Definitive Best Antivirus 2009

[Barney T. Administrators]

An updated "Best Antivirus" for 2009. Please use this as a reference when researching antivirus utilities. As time goes on, the poll can be updated to add further options.

Happy Voting.

[fix-this!]

avira

[~ Rogue ~]

Kaspersky, by far.

[NEVER85]

Avira AntiVir. Does the job for me. Got annoyed with NOD32 and its routine inability to catch malware properly. Hell, Windows Defender caught malware NOD32 missed. :/

[zeke009]

I did something I thought I'd never do again... I bought a Norton product! I picked up a copy of Norton AV 2009 3-User for $25 + $5 for 2 day shipping from Buy.com last week.

I recently used the following trial or free versions before deciding on Norton:

AVG Free - use this often for friends who have nothing, but never been a fan of the interface

NOD32 v4 - had to disable internet protection, it slowed IE and FF down too much to stomach

VIPRE - false positives right away

BitDefender - for some reason flagged files I was syncing with Live Mesh as virus's and removing them

AVIRA - honestly, can't remember why I uninstalled it...

Norton sold me because it was very light on resources, updates frequently and didn't give up false positives right after installing. I ran the trial/demo for about a week w/o incident and then seeing the bargain on Buy.com made me decide it was worthy of a purchase.

http://www.buy.com/prod/norton-antivirus-2.../208809763.html

I'll re-evaluate it when the renewal period comes up next year.

[djdanster]

Well I got Norton 360 v3 free from Symantec as I done testing with them. Ive tried Eset Smart Security 4, Bitdefender 2009 and NOD32 Anti-virus 4. I think Norton 360 v3 is definatly the best, its light on resources, the support is brilliant (instant representative support) and I think the dectection is the best out of all I've tried. Dont get me wrong, the others are good, but not as good as Norton 360 v3 :)

[imsobored17]

i use avg internet security for one simple reason

it was the first antivirus i ever used so i trust it

its the only internet security suite that has a antispyware that is better then superantispyware

its the only internet security suite that DEFENDS my computer and does not want to "optomize it" or remove undeeded disk space

i mean seriously theres enough of those computer wreakers i dont need them in my antivirus

[way2quik]

Can anyone who is using Vista 64bit and Antivir 9 answer me this...

EVERY update requires a reboot.... anyone else experience this?

[Elessar]

What's the best AV that uses up the least amount of resources? I have Trend Micro and while it works great, it takes forever to start up. My comp is no slouch either, in case that was someones question.

[Paixao]

Can anyone who is using Vista 64bit and Antivir 9 answer me this...

EVERY update requires a reboot.... anyone else experience this?

Did you block the ad that was displayed with the updater?

[PnP]

I currently use norton 360 v3.. very good and very light

[way2quik]

Did you block the ad that was displayed with the updater?

Yes I did.

Is that the cause? I don't mind having a popup if that means not having to restart every single time.

edit: OK. Should I just deny Read or deny Modify?

'Cause denying Read+Execute is the problem from what I read in wilderssecurity.

Edited April 12, 2009 by way2quik

[Kevin.]

Well I gave Norton 2009 a shot, and I have to say, I was really surprised on the huge improvements it's had over the previous versions. It installs quick and is very light on system resources.

My only real concern however is its effectiveness in detecting in removing malware. That was one of my main gripes with Norton and McAfee, their detection and removal abilities have dwindled down to almost nothing, where as AVG would find more malware and remove them all.

[DJ Dennis]

NOD32

Kaspersky good but uses too much resources.

[techknowl]

Kaspersky internet security is the best internet security suite and ESET NOD32 smartsecurity would be the second . But when it comes to antivirus alone , NOD32 is better . Avira antivir is one of the best in free category

[coresx]

Thing I didn't like about NIS2009 is that it buggers up system restore, it will always fail so you have to disable it. I just found that annoying because I didn't figure that was the problem after trying a few times.

[Scabro]

I've been using several Anti-virus applications on my PC, but after several years I've decided to stick to NOD32 - it seem to work the best for me.

Since I've started using it - I didn't have any problems with my PCs related to the virus.

Edited April 23, 2009 by warwagon

[sullysnet]

hands down Kaspersky :)

[Syonisus]

Kaspersky or Avira.

[mamamamamamama]

I rather like nod32 , but it hammers the cpu quite often (%50 or %100, each equally annoying). I'm considering switching to another, preferably free solution.

[Owen W Veteran]

I'm pretty sure NOD32 will win this pants hands down.

[s162216]

I have bullguard internet security 8.5 and its the best I have ever used after having AVG Internet security and before that Norton. Plus its dead cheap if you buy it off a 3rd party and not bulllguard itself. Honestly nothing gets through it.

[persona non grata]

I voted for what I use, (Nod32).

Although I think it's important to distinguish between AV programs on the basis of performance, and it's interesting to read everybody's one or two lines about which they think is best, I honestly question the value of a poll about this.

It's not how many people use an AV program that determines it's efficacy, but which one performs best in the independent comparative performance tests.

How many people here are qualified to vote on this, having tested each program fully?

We are all only thoroughly familiar with a few programs at best, so the results of this poll can only be based on subjective and biased data.

Polls are useful for some things, but not this.?

For this purpose a poll is merely interesting.

[Ji@nBing]

Easily Kaspersky.

[VMIT]

Shouldn't it be best paid/free?

[way2quik]

nod32 has been the top most voted AV in Neowin for quite some time.

It amazes me.

I've used 2.7 previously, but saw no reason to buy when I do have alternatives to look around.