, may be even more in order to be finally able to release security essentials, previously it was known by a different name. 4. Going on part 2, if Microsoft knew everything best about their OS they would be able to create the best games, best internet surfer, best defragmenter, best video player, best everything, clearly that is not the case. Microsoft is actually the least knowledgeable company about their OS, as they work with more than 30 different teams. Its not like there are 30 guys working on the OS and everything else, there are several teams who work on the OS, usually each team focusing on specific parts such as network, interface, security, etc, etc... Right now you can choose between 3 very good antiviruses: Avast, Avira and AVG free editions. Right now I would say Avast is the best as it offers the most amount of features even putting to shame some of the paid suites and its the fastest in terms on on-demand scan times. As for the paid suites I'd say norton, bitdefender and zonelabs suites are one of the more stable, as in you know what you are getting, with Norton right now being the best. | ||
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Blisse
Canada3710 Posts
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pathy
Taiwan619 Posts
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zYwi3c
Poland1811 Posts
Theres nothing better atm. 0% CPU USAGE, 0% RAM USAGE. | ||
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MichaelEU
Netherlands816 Posts
And don't listen to troll posts like those of thehitman. | ||
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fiskrens
Sweden196 Posts
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M0nsterChef
Canada67 Posts
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OddBone
United States25 Posts
On April 25 2011 02:38 thehitman wrote: Okay I see there is a lot of nonsense going on around here so here it goes: 1. Microsoft security essentials is not the best antivirus, in fact in most of the tests it scores in the middle of the pack, from about 20 other antiviruses. 2. Microsoft does not know best how to protect their OS, this is a common mistake noobs make, Microsoft antivirus team is actually not even part of the OS design team, it is a completely different team who Microsoft purchased. 3. Microsoft has purchased 3 anti-spyware teams as far as I recall, may be even more in order to be finally able to release security essentials, previously it was known by a different name. 4. Going on part 2, if Microsoft knew everything best about their OS they would be able to create the best games, best internet surfer, best defragmenter, best video player, best everything, clearly that is not the case. Microsoft is actually the least knowledgeable company about their OS, as they work with more than 30 different teams. Its not like there are 30 guys working on the OS and everything else, there are several teams who work on the OS, usually each team focusing on specific parts such as network, interface, security, etc, etc... Right now you can choose between 3 very good antiviruses: Avast, Avira and AVG free editions. Right now I would say Avast is the best as it offers the most amount of features even putting to shame some of the paid suites and its the fastest in terms on on-demand scan times. As for the paid suites I'd say norton, bitdefender and zonelabs suites are one of the more stable, as in you know what you are getting, with Norton right now being the best. Do not use AVG, it is very bad.... | ||
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Wraith.978
Canada37 Posts
Really any virus software should be fine to keep your comp free of virus', but if you're looking for most secure I'd look into the various pay security suites (cause anti-virus isn't the only thing to worry about). | ||
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Wraith.978
Canada37 Posts
On April 25 2011 03:13 pathy wrote: Yup bitdefender is the best. I've been running it for two years and it's awesome. Kapersky takes up way too much processing power to be worth it. Really? I use Kaspersky. Currently it's using no processor power and 10k mem. Not very much. It uses more scanning, but you should be scanning at least weekly and at a time when you're not using the computer for much (I do mine at 3am on wednesdays). | ||
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Wraith.978
Canada37 Posts
On April 25 2011 03:21 MichaelEU wrote: MSE is free and fairly decent, no hassle and no options to set. That means you can't mess with any advanced options but 99% of computer users won't want to. Just don't do stupid stuff, don't click on any fishy stuff, don't download from obscure sites. And don't listen to troll posts like those of thehitman. Actually - he's right about the microsoft stuff even if I don't agree with his choses. | ||
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MichaelEU
Netherlands816 Posts
On April 25 2011 05:56 Wraith.978 wrote: Actually - he's right about the microsoft stuff even if I don't agree with his choses. He has the right facts (mostly... somewhat) but follows it up with troll reasoning. | ||
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
I'm thinking of getting MSE. I know Avast is supposed to be the best, but I had some issues last time I used it (of course, they could be completely unrelated, but it required me to reinstall my OS, and I still can't recall exactly what happened except Avast being installed, although the issue occured days later I believe). I have a pirated MSE but I believe people say it's fine, that MSE doesn't do a check on genuine or not? I like what I hear from people saying MSE doesn't take up much resources. I'd imagine common sense is the biggest AV, but for a while now I've used malware bytes scans every once in a while and good behavior, and I avoid viruses completely. | ||
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jaj22
United Kingdom1376 Posts
The normal MSSE installer does perform a WGA check and will refuse to install if it fails. MSSE and Avast are both much less likely to cause serious performance or functionality problems than most common AV software. MSSE has a greater performance penalty but a much lower false-positive rate than Avast. Neither of them are anywhere near perfect for blocking modern malware. | ||
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Belial88
United States5217 Posts
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jdcosta283
2 Posts
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MeSaber
Sweden1235 Posts
Bitdefender free , is the one i install on family pcs because it doesnt need attention. No ads. Low memory. Perfect detection rate. Now i would like to add virus/trojans mainly comes from your clicking habits from the net. Get a nice adblocker (ublock origin) then use common sense when browsing. Suspicious sites? Put on advanced mode on ublock origin and start blocking scripts (1st, 3rd party, blacklist 3rd party ads sites). You could browse the web without AV and a strict ublock origin. It wouldnt be so pleasant though. And those who say "i never get a virus" dont know about it until its too late (bank account scimmed). Be proactive, not reactive. | ||
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