Definitive Best Antivirus 2010

[Barney T. Administrators]

An updated "Best Antivirus" for 2010. 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.

[iBenster]

NOD32 \o/

[Kronir]

My vote at the time goes to Avast Free. The new Version 5 is pretty darn good. Its been a couple of months since I used MSE, so I really can't compare, but I'm happy enough with the new Avast to stick with it for a while. :)

[:: Lyon ::]

There's mine... :whistle:

I'm 200% sure I'll find a virus or a spyware in your computer with a full thorough scan :D

[art Techo]

I've used avast for awhile... Never had any real problems with it.

[farmeunit]

newbie running XP Pro asking if MS Security Essentials requires MsMpEng.exe to work effectively?? I would like to dump this Defender-era CPU memory hog. Any advice if I can dump gratefully appreciated. Thanx. Skopros

Maybe this will help: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/msestart/thread/5309cb8d-02e1-40e8-974f-0dcedb9ab9fd

[bikeman25]

Been Contemplating Switching Over to MSE Full time on at least 3 Household PC's, Rest are running Avast 5 Free Edition(Family likes that version for some reason) Anyways last time i tried MSE on this Vista PC had an extremely slow bootup--not sure if was related to MSE or my All In One Printers software(HP All In One F380) Also How is MSE in terms of Detection, Performance, Does it interfer with PC gaming, and normal operations of the PC?

If someone could answser these questions, i just may start using MSE Full Time

[bjoswald]

MSSE for Windows, ClamAV for Linux.

[Max Veteran]

Been Contemplating Switching Over to MSE Full time on at least 3 Household PC's, Rest are running Avast 5 Free Edition(Family likes that version for some reason) Anyways last time i tried MSE on this Vista PC had an extremely slow bootup--not sure if was related to MSE or my All In One Printers software(HP All In One F380) Also How is MSE in terms of Detection, Performance, Does it interfer with PC gaming, and normal operations of the PC?

If someone could answser these questions, i just may start using MSE Full Time

MSE > Avast.

[Saburac]

I've stopped recommending Avast 5 because it doesn't seem to do jack squat. I'm working on a computer right now for the third time and it's loaded down with spyware and those fake antivirus programs (the owner keeps installing every free screen saver and tool bar he can find), and Avast didn't detect any of them. I used Clamwin and Malwarebytes antimalware to get rid of them. I'm going to try MSE and see if that works better.

[Oz.]

Today I had a serious f**king infected laptop situation.

nod32 (signatures up to date) don't know what version, killed by malware

after that the owner installed bitdefender, killed too by the malware

me:

I have uninstalled them (nod32, bitdefender)

after that I have installed Avast 5 Free, killed too by the malware, this time the system has been dead too

system restore doesn't work (black screen nothing happens for 1 hour)

then I have installed windows xp sp3 again over the old one (can't format because there are important files on windows partition)

installed windows, malware of course still there

avast processes are running but is killed by malware, I needed to use avast remover in safe mode to uninstall it.

I have installed Microsoft Security Essentials but can't update sigantures because of malware the update is killed, I downloaded the updates and installed them.

CPU 100% used, MSE finds 9 infected files but can't remove them, reboot over and over the malware is not removed.

I have removed MSE.

I have installed Avira Antivir Premium, updates worked fine (malware can't kill Avira) reboot for the updates made

Avira stat scanning and finds 97 infected files (worms, trojans, spyware, rootkits...) I never seen something like this before, all removed successfully by Avira

the system is running smooth now.

in my opinion Avira and Kaspersky are the best antiviruses.

[Denis W. Veteran]

MSE < Avast.

Fixed.

/me runs

But seriously, the file I/O bug really put me off from MSE. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but does MSE's auto-update depend on what your setting is for Automatic Updates? If it's anything like Windows Defender, that's not good for those who like to review each new Windows update but still want their AV to auto-update.

[SugarCain]

Shouldn't common sense be included in the poll? I see spyware/malware and viruses infect systems mostly because of tv/movie sharing websites, Limewire and BitTorrent downloads.

[Pierce28]

Don't forget Internet Security 2010! :-P

I'm personally a big fan of Trend Micro. Light weight, has a decent active scan, and doesn't get in the way of common sense.

[bikeman25]

Fixed.

/me runs

But seriously, the file I/O bug really put me off from MSE. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but does MSE's auto-update depend on what your setting is for Automatic Updates? If it's anything like Windows Defender, that's not good for those who like to review each new Windows update but still want their AV to auto-update.

File I/O Bug really put me off on MSE finally yesterday, was doing some PC backups, and moving some files around, opened my download folder on Desktop 2, and Windows Explorer Crashed 3 Times--so i was like ok your coming out,and i'll stick with Avast 5--Much faster boot up, file access and all that, and updates better than MSE did when i had it in.

MSE might be a good program, but just can't stand the File I/O bug or the updating how it handles that

[rage710]

I really like MSE, it seem to be lightweight, simple gui, and works pretty well....really surprising, considering who makes it :laugh:

[perBiteSu]

MSE: simple yet effective

[tomasarson]

i used to rock MSE but i've seen it let some people down.

now i rock kaspersky.

i like getting the 3 pc deal for a normal 1 pc price.

you can upgrade to the newest version of the software for free as long as your key still has time on it.

it's detected everything i've thrown at it.

it loves cleaning up computers already infected with tons of crap.

the hourly updates are awesome.

yeah i just like it.

[AstroCreep]

Shouldn't common sense be included in the poll? I see spyware/malware and viruses infect systems mostly because of tv/movie sharing websites, Limewire and BitTorrent downloads.

"Common Sense" can only help you so much now that the ubiquitous Flash and Acrobat/PDF format are exploited more often than MS applications.

I used to "fly naked" too until MSE came out. All the others, despite being free, ran too heavy for my tastes, so I gave MSE a shot, and have been pleasantly surprised. I'm curious about this I/O problem though; what's the situation there? I haven't encountered it yet...that I've noticed, anyway.

After installing MSE back in December I've been stopped while surfing due to exploited PDFs on two separate occasions. Ones that were linked from "reputable" tech news sites/links, at that! :/

[ad!k1337]

NOD32 + a lot of common sense

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I've not tried out lots of different Antivirus applications. I had Norton installed on the home PC because it came with the year subscription. Once that ran out, I looked around and found AntiVir. Not only was it free, but it found and fixed problems that Norton didn't even know about. I've never looked back since, and I recommend and install it on any PC I'm handed (with the owner's permission, of course).

AntiVir gets my vote.

[NeoXsis]

NOD32 is the best for me :whistle:

[itzwolf]

I've been using Symantec products on all my machines for a while. I can't really complain. The newer versions really seem to be top notch and not so bloated feeling.

[sgrajan]

Microsoft Security Essentials....all the way.

[stevvie]

I went to try Microsoft Security Essentials and they don't do a XP X64 version, now thats just EMBARRASSING for them.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I went to try Microsoft Security Essentials and they don't do a XP X64 version, now thats just EMBARRASSING for them.

Is it? XP x64 doesn't even have SP3 [yet].