Who actually uses Antivirus?

[KeeperOfThePizza]

I never use anti virus at all, I dont feel it's necessary. I mean if you know what your doing and what your downloading I think your safe.

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

VRAM,

Scenario 1: A hacker manages to compromise Neowin and plant malicious code on the front page. You browse to Neowin later that day. How do those of you that don't run AV defend against this type of attack in a Windows environment? Non-admin account, sandboxed browser, FF w/NoScript, etc?

Sandboxed IE on a non-admin account usually in a VMWare session.

Scenario 2: You are emailed an Excel or Word file from your boss that has been infected with a virus without his knowledge and you open it. Whats your defense against this?

My domain host virus scans all incoming and outgoing mail so I'd never even get it. They are a really good (pricey but worth it) host

[Swift33]

I never use anti virus at all, I dont feel it's necessary. I mean if you know what your doing and what your downloading I think your safe.

Even MS Security employees agree with you:

http://blogs.technet.com/steriley/archive/...o-needs-it.aspx

[Impact]

I don't use antivirus, just because on Vista, with UAC, DEP enabled, Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, IE 7 w/ protected mode and DEP on, I don't feel like I am at much of a risk of getting anything. I'm not stupid and don't download questionable things.

[getmeawhopper]

I never use anti virus at all, I dont feel it's necessary. I mean if you know what your doing and what your downloading I think your safe.

I use it - what would you do if you bought an infected picture frame? (Check CNN)

[DreadBoat89]

i use avast's free protection... i think antivirus programs should be used, but in this day and age, i cant see why you would need to pay to get something that is offered for free from other companies.

safe surfing habits, UAC, a hardware based firewall, windows firewall (since its built into vista), windows defender (also built in) and avast (doesnt take as much resources as others out there)

[wrack]

I know what I am doing online so I surely need a personal firewall, antivirus & antispyware. Even though my router has got NAT and SPI firewall.

ZoneAlarm Pro Interner Security for me.

[waruikoohii]

I used to use anti-virus on Windows 2000. But since upgrading to Vista in 2006, I haven't felt like it's needed, so I no longer use anti-virus software.

I keep up to date, keep UAC enabled, DEP enabled, I use IE7 with Protected Mode enabled...it's a winning system.

Even with Windows 2000, I've never gotten a virus on this computer.

[Rix]

I only started using NOD32 about a week ago.

I downloaded something from a site i usually trust and after i ran the program my firewall popped up asking if i wanted to allow "svchos.exe" to access the internet.

Turns out it was a trojan so i decided to get Nod32 just to be safe from now on

[kombolcha]

yes... peace of mind really.

[soniqstylz]

I use Bitdefender, but don't have it at startup, I just fire it up when I'm downloading something that I'm not 110% sure of, just in case.

[.exo.]

I use Avast on all my PCs, but I use my mac most of the time anyway which doesn't need antivirus (yet)...

[Zirus]

yes... peace of mind really.

Same.

I download files off p2p and stuff, so I never truly know what I'm getting. So, mcAfee Enterprise just sits down there until theres a problem. I don't bother with the bloated home versions.

[Abhishek kapoor]

I use avast and it is BEST

i do pre boot scanning once in a month .......

[Badie05]

If you don't surf on all those hacking sites and pirate stuff or watch extreme pron and have a brain with a decent human IQ I guess Antiviruses are things of the past. (Remember Limewire is bad). But Spyware is still deadly and you need protection from that. I personally do not have a antivirus but I do have a Firewall and Spyware protection.

[PermaSt0ne]

If you don't surf on all those hacking sites and pirate stuff or watch extreme pron and have a brain with a decent human IQ I guess Antiviruses are things of the past. (Remember Limewire is bad). But Spyware is still deadly and you need protection from that. I personally do not have a antivirus but I do have a Firewall and Spyware protection.

wow. you guys didn't read the thread at all did you.

--even with a decent IQ and good surfing habits there's hundreds of other ways to get viruses that require NO user interaction at all--

[Scorbing]

Antivirus = Same principle as a condom:

Better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it.

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

--even with a decent IQ and good surfing habits there's hundreds of other ways to get viruses that require NO user interaction at all--

...and anti-viruses can't detect every virus anyway...

[markwolfe Veteran]

...and anti-viruses can't detect every virus anyway...

Yeah. So why bother having one? Remove the firewall, and plug directly to your cable modem without a router protecting you too. Since some things can get through those, too.

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

Yeah. So why bother having one? Remove the firewall, and plug directly to your cable modem without a router protecting you too. Since some things can get through those, too.

I know what you mean. I said that for all those pro-antivirus elitists.

I don't bother with antiviruses. Of course though, I tell anyone who isn't computer-savvy to have one.

[Venomous]

I don't use any antivirus stuff at all. Just slows me down and irritates me if you use the internet wisely no problem and i have never had problems.

[timmmay]

I never used to until my wife put a virus on the computer :|

[imis]

I rarely ever get a virus, maybe once every 2 years and I'm very careful.

I still run anti-virus but focus on one's that don't impact the system resources, such ESet / Nod32.

I avoid the one's that are resources hogs (Norton360 comes to mind).

+1

[Scorbing]

After trying every antivirus out there, I finally decided for Trendmicro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2008. Got great reviews, better detection rates than Norton or NOD32...Yes you heard me right...NOD32...and if you don't believe me, take a look: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=625016.

Also Trendmicro 2008 is very light on resources. You don't even know its there. It scans web pages, web email, IMs, everything.

[Dan~]

I like my porn so I need an AV haha.

Nah seriously, I have norton anti virus corporate running on my server, and i've got client AV on all my PC's just as peice of mind to be honest., and the good thing about the corportate is that there isn't really a GUI or uses loads of resources, it uses about 28k of memory. I've never got a virus on my PC in years.

When I used IE6 on my girlfriends laptop for 5minutes to google some registery mods, I got 120 viruses :/ in 5 minutes!! so I reformatted again, then put Firefox on, then googled, sorted!

[CoolCatBad]

Not me, but when I set up a system for someone I always install free Avast.

But then again, I'm coming around to the conclusion that the unhealthy areas of the WWW that harbour malware are gradually being excluded from the ecosystem and AV protection will become an historical relic.