Community poll forum: Which antivirus utility protects your computer?

I have always used Norton Anti-virus just because...old and established; but I have been thinking of switching to AVG when my subscription runs out and after seeing the results of the poll I will do just that.

Used Nortons for years - until the program became so clever and convoluted that my computer spent most of it's waking life trying to check it's files ... so I switched to McAfee as someone said it was brilliant and trouble free - and it was for a year - until trying to upgrade it then it completely devastated my computer and ate all my emails in the process (actually it was probably my fault - but McAfee was the starting point!). So I switched to AVG and love the way my computer runs these days.

The price of AVG is impressive - but the functioning of the program is wonderful - I actually think Nortons and McAfee caused me more time and data loss that a virus would have done! Simple, effective and efficient - that's what I look for in a program - do the job and forget all the bells and whistles ... oh and keep the price reasonable!

Jon

I had read great reviews about Kaspersky and it is very impressive and comprehensive when uploaded. BUT! I could no longer get into email, then other websites, then everything slowed by 50%. Tried to fix according to their instructions on Settings but nothing worked. I've uninstalled and will go with AVG as friends suggested.

I've been using Trend now for 3 years with no virus issues at all. What made me choose Trend is that I was using AVG and I got trojanized, which took me 8 hours to fix. AVG Free - you get what you pay for.... I have also used McAffee, but it took over my machine and was impossible to fully remove when i wanted to use another program. In addition my company uses Trend corporately and Trend has given me 3 user licences for 3 years for the price of one for one.

For GNU/Linux home users F-Prot comes free.We also use the paid for version at work on Win XP.Fast and thorough scanner and easy to use,cost is low for business use.

I like it so bit of a plug for F-Risk and its worth that.

Best Wishes Chris.

It was a simple issue -- my Kaspersky license key kept being lost by the program, and that meant I wasn't regularly getting updates, so when it came up to renewing, I have decided to jump ship.
IMO, Kaspersky is one of the fastest and best protection against virii on the market, with the best response times to new virus threats. This ongoing technical problem meant I had to ditch it, for now, and find something else.

I tried dozens of different alternatives, and chose McAfee in the end. It offers the best value for money -- their VirusScanPlus gives you reliable anti-virus, anti-spam/phishing, and firewall in one product for ~$40/yr. It's also very fast for scanning and loading, although can be a resource hungry at boot-time.

A few of the others I tried include:
SymantecNortonAV - one of the oldest programs around, now one of the worst -- the most bloated and slow program, and not effective enough at picking up new threats, for my money.
PandoAV - very easy to use but had installation problems with WinXPsp2, that caused it to crash routinely, even after several unsuccessful installs, I had to ditch it. It offers good value, only IF you can get it to work reliably.
VET - years ago was one of the best products on the market until, like Norton and CA (Computer Associates), the company developing VET was bought out, and now nothing is spent on researching new virus threats. it is now abysmally poor at picking up virii in the wild, you are now better protected with a free product.
AVG - fast to load, not resource hungry at all, until you have to do a disk scan, at which point your PC will become a vegetable until AVG has finished, hours later. you could disable the scheduled scan, but that's not a sensible idea in the real world of broadband. IMO, this has the LEAST user-friendly, MOST ugly interface of any AV product I've tested. It's notably very poor at picking up virus threats in the wild. Their pay-version doesn't compare with the competition, however they do offer a free version if you're really desperate.

Some other free offerings included:
AVG (as above), NOD32, Avast - typically they suffer from poorly designed interfaces, (little surprise when unpaid programmers attempt the job of a graphic designer); don't offer active, real-time scanning, only an on-demand disk scan (this lacking makes a product 99% useless, since they aren't able to protect against any new downloads/removable disks inserted, or any websites you visit); slow to respond new threats in the wild (arguably the most important aspect of any AV product -- there are many websites that test/compare this statistic); in their favour, they are fast and use very little resources (largely since they really aren't actively doing anything) and they're completely FREE (it's for you to decide if, being able to use your PC and keeping all of your data, is worth less than $40/yr).

I just recently canceled McAfee and started using Avast Home Edition 4.

Panda is ok, but they made me crazy with bugging me to sign up constantly. Norton just plain sux, it disrupts everything and takes over. The others I tried and had issues with one way or another. Trend Micro allows me to place it on 3 computers as long as they are mine without making me pay for additional licenses. It's cheaper than the others it has a huge database and they send me free updates and upgrades all the time. In fact it was free to upgrade from 2006 to 2007 you can't say that about the symantec products. Updating the lastest viral definitions sometimes occurs two or 3 times a day and that includes spyware and adware what more could you aske for?

because its free w/Comcast and seems to work. Also have AdAware and Windows Defender.

Avast: Slow scan even on quick scan takes 30+ minutes for 1 quick scan but all the extra shields are worth it
AVG: Slow but gets the job done updates less frequent
Avira: Slow on updates but has a very big selection of scan types

My antivirus: AVG- Avast- Avira- Microsoft- Security Essentials- Spybot S&D

To Whom It May Concern,
In answer to your question, which antivirus is protecting my computer, well I am using Trend Micro Antivirus.

Thank you

I am into my 5th year with them, I have no issues about it's effect on my system, and it works as advertised in all respects. What more can I say - it does what it's supposed to do!

I HAD MCAFEE FOR ABOUT 4 YEARS AND THE TECH SUPPORT GOT WORSE AND WORSE. I FINALLY GOT RID OF IT AND HAD SYMANTEC CORPORATE EDITION INSTALLED... IT HAS BEEN VERY EFFECTIVE IN CATCHING AND QUARENTEEING BACKDOOR TROJANS AND SUCH. YOU ARE RIGHT THAT 1 PROGRAM IS EFFECTIVE. SPYWARE/ADWARE IS A DIFFERENT STORY....I USE SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY,WINDOWS DEFENDER AND SYSTEM MECHANIC TO CONTROL MY SYSTEM AND IT HAS

best av what i know.. its not be anything like norton products is.

symantec av, has very good sense virus detection, it is also a fast and very light..

Avast is GREAT!