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.

[abcdefg]

also, people who don't run an AV are likely to increase the prevalence of botnet's and/or virus - how do you know you're clean if you don't have an AV, hmmm?

Scary how people who run AV (that misses a lot of viruses) think they are secure by just having that running and have the nerve to babble their mantra "you don't have AV, you stupid"

How do you know you aren't infected when probably only thing that can prevent an infection is that lousy AV?

[ViperAFK]

I don't use any real time a/v but scan manually monthly and nothing ever shows up.

[+allan MVC]

I don't use AV but support the war in Iraq. These folks had it coming and got the butt kicking they asked for.

Juuuussssst a little off topic (not that I even follow the non sequitur :) )

[SakuraKira]

It's a sad thing to read about people in this thread thinking they can outsmart every virus writer out there because they somehow think they have a best practices methodology down to a science.

I agree with this 100%.

On one occasion I did a full reinstall of Windows. Before hooking up the internet I had installed my AV software. As I was downloading AV updates, without opening up a web browser, or doing anything else internet related, my AV software sent up alerts as I was downloading new virus definitions. I was completely disgusted. So disgusted in fact, that I didn't bother "cleaning" up the mess, and did a fresh Windows install again. That time around my luck had improved.

[WastedJoker]

Scary how people who run AV (that misses a lot of viruses) think they are secure by just having that running and have the nerve to babble their mantra "you don't have AV, you stupid"

How do you know you aren't infected when probably only thing that can prevent an infection is that lousy AV?

I'm sure I don't need to even bother typing a witty put down to that.

[uniacidz]

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.

Some claim that they dun use a AV but i personally feel its necessat these days for peace of mind.

I too am vigilant but sometimes they do somehow pass through and the AV Catches it.

IMHO, its worth something like Nod32 to have something with lil impact on system performance then to not have anything at all.

[Vettetech]

AV's have come along way. Long since gone are the days of SloYourPCDownNorton. I run Avira Premium and it is as light as a feather. No reason not to use an av since they dont impact your pc performance. Unless you have a junk system,.

[Brian M. Veteran]

AVG Free for all computers except my laptop which runs NOD32.

Only running NOD32 as I got a complimentary licence after moaning about their UK pricing :p

[MR_Candyman]

I never got spyware or viruses when only I was using my computers, but now that my woman does too, I run BitDefender and spybot because she just can't seem to avoid getting stuff...

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

I do at work because I have to really.. at home I don't bother and haven't done for the last 5 or so years. Sure it'll bite me eventually but meh..

[metallithrax]

I use AVG Free on mine, Avast on my Girlfriends, and F-Prot on the works computers.

[MasterC]

I used to use AVG free edition and Ad-Aware on my laptop and desktop. They just made me feel safe knowing that I at least had something to protect me. When my parents got a new computer, the first thing I did was install AVG free, Ad-Aware, and Windows Defender. But, ever since I switched to Linux and Mac, I haven't worried about it. :laugh:

QFT. I'm a computer tech at Circuit City and 90% of the work I do is removing viruses/spyware from computers, with at least 50% of those being completely unprotected. The amount of infection is amazing, and it's hilarious when we get the ones that thought they had some sort of method down to keep malware out.

I'm willing to say that the people who bring their computers to big box stores like that don't know much about them in the first place. On Neowin, that's the opposite - I'm sure people know what they're doing here ;)

[laz45]

I haven't used an AV in probably a year so lets do a test and scan my system, I wonder what we will find.... I'll update in 20 minutes :)

[Lexcyn]

NOD32 64-bit, just cause you never know.

[+allan MVC]

On Neowin, that's the opposite - I'm sure people know what they're doing here ;)

Based on the number of people who claim they don't use an AV, you are clearly mistaken. :no: I deal with IT professionals for a living and I don't know one - or any knowledgeable user for that matter - who would even turn on his system without it being completely protected (and obviously that includes the use of a good Anti Virus utility). No offense intended to anyone here - just stating a fact.

[Farstrider]

I'm willing to say that the people who bring their computers to big box stores like that don't know much about them in the first place. On Neowin, that's the opposite - I'm sure people know what they're doing here ;)

The quote below is on the front page of Neowin, and if this can and DOES happen to people like Trend then the odds of something happening to some punk user who thinks that they know better that the collective wisdom, representing de facto standards in terms of PC protection, then what can you say to the assertion that people here know what they are talking about?

Of the more than 20,000 web pages affected by a massive internet attack which started earlier this week, security vendor Trend Micro's site was among the victims, embarassing as it may be. Infected sites attempt to install password-stealing programs with a special affinity for online video games onto viewers' computers. Mike Sweeny, a Trend Micro spokesman confirmed that the company's site had been hacked Thursday: "A portion of our site -- some pages were attacked," he said. "We took the pages down overnight Tuesday night -- and took corrective action." Although researchers are still puzzled as to how the attacks took place, the use of Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology seems to be a common trend among infected sites.

[-Hiroshi-]

AVG Anti-virus, as well as bi-daily scans from BitDefender.

[Burned]

AVG Anti-virus, as well as bi-daily scans from BitDefender.

AVG antivirus is terrible. Better than nothing but not by much.

If you want to try a better free alternative, I recommend to clients Avira Antivir Personal.

To all you people who don't use an AV or Firewall, keep it up. Us technicians don't mind the extra work.

I run NOD32 on X64 with AVG-AS. Surf with Firefox and the NoScript plugin, behind a hardened firewall doing NAT, SPI, MAC Filtering....etc

[Unto Darkness]

I don't use an Anti virus too!

But with all these news of viruses present in IT products, I may have to rethink this.

[mildpanda]

been using Symantec Corporate Edition with Windows Defender for years, and am happy too. on the other hand though, i rarely get infected. last time i got, was bron.tok off a friend's PC through my USB drive... it's just proactive measures

[null_]

I run AVG Free Edition on all of my Windows-based computers, except on the server, where I have ClamWin.

[1Frothy]

I run AVG Free Edition on all of my Windows-based computers, except on the server, where I have ClamWin.

So you don't much care for your data on your 'Server' then. Each to their own; I guess.

[Windows7even]

antivirus is like a condom for windows..never leave home without it

loop

[jamend]

A lot of people are bringing up the exploit attack vector (browser bugs, protocol bugs, etc.). To be affected by them, you must either be using unpatched software or the exploit is yet to be patched. In the latter case, antivirus software probably won't do anything for you since the virus probably won't have a recognized signature either.

Here are some drawbacks of antivirus programs:

- they negatively impact system performance (though how much is debatable)

- they give a false sense of security (they're hardly perfect)

In the end, if antivirus software is the the last thing stopping a virus from installing itself on your system, then it's really just a band-aid solution. I think it's better to know how to avoid getting them in the first place, and know how to detect and remove them if it does happen.

Most people should of course by using antivirus software because they often don't keep their systems updated and they are far too curious about "britneyspearsnude.jpg.scr", but that doesn't mean everyone should.

[+allan MVC]

Here are some drawbacks of antivirus programs:

- they negatively impact system performance (though how much is debatable)

- they give a false sense of security (they're hardly perfect)

In the end, if antivirus software is the the last thing stopping a virus from installing itself on your system, then it's really just a band-aid solution. I think it's better to know how to avoid getting them in the first place, and know how to detect and remove them if it does happen.

Most people should of course by using antivirus software because they often don't keep their systems updated and they are far too curious about "britneyspearsnude.jpg.scr", but that doesn't mean everyone should.

Absolute nonsense.

First, nobody - and I mean NOBODY is more diligent about keeping his system "updated" than I am - and there is NO WAY I'd ever even turn on a system if wasn't running a top notch AV with current definitions (I use Kaspersky on all my systems, by the way). Second, every program you run draws upon system resources. So following your logic if you don't want anything to impair performance, perhaps it's best to just not install anything other than the OS. If you are using an AV and you feel it slows down your system noticeably, switch to a different product. For 20 years I was on the Norton / Symantec bandwagon, but their products became so "bloated" I eventually moved away. But not use an AV at all? That's for people who don't know better but think they do! And a false sense of security? Sorry - that's not even worth a comment.