The Definitive "BEST ANTIVIRUS" thread

[MxxCon]

i'm so sick of these threads poping up every single week. so here's the one and only thread you should need untill the end of your life. moderator can modify poll entries to update.

BEST ANTIVIRUS

[pkill]

i think McAfee is the best.........well in my opinion anyway

[Dwarden]

New Avast! 4.1 :)

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=176804

[demorgoron]

Avg antivirus free edition :)

just because its free

or the avast 4.1 ;)

[Emile]

McAfee :cool:

[DoNuTjC]

I use NAV.. A frind on mine had a email virus on her computer and it emailed everyone on her buddy list and NAV found it before it got to my computer.... NAV FOR PRESIDENT!!

[Spectator]

I used to have Norton 2004. It worked Ok.

I'm currently using Computer Associates etrust antivirus 7.

It has two scanning engines, InoculateIT which is their own and VET engine

from a company they acquired. engines are hotswappable and you can set

one engine as realtime monitor and the other one as on demand scanner.

point being since two engines are developed independently if one misses

the other might catch it. Both engines have good record in Virus Bulltein.

They have home user version with only uses VET engine called EZ antivirus.

It uses very little resources. I tried it once and it seemed ok.

VET is also the one used by Zonealarm security suite.

F-Secure has 3 engines I hear. Kaspersky, F-Prot, and their own Orion engine.

That's gotta be a resource hog.

Of the big 3 (norton, mcafee, Trendmicro), I like Trendmicro internet security.

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

F-Secure no longer uses F-prot.

It uses Kaspersky, Orion and some other engine that they made themselves.

[mgleason007]

AVG all the way :whistle:

McAfee is crap as far as I'm concerned. Norton takes over your recycle bin and just generally uses way too many system resources for my liking.

[silentprey04]

Kaspersky all the way!!! McAfee Pro 8.0 is pretty good too though. I HATE norton. AVG free is horrible... it didnt detect any of the viruses I had on my pc and when i switched to another antivirus the new one picked them up right away.

[zikl]

I use NAV since mcfee and AVG sux NAV is best in stoping from excution and what folders or files you want to exclude ;) Im look for a better one because NAV slows down 2.8 /533 256mb computers to much What about Zonalarms and/or pcillian?

[Caleb]

NAV has a very "cute" UI which appeals to many users..

Many people don't understand that EVERY AV on that list will protect you against all the latest/newest/whatever viruses.

The problems start when you get viruses which are RARE.

And only then KAV (Kaspersky) aka AVP comes to the rescue.

A few years ago back when I was doing some trojans (:p) I used to check whether some new/rare/not so famous trojans get caught by anti viruses.

I sent a guy a trojan (with his consent) and his Norton did not detect it at all, but my KAV did.

KAV knows many more underground trojans/viruses than other companies.

I (unlike many others) do not keep real-time protection enabled, I just don't like the performance impact! (although the new KAV is pretty quick)

So I only scan files when I need to (manually), I never got a virus :)

P.S. AVG sucks badly.

[Jaded]

I just installed Kaspersky Anti-Virus 4.5... Is it any good or its okay and should protect me well? I changed from NAV since I had probs with it.

THanks!

4.5 is pretty good, but 5.0 is better. still has the same detection engine, just an easier to navigate interface. also it is less bloated from what i find

[dL]

Is AVG good?

dL

[dL]

Woah woah, who said Kaspersky is the best?

It takes like 50% CPU Usage when scanning. You call that good? I don't think so.

dL

[cork1958]

NAV has a very "cute" UI which appeals to many users..

Many people don't understand that EVERY AV on that list will protect you against all the latest/newest/whatever viruses.

The problems start when you get viruses which are RARE.

And only then KAV (Kaspersky) aka AVP comes to the rescue.

A few years ago back when I was doing some trojans (:p) I used to check whether some new/rare/not so famous trojans get caught by anti viruses.

I sent a guy a trojan (with his consent) and his Norton did not detect it at all, but my KAV did.

KAV knows many more underground trojans/viruses than other companies.

I (unlike many others) do not keep real-time protection enabled, I just don't like the performance impact! (although the new KAV is pretty quick)

So I only scan files when I need to (manually), I never got a virus :)

P.S. AVG sucks badly.

Caleb, man, you hit the nail dead on the head. I do my system EXACTLY like you. No real time crap. Scan everything new manually. I could not have said it any better than you did.

I just uninstalled NAV 2003 Pro off 1 system of mine last night and NAV 2002 off another system of mine today. Neither scanner ever found a trojan that I must have had for 2+ years. It was a Molly Hatchet dektop theme. Never used it as I don't do themes. Just had it because it was Hatchet. Installed KAV and it found it straight up. Then KAV found a trojan in a file a friend of mine sent me. Norton missed that one also. I tried the 5.0 Personal version first. To much eye candy for me. I like the simple, straight forward programs. Version 4.5 Pro rocks!!

[groberts]

I love AVG!!!! I use Norton right now because I can usually get it free after rebates, however, I install AVG on every computer I work on. It hasn't let me down....ever!

[Biohazord]

I use Norton System Works 2004 :blush: It use alot of resorces :no: and I am think about using Kaspersky becasue after trying it, I really saw how much resorces norton used :| just need some money.

[Ghatak]

norton all the way :D

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

Woah woah, who said Kaspersky is the best?

It takes like 50% CPU Usage when scanning. You call that good? I don't think so.

dL

I'll say Kaspersky's one of the best.

But to me total protection is more important than system resources. If you want nothing from your antivirus except for it to use almost no system resources than just install winamp and pretend it's an antivirus, because once you get the most stripped down AV program there is and start disabling even more features within it just to get a small footprint you might as well not even use an anti virus.

So if you want an anti virus that uses no resources while scanning, doesn't slow down your PC, and only has one service in taskmanager get winamp! It'll catch viruses just as good as your neutered anti virus program would and it plays music to boot!

[Jaded]

^^ i couldn't put it better my self :)

[Slimy]

kaspersky was a resource hog on my pc

does anyone know of a place to test your pc against virii?

[Slimy]

found this:

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

and guess wat?

f-prot did great

i clicked the file, it found the thing in my internet temps and deleted it

i clicked save as to desktop and it deleted it again

now that's wut i call a good antivirus

uses very little memory

i'm sticking with this!

[truncated0]

I voted for PC-Cillin, had this in my system for almost 4 yrs. never had a virus. I have Kaspersky too but i dont activate the monitoring for it, uses a lot of resources just a second antivirus in case i have doubts with a file.

McAfee sucks imho, having calls from a lot of noobs who messed up the system because of mcafee and their scanning engine is not that great compared to pc-cillin to norton.

Norton, it's fine but it also uses way too much resources for some noob system's that i handle. :happy:

[Biohazord]

found this:

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

and guess wat?

f-prot did great

i clicked the file, it found the thing in my internet temps and deleted it

i clicked save as to desktop and it deleted it again

now that's wut i call a good antivirus

uses very little memory

i'm sticking with this!

LOL norton didnt even see it :D shows how good norton really... :x

[SSRules]

avast pro is nice as well...sucks up little resources..hardly know its there until it works or uses that voice to tell you its updated defs..nice support as well