what anti_virus programme in the best for computer

[seolinkgenie]

I know that Norton might rock, but myself personally, I can't tolerate the way it uses all of my ram and slows my computer down. I use spy bot, but that isn't enough. Is there anyone out there who knows of an antivirus program that will not eat up my bank account or my computer's capacity to function at a normal rate? Thank you for your time......

[thx4yrtym]

I use Bit Defender Internet Security on 3 of my 5 machines. ( 2 are now on the Network) . Note that the price is for 3 pcs. Been using this for 3-4 years and an pleased with it.

BitDefender Internet Security 2009 (http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-2217-en--BitDefender-Internet-Security-2009.html)

best of luck,

[dynocat]

I've used Kaspersky for about five years and never looked back.

[huggytree]

i use Norton and have had to reformat my hard drive 2x in the past 3 months due to viruses...thanks Norton...

[billbenson]

Norton's resource intensive.
Try Avast. It's free for personal use and I had good luck with it.

[KristineS]

I use AVG Free and have never had any problems.

[Business Attorney]

I use Avast on all my home computers and have had good luck with it.

[nighthawk]

half of my computers dont have a virus checker on at all, the rest have AVG. I find AVG tends to perform quite well when the PC is running, but slows the boot process down a fair bit.

I have used Avast and AVG Free in the past, and both were excellent. In the end I purchased a copy of AVG, at the time they were offering a 3 PC license for about £50, now they only seem to offer a single PC license. The full version comes with anti-spam, anti-adware and a whole host of other features, while the free version is just a virus checker.

As long as you keep your PC up-to-date, and dont open attachments from people you don't know, you should be fine. Using webmail rather than a mail client also helps keep you virus free.

[billbenson]

I clicked on a web site the other day that tried to install virus's or spyware. It wasn't a site you would expect and it came up at the top of a google search. I was searching for information on something, I forget what, so it wasn't really something you would expect. Might have been a .cn site, I'm not sure. The point is it came up in G and had virus's so emails and downloads aren't the only offenders.

[Dan Furman]

I use Trend Micro - easily the best I have ever used.

but these days, AV isn't enough. Super anti-spywar and MalwareBytes Anti-Malware are almost must-haves.

[billbenson]

I did some searching. From what I found, the software commonly known or recommended all work similarly and do a similar job in catching virus's. It strikes me that it comes down to personal preferences and some use a lot more resources.

I also didn't find anybody complaining of virus's they couldn't get rid of or software that didn't work in any forum posts, reviews etc.

Personally I haven't had a virus or spyware that wasn't caught in a long time. My wife either and she used to get into it all the time (and she's very computer savvy - just going to the wrong sites, particularly international I suspect).

The info below is from wiki for anybody interested in how the software actually works:


Signature based detection is the most common method. To identify viruses and other malware, antivirus software compares the contents of a file to a dictionary of virus signatures. Because viruses can embed themselves in existing files, the entire file is searched, not just as a whole, but also in pieces.[9]

Malicious activity detection is another approach used to identify malware. In this approach, antivirus software monitors the system for suspicious program behavior. If suspicious behavior is detected, the suspect program may be further investigated, using signature based detection or another method listed in this section. This type of detection can be used to identify unknown viruses or variants on existing viruses.[citation needed]

Heuristic-based detection, like malicious activity detection, can be used to identify unknown viruses. This can be accomplished in one of two ways: file analysis and file emulation.[citation needed]

File analysis is the process of searching a suspect file for virus-like instructions. For example, if a program has instructions to reformat the C drive, the antivirus software might further investigate the file. One downside of this feature is the large amount of computer resources needed to analyse every file, resulting in slow operation.[citation needed]

File emulation is another heuristic approach. File emulation involves executing a program in a virtual environment and logging what actions the program performs. Depending on the actions logged, the antivirus software can determine if the program is malicious or not and then carry out the appropriate disinfection actions

Antivirus software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software)
.

[dwiads]

I use super antispyware free version.
I know someone use Kaspersky, funny thing that some of his application/software deleted by kaspersky.

[billbenson]

I use super antispyware free version.
I know someone use Kaspersky, funny thing that some of his application/software deleted by kaspersky.

Most have sensitivity settings. You may want to adujust it to meet your needs.You should be able to move it back from quarantine and mark it as trusted.

[Harold Mansfield]

I use Avast (Free) as well and never had any problems.

I also have Spybot (free) installed, but it doesn't pick everything up.

I have Ad-aware (free) installed as well for Adware, Windows Defender (which is pretty worthless), Webroot Spy Sweeper, and Advanced System Optimizer.

Just as important is a decent Registry Cleaner, I have CC Cleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) (free) installed and that seems to work pretty well.

Lastly, I also use Cyber Scrub Privacy (http://www.cyberscrub.com/) suite to wipe everything clean.

[billbenson]

CC Cleaner is one of the ones I was trying to think of that the commercial repair shop was using. I believe it erases cookies and history though. I haven't personally used it.