Community poll forum: Which antivirus utility protects your computer?

I use Trend Micro PC-cillin after unsuccessful attemps to get Norton Security 2004 to work properly. I could get almost no tech support and the updates did not work. PC-cillin has worked flawlessly.

Have been using AntiVir Personal my computers with Windows XP & 2000 for over a year since Norton last tried to extort more money for another year's worth of virus definitions. AntiVir is easy to use...definitions are updated daily (or more often, if desired)...doesn't use up resources like Norton and best of all, it's FREE. The only problem I encountered was on one computer running Windows Me and on that one I'm using AVG, another great antivirus program.

I have been using AntiVir for about 4 years now and I think it is great! I have a 600mhz celeron and use windows me, this AV has never froze up my system and has consistantly found more viruses than norton (which I only used for a few months as it it too much for my system) I have reccomend this program to many people having trouble with norton not running on thier system or it not catching all viruses. AntiVirGaurd uses very little resources to run in the background continually and the Scanner (Lukefile Walker)preforms virus scans fast. What really impressed me over the years about AntiVir is the fact that it updates it self, catches viruses while you are not even using the internet and it is free! In 4 years I have had 2 viruses on my computer and both of these came before I relized I needed some spyware! Finnally reading through the other comments I seriously thought that AVG was refering to the AntiVirGaurd the comments about AVG really fit with how I feel about AntiVirGaurd Personal edition, I reccomend giving AntiVir a try, I know I will be trying out AVG!

I have found Fix-It! to be my ultimate repair tool. Not only does it do a great job of protecting me from viruses (updates are about every other day), but also includes registry repair and defrag utility for both the drive and the registry files! The defrag utility works when even the Microsoft defrag or even Norton defrag can not. Also, Fix-It does not require the additional cost of re-registering every year.

Another great utility is Spy-Sweeper. After trying several of the anti-spam removers, I have found this to be the most reliable.

If you want support for your anti virus, without running around reading instructios for fixing it yourself, (like norton) go with Panda. It updates itself automatically every day. Will not interfere with any app you have already or plan to use. Very under-rated, and new to the market, you can't go wrong!

i have use norton for four year without haveing any trouble until three or four month ago.my system started acting up and i would have norton run the scran and it would come up there are no virus found .I keep my norton updated weekly until now. i was told my a friend to try avg anti-virus and install it .it came up with 17 yes 17 virus that norton said i had none and now the system has started running like the old system that i once had . thanks avg anti- virus for getting my system running right again....epullen504

This is soooo confusing. You hear all the advertisments about all the different AV makers. Then you hear the horror stories. I have Symantic 2005. I also just recently had to reinstall WinXP because of spyware. There's another issue. Which one of those programs is best? AdAware, Spybot, BeSafe.....?
Is there one brand that has ALL the answers?

Well, no expert here but I have had Norton for years and this year had a deal on Panda and thought I would try it, I like the product but the support is terrible. The support follows a programed step by step technique which is something anyone could do, I ended up calling dell support and they knew more about the problem and fixed it without dumping my whole computer then panda support. It protects but the support is BAD. I'll stay with it as long as I have dell.

I recently got a virus which disabled my task manager.
Norton could not detect the virus. I tried free 30 day trial with Panda and it found the virus and deleted it.
I've been using Panda ever since and I am very happy with it. It runs smooth, no crashes. It also has a built in firewall which has prevented several attempts from users to use my wi-fi connecton.
I recommend current Norton/Mcafee users to give Panda a try.

I used AVG for awhile and all it did was inform me that I had a virus on my computer. I use Panda and I am very impressed. I get automatic updates daily, there is a user feedback to the Panda org to help others with similar problems. Once I installed the program, it detected the virus's and disinfected them right away. Don't keep track about how much it takes to run in the background but I am happy.

due to a .exe that was sneaky and crept in through an IM then installed itself when i least expected it then EXEd itself (executed) BAM i had 28 viruses that were qwerty(ing) all my .TXT files. sadly every time avast popped up it could not DELETE nor CHEST the files. and when the alert said Clicking NO ACTION will NOT activate the virus... sadly it was VERY Wrong! I spent hours on friends comp researching what to do. i found AVG and it took care of every single problem file and then i searched for ALL types of malfiles and malware on friends comp. so far. 0 infections 0 detections and now my comp is even running Faster than with AVAST. ya sure the sirens and voices are cool when u have a surround sound theatre system heh but um. no. No More AVAST for ME!

Panda provides at least daily updates, and that keeps me safe. I had Norton but could not reinstal following an update, when I did not properly uninstal Norton first. Norton was only providing weekly updates and that is not good enough today. I also have Computer Associates Vitus Protection as part of Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm is great but CA gives messages that I have a virus, but on checking it was a vulnerability an a java application which had been fixed by a security upgrade a year before. Panda wins hands down for me.

I got tired of Macafee sucking my bank account dry when a friend introduced me to AVG. I'll never go back. I also know lots of people who swear Norton has screwed up their systems. This is a lot like who likes Nero and who likes Easy CD Creator.....what works for one doesn't for another.

Do you mean if you BUY a scratch install copy of Win XP SP2? My update didn't have it....

I have been dealing with McAfee since buying my computer in early 2001. After the virus protection that came with that purchase expired I purchased McAfee Internet Security ver. 5.0. When that expired I began getting annoying and frequent pop-ups telling me to update my service. I went and purchased McAfee internetsecuritysuite 2005 ver. 7.0. After I installed it the pop-ups continued. McAfee support failed to provide the correct means of stopping them. I finally stumbled across something that looked promising in my Add/Remove and got rid of the pop-ups.
My ver. 7.0 was due to expire March 29, 2006 but something went wrong. It somehow expired a few weeks ago. I had to Add/Remove expunge all of it from my computer before I could get my internet service to be allowed to operate. Of course I could not get to McAfee's internet support site without doing this.
McAfee's Customer Support responded that I should go to its Technical Support. McAfee's Technical Support did not even verify that their response matched my computer's operating system. I have still not re-installed the software because McAfee has yet to respond to my response to their response to being informed that their first Technical Support response was useless to me. So if you have not learned to operate 4 networked computers and are concerned about more than virus problems, try to find something user friendly.