• 0

The Definitive "BEST ANTIVIRUS" thread

Asked by MxxCon,

 Share

Best Antivirus  

1414 members have voted

  1. 1. Best Antivirus

    • Norton/Symantec
      665
    • McAfee
      115
    • AVG
      201
    • NOD32
      131
    • PC-Cilin
      52
    • Panda
      33
    • Kaspersky
      103
    • Other
      107
    • F-Prot
      7

Question

576 answers to this question

Recommended Posts

  • 0
Enthusiast

esortm

Posted
Posted

Currently use NAV 2002 on two home computers. Looking to move to another product because of the system resources Norton hogs. I'm thinking NOD32 or Avast. I like the results of NOD32 at virusbulletin.com, but the free price tag on Avast peaks my interest. Any thoughts/comments from users of these two products? Thanks in advance for any responses.

  • 0
Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted (edited)
Can anyone tell me what is Symantec Antivirus Corporate edition?

What is its advantage and disadvantage compared to the home user's Norton Antivirus?

(Liveupdate subscriptions, user key, nore easy to disable by virus?....etc)

Symantec Antivirus is basically a stripped down from all bloated just version of norton antivirus. it has live update, live protect, email scanning and all that jazz, just in a simple interface without useless crap you see in norton.

the unmonitored client can work as independent desktop antivirus, while managed can connect to server version for central management.

i highly recommend the symantec corp client version over norton (been using norton since back in the day, tried corp recently)

also kaspersky is what i used previously and it was really good too, but i like the minimalism of symantec corporate client much better and it uses less memory.

here's screeny

Edited by sputnik
  • 0
Grand Master

mAcOdIn Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

You have to take those tests with a grain of salt because they mainly use zoo samples(which most independant AV tests use).

So you know zoo samples are samples that are not out spreading now which means you will probably never ever get one of them. ITW(In The Wild) samples on the otherhand are real virii that have been set loose on the public and therefore you may infact come into contact with one of them in your computing habits.

There's alot of arguing going on about whether these tests that use a persons compiled zoo collection is worth anything as an actual test.

The majority are samples that will never ever be encountered by a user so should an anti virus detect it when it's not even out there? Keep in mind the second some joker releases it and it starts infecting people it will be classified as ITW and then all the AV's will detect it.

Then you have DOS virii that can't even infect you at all. It makes sense somewhat to still scan for these as there's quite alot of 9x/Me users but for those of us on 2k/XP these things are worthless.

When it comes to trojans there's alot of BSing going around about trojans. I was on one forum and this guy had a zip with 7 "trojans" in it that NOD32 woudln't find so he freaked out, started converting everyone to Panda(which is a good AV by the way). Turns out they werent trojans but things that a trojan might use if it was included with a trojan. For instance there was one program that would hide a window so that the trojan would be completely hidden. By itself it is completely useless, it can't even hide a window because nothing has told it what to hide. Well Nod32 didn't find it. Another was a ftp program that is used by one of the common ftp server programs out there. Again completely benign unless a trojan was also directing it. Bottom line was out of the whole zip of 7 "trojans" there was maybe one real trojan in there. Now wether you want your AV to also detect the possible trojan tools is another toss up IMO. McAfee, the AV I use, did infact find all 7 "trojans" but at least it told me that they were "potentially unwanted programs" which means from that point it's up to me to make the final decision. For instance if I used servU FTP and it told me the servU FTP server was a potentially unwanted program I would leave it there. Some people seem to think everything related in any way is also a trojan must be a trojan and that's not true. One file didn't even work and couldn't infect you at all. But anyways that what alot of samples are in independant tests. Junk like this that isn't a real trojan but might be used as a trojan. Is it actually bad if an AV doesn't detect legitimate apps that could be used by trojans? In my opinion that's kinda like if my anti virus popped up with a warning saying: "Warning you are using Microsoft Windows XP. XP has commonly been used as a zombie machine, spam relay, and is easily infected by virii please remove now to uninstall windows" Is that what you want?

There's trickery like that in virii samples. Sometimes virii are messed up so they don't work. Should they be detected even though they're useless and can't infect? What about damaged files that are harmless but are the only sample a tester has? Should an AV detect a benign file damaged by a virus as an Actual Virus? I don't think so. Granted it's nice if your AV can detect it and possibly repair it but is that bad if it misses it?

Don't even get me started on spyware tests in a Anti Virus. That's a secondary feature at best and shouldn't even be included in a purchase decision especially when there's two very good if not completely better free solutions out there like Ad Aware and Spybot.

Learn the different kinds of virii, learn the distinction between zoo and itw, learn the difference between a trojan and "hacker tool"(as Kaspersky calls them) and then look at the independant tests again and you'll see what I mean. They're BS.

  • 0
Apprentice

Flyer72

Posted
Posted

I'm back to Avast! again, I just got tired of the manual updating of Antivir... I have used McAffee, Norton, Panda (all resource hogs), FreeAVG previously and Nod32. Nod32 is good, but it slowed down my computer more than Avast! even if it uses less resources???? I'm a little confused about that!

I'm still not sure if Avast! is the way to go so (I disabled a lot of stuff to speed things up) but considering I'm running an old Athlon 700 MHz with XP Pro it works pretty well!

  • 0
Mentor

Jexel

Posted
Posted

this is so stupid, Norton all the way! It provides regular updates however one thing i would like to see in the next version i.e. 2005 is that the automatic removal of added registry keys and values created by viruses and adware. It should also operate as a stronger adware remover in the future much more like adaware pro. However, if norton does incorporate advance adware removal Lavasoft will prob die

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to question listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • An actual cosmic "Eye of Sauron" had been looking straight at us all along

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      An actual cosmic "Eye of Sauron" had been looking straight at us all along by Sayan Sen Image by Kovin P. Vasquez via Pexels | Not representative An international team of researchers has solved a long-standing mystery surrounding a distant blazar known as PKS 1424+240, helping explain why it produces some of the brightest high-energy gamma rays and cosmic neutrinos ever observed despite appearing to have a relatively slow-moving jet. The findings were published on June 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters. The study addresses a broader challenge in astrophysics: understanding how extreme cosmic objects accelerate particles to very high energies and produce very high-energy (VHE) photons and neutrinos. PKS 1424+240 is located billions of light-years from Earth. It has attracted attention for years because it is both a powerful source of VHE gamma rays and the brightest known neutrino-emitting blazar in the sky, according to observations by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. It is also associated with one of the strongest peaks in IceCube's nine-year neutrino sky map A blazar is a type of active galactic nucleus powered by a supermassive black hole that pulls in surrounding matter and launches jets of plasma moving close to the speed of light. What makes blazars unique is their orientation. One of their jets points almost directly toward Earth, making them appear exceptionally bright across the electromagnetic spectrum and allowing scientists to study some of the most extreme physical processes in the Universe. The scientists exclaimed it's like the 'Eye of Sauron' in deep space. Usually, the brightest gamma-ray-emitting blazars are expected to have jets that appear to move very quickly. However, radio observations of PKS 1424+240 suggested that its jet was moving much more slowly, creating a contradiction that became part of a long-running problem known as the "Doppler factor crisis." To investigate, researchers analyzed 15 years of observations from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a network of 10 radio antennas spread across the continental United States, Hawaii and St. Croix. Using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), astronomers combine signals from widely separated radio telescopes to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope capable of revealing extremely fine details. The team combined 42 polarization-sensitive radio images collected between 2009 and 2025, creating a much deeper and more detailed view of the jet than had previously been possible. The observations were carried out as part of MOJAVE (Monitoring Of Jets in Active galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments), a long-running program that studies the brightness, polarization and magnetic field structures of jets produced by active galaxies. The project aims to better understand how activity near supermassive black holes is linked to high-energy radiation and neutrino emission. “When we reconstructed the image, it looked absolutely stunning,” said Yuri Kovalev, lead author of the study and Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded MuSES project at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. “We have never seen anything quite like it — a near-perfect toroidal magnetic field with a jet, pointing straight at us.” The image revealed an unusual geometry. The researchers found that Earth lies almost directly in line with the jet, with a viewing angle of less than 0.6 degrees. In simple terms, astronomers are looking almost straight down the jet. This turned out to be the key to the mystery. Because the jet is aimed almost directly at Earth, a relativistic effect called Doppler boosting dramatically increases its apparent brightness. The study found that this effect boosts the emission by a factor of about 30 while also making the jet appear slower than it actually is. “This alignment causes a boost in brightness by a factor of 30 or more,” said Jack Livingston, a co-author at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. “At the same time, the jet appears to move slowly due to projection effects — a classic optical illusion.” The nearly head-on view also gave scientists a rare look at the jet's magnetic field. Using polarized radio signals, they detected a clear toroidal, or doughnut-shaped, magnetic field component. The observations suggest the jet carries an electric current and that its magnetic field helps launch, shape and stabilize the flow of plasma. Researchers believe this magnetic structure may also play a key role in accelerating particles to energies high enough to produce both gamma rays and neutrinos. “Solving this puzzle confirms that active galactic nuclei with supermassive black holes are not only powerful accelerators of electrons, but also of protons — the origin of the observed high-energy neutrinos,” Kovalev said. The research was conducted under the MuSES (Multi-messenger Studies of Energetic Sources) project, which investigates how active galactic nuclei accelerate particles and generate different cosmic signals, including light and neutrinos. Scientists say understanding how protons are accelerated and linked to neutrino production remains one of the major unanswered questions in astrophysics. The findings help explain why some blazars can appear to have slow jets while still producing extremely bright high-energy emissions. More broadly, the study strengthens the link between relativistic jets, magnetic fields, gamma rays and high-energy neutrinos. Researchers say the results provide new clues about how some of the Universe's most powerful natural particle accelerators work and offer important insights for multimessenger astronomy, which combines different types of cosmic signals to study extreme events in space. Source: European Research Council, EDP Sciences This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
    • What browser do you prefer to use, and why?

      By AnotherITguy · Posted

      Edge
    • Classic Outlook vs New Outlook — Which one do you prefer and why?

      By AnotherITguy · Posted

      Gotenks98 is right... Outlook (new) is absolute trash. Doesn't Mozilla have an Enterprise Version of Firebird?
    • Microsoft Weekly: Surface Laptop Ultra, Windows 11 context menus, Build 2026 recap, and more

      By TarasBuria · Posted

      Microsoft Weekly: Surface Laptop Ultra, Windows 11 context menus, Build 2026 recap, and more by Taras Buria This week's news recap is here, with Microsoft announcing the new Surface Laptop Ultra, fresh chips from NVIDIA for Windows on ARM, a no-build week, fixes for Windows 11's context menus, gaming news, reviews, and more. Quick links: Windows 10 and 11 Windows Insider Program Updates are available Reviews are in Gaming news Great deals to check Windows 11 and Windows 10 Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions. At Computex 2026, together with NVIDIA, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, its most powerful laptop to date, powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark processor. Details about this computer are currently scarce, as Microsoft has only revealed certain parts of its specs. So far, we know that the computer has a 15-inch mini-LED display, a rich set of ports, a powerful processor, and all-day battery life. It also comes with a new wallpaper, which you can already download here in full resolution. The Surface Laptop Studio is not the only NVIDIA-powered Surface, which Microsoft unveiled this week. At Build 2026, the company also debuted the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, an odd-shaped desktop with a 20-core NVIDIA Grace CPU and an NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores and fifth-generation Tensor Cores with FP4 precision, connected via the NVIDIA NVLink-C2C chip-to-chip interconnect for high performance. According to Microsoft, it can run models with up to 120 billion parameters locally without relying on cloud GPU infrastructure. These two new Surface devices are likely to cost quite a lot, and for those who need a more affordable device, Microsoft is preparing the next-gen Qualcomm-powered Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. This week, details about these two devices leaked in plenty of detail. Other announcements at Build 2026 include the following: Microsoft unveils new security tools for IT admins and developers building AI products Microsoft announces Scout, an OpenClaw-powered personal agent for enterprise customers Microsoft unveils MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning and MAI-Code-1 coding models Microsoft announced a new Windows 11 native command-line utility Microsoft unveils Majorana 2 quantum chip, accelerating commercial timeline to 2029 Microsoft believes that AI agents will eventually replace apps through Project Solara Microsoft introduces Web IQ, a Bing-powered search system built for AI agents Last week, Microsoft released a new Experimental build, which introduced a major Start menu upgrade. It now lets you toggle off specific parts of the menu without affecting other features, resize the menu, and hide additional UI elements. We published a closer look here, so if you want to know what Microsoft is cooking without enrolling in the Insider program and installing unstable builds, check it out. Speaking of new features, many users are very annoyed about the way Microsoft delivers them. Recently, a frustrated user shared their experience with gradual rollouts, and even Microsoft engineers admitted there is a flaw in the system that prevents new features from applying properly. One of those new features includes the ability to uninstall AI models in Windows 11 with a single click. Windows 11 is finally getting fixes for its slow context menus. Marcus Ash from Microsoft confirmed that the company is working on fixing Windows 11's context menus. Reworked context menus are going to be faster, simpler by default, and "configurable to what you use most." According to Marcus, Microsoft will share more details soon. Windows Insider Program Windows 11 preview builds, released last week, are now available for download as standalone ISO files. These days, Microsoft regularly pushes new images, allowing users to clean-install its recent Windows 11 preview builds faster and easier. If you want to try the latest Windows 11 features without jumping through the Windows Update hoops, get those new images here. Sadly, Microsoft did not release new Windows 11 preview builds this week. Come back next time. Updates are available This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties. Microsoft is preparing new features for Teams. Later this month, the messenger will receive a new download manager with auto-dismissing notifications, reducing clutter and making the overall experience less annoying when dealing with downloads. Mozilla released Firefox 151.0.3, a new bug-fixing update for the browser. It is a small release, which fixes problems with pasting into text fields and the oversized VPN button on the toolbar. The update is now available for all users in the Release channel. Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting: VS Code 1.123 introduces massive upgrades for persistent AI developer workflows Microsoft OneDrive is getting a simple yet much-needed feature Microsoft faces heat after quietly blocking promised Office features on Apple systems Microsoft resumes forced Copilot app installation on some Windows PCs Browser vendors pen an open letter to Microsoft, saying "enough is enough" Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week: AMD Radeon Software 26.6.1 with optimizations for F1 25: 2026 Season, World of Tanks: HEAT, and various bug fixes. Reviews are in Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week Steven Parker dropped more mini PC reviews this week. GEEKOM Air12 2026 Edition is a low-power, affordable computer with an Intel Tiger Lake Pentium Gold processor, up to 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage, costing just $349. It is light, quiet, energy efficient, and has modern ports on the front. However, the front-facing USB Type-C is data-only, and there are some quirks with the computer's memory, so check out the full review. The AMD RX 9070 GRE has been released worldwide, and we published a benchmark review comparing this powerful graphics card to the RX 9070 XT, 7800 XT, the NVIDIA RTX 5070, and RTX 4070. It has solid, balanced performance, plenty of RAM, and low temperatures, but watch out for mediocre ray tracing performance and not the best efficiency. Also, we reviewed the Cuktech 10 Ultra, a compact, high-power charger with four ports and a big display full of various stats. This tiny charger can pull nearly 120W and spread that power according to each connected device's needs. It also comes with a high-quality 240W cable, three power modes, and retractable prongs. The best part? It is quite affordable, just make sure you have an outlet placed in the right spot to benefit from the built-in display. On the gaming side Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more. Do you remember the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft's first handheld console designed in partnership with ASUS? This week, ASUS revealed a new version of the device to celebrate twenty years of its Republic of Gamers brand. The new ROG Xbox Ally X20 features an OLED display, a transforming D-Pad, TMR sticks, and other changes. However, the chip inside the console is still the same. Forza Horizon 6 launched last month to critical acclaim, but the game will soon have a new rival made by those who used to work on Forza Horizon titles. Mike Brown from Maverick Games announced Clutch, an upcoming racing game with a story-driven campaign, deep car customization, and rich multiplayer. The game is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 in Spring 2027. The next update for Minecraft now has a release date. This week, Mojang announced that Chaos Cubed will be available on June 16, 2026. In addition, Mojang published a teaser of the next Minecraft movie. A Minecraft Movie Squared has now been confirmed for a release somewhere in 2027. NVIDIA GeForce Now is getting 18 new games in June. Those include Jurassic World Evolution 3, Fatekeeper, GOALS, Gothic 1 Remake, NTE: Neverness to Everness, and more. If you are a Game Pass subscriber, you can also get new games soon: Persona 5 Royal, Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, and more are coming to the service this month. Sumer Game Fest 2026 happened this week, where we saw plenty of new games, including Alien Isolation 2, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3, Gen Atlas from the Shadow of the Colossus creator, a new Cuphead game in 8-bit style, a new expansion for Mafia: The Old Country, and more. Finally, here are this week's Weekend PC Game Deals, full of discounts and the latest freebies from the Epic Games Store. Other gaming news includes the following: God of War Laufey announced, introducing Kratos' wife as the new protagonist Ori studio's No Rest for the Wicked 1.0 release and console plans announced Microsoft launches Godot Sample to streamline Xbox PC game development on the engine Great deals to check Every week, we cover many deals on different hardware and software. The following discounts are still available, so check them out. You might find something you want or need. Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB NVMe - $389.99 | 39% off Sonos Sub 4 - Wireless Subwoofer - $759 | 16% off Logitech MX Creative Console - $159.99 | 20% off This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.
    • Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 is getting a simultaneous release across PC and all consoles

      By Jose_49 · Posted

      Let's goooooooo! I've been loving the entries so far! I still have to finish Rebirth (things have been busy!)! Excited for this next installment.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      X-No-file earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • One Month Later
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      pestcontrol46 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      JKR earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      moog19 went up a rank
      Rookie

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      510
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      275
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      75
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      71
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      68
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!