# Antivirus program Poll



## johnb35

Ok guys and gals, since I somehow screwed up the original poll settings, I've made a new one.

This poll goes with the programs that are in this thread.

http://www.computerforum.com/166728-list-security-programs-use.html

Again, please limit choices to 2 programs.

This poll does work correctly this time.


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## Jagga

Would a anti-virus program be sufficient to keep you protected for tasks such as web browsing and watching streamed video (youtube).


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## Shane

I use Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 for Paid,I think it offers good protection.

Before i used Avast Free,seemed to do the trick but i wanted a full security package.


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## voyagerfan99

I use MSE and Avast myself. However, I highly recommend A-Squared Anti-Malware from Emsisoft. It is by far the most secure AV I have ever come across.


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## johnb35

voyagerfan99 said:


> I use MSE and Avast myself. However, I highly recommend A-Squared Anti-Malware from Emsisoft. It is by far the most secure AV I have ever come across.



Just now realized I forgot about A-Squared.  I'll have to add that to the program list.


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## tremmor

Im also using Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. lots of protection and many options.


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## TFT

Use to use AVG but have been running MSE for the last 12 months with no probs.
Options are very limited, doesn't need any user intervention, has prevented me from certain actions so that's a good plus point but maybe it's all because I realise what's bad out there and avoid it.


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## fastdude

I use Avast, though our family PC has kaspersky and it's never failed us


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## Quiltface

MSE here, its free, light, and effective. Free for personal use i believe.  ClamAV/Win on the other hand is completely free (home/corporate) and will install on windows server which MSE wont do.  So if you were wanting a AV solution for your office and wanted to save a buck and be compliant as well... clamav/win is the way to go.  I don't believe there is a AV server option though so every client updates on its own.


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## voyagerfan99

johnb35 said:


> Just now realized I forgot about A-Squared.  I'll have to add that to the program list.



I was going through their website when I had my dad buy a subscription and saw they have an emergency scanner for free. I downloaded it and use it now and again here at the computer shop along with combofix and malwarebytes


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## iAteBillyMays

Avira works like a charm.  I have yet to get a virus with it.


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## lucasbytegenius

I use NOTHING!! Mahaha!
Though it will be interesting how this poll turns out, I'm considering getting an AV program even though none of our computers have gotten a virus, trojan, or otherwise for the past 5 years.
Though there was that AV program scam that decided to install itself...but that may have been my mom 
Because I am worried about not having AV, I'm using Ubuntu right now.


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## fastdude

lucasbytegenius said:


> I use NOTHING!! Mahaha!
> Though it will be interesting how this poll turns out, I'm considering getting an AV program even though none of our computers have gotten a virus, trojan, or otherwise for the past 5 years.
> Though there was that AV program scam that decided to install itself...but that may have been my mom
> Because I am worried about not having AV, I'm using Ubuntu right now.



Well, linux is pretty secure. I guess not many viruses are targeted at unbuntu. Still, better to be safe than sorry.


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## Aastii

Me and Avast.

The user is the best protection though, you start going to dodgy sites, downloaded from untrusted/illegal sources, opening up all spam that you get and clicking on ads, it is just a matter of time before you get yourself infected. Common sense > AV


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## lubo4444

Kaspersky is the best of all in my opinion.  ESET32 is my second choice because it's light and it worked perfect for me before.  Although i dont use them anymore, they are still the best choices for me.


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## pachm

I have used many internet security programs in the past 10 years. Microsoft mse is a program to seriously consider. It has never failed me and I trust it 99%. it is light on resources and quite user friendly.


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## tech savvy

AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall here, very good.


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## johnb35

tech savvy said:


> AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall here, very good.



Well the new Avg sucks, it wants you to reboot after every update


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## Quiltface

johnb35 said:


> Well the new Avg sucks, it wants you to reboot after every update



Codename "AVG 98"


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## johnb35

Quiltface said:


> Codename "AVG 98"



Huh? You lost  me on that one.  The new one is avg 2011


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## tech savvy

johnb35 said:


> Well the new Avg sucks, it wants you to reboot after every update



i dont know which AVG your using,lol. i dont have to.


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## johnb35

tech savvy said:


> i dont know which AVG your using,lol. i dont have to.



avg 2011 but use avast now


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## TrainTrackHack

Quiltface said:


> Codename "AVG 98"


I think it's a reference to Win98's habit of asking you to reboot if you so much as looked at the Control Panel icon.

Anyway, I have the new AVG and it doesn't ask to reboot after every update. I get those reboot notifications every couple of weeks or so, and I have set it to update daily.


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## Quiltface

hackapelite said:


> I think it's a reference to Win98's habit of asking you to reboot if you so much as looked at the Control Panel icon.



Correct sir.


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## johnb35

hackapelite said:


> I think it's a reference to Win98's habit of asking you to reboot if you so much as looked at the Control Panel icon.
> 
> Anyway, I have the new AVG and it doesn't ask to reboot after every update. I get those reboot notifications every couple of weeks or so, and I have set it to update daily.



Mine was updating daily but wanted to reboot the system after the update and I hated getting the notifications every hour to reboot.  Besides, combofix won't scan your system with avg installed.  So I have been putting avast on all my clients machines when I do work for them.


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## vnsmith

I am using a Nod32 version 4if I am not mistaken.  Got it for free and it updates instantly without making my machine run slow.


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## gamblingman

My av is trend micro and I love it. It does a great job, easy to turn off, and has a LOT of features for total safety. It also has a strong firewall. Its cost is minimal and totally worth it.

I also install MSE on machines I repair to replace AVG. Its a shame about what AVG has done, they used to be the "go-to" antivirus company.


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## johnb35

gamblingman said:


> Its a shame about what AVG has done, they used to be the "go-to" antivirus company.



So true!!!  Avg should be ashamed of themselves for what they did to the new version.

I'm still trying out avast and liking it so far.


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## hyperfire

I use kaspersky now. For ages i was stuck with norton on the family computer, i hated it. I took great pleasure in deleting the default norton that came with my new OEM pc. (yes, i know self builds are better, believe me, i wanted to, but my benefactors (aka my parents) think OEM is for some reason far superior).


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## C4Radon

AVG internet Security 2011, pair that with AVG Pc tuneup and its all good.


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## adamcpennington

AVG is okay. They did me dirty a few years ago, a glitch they've most likely solved since. After an hour or two of reloading a fresh XP installation I ran AVG- not that it needed it- just to let it do it's thing. After the scan it reported that it had found definitions that could cause harm if deleted. Was it a virus? Was it a trojan stuck into the torrent copy of XP I was using? IDK. It bsod on reboot after I decided to give it the go ahead. I've since turned to PC Tools Dr Spyware offered free from Google. That along with MS Security Essentials. That's not all I use, just the ones I leave to run on a customers computer. Other anti-viruses have different strong points.


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## johnb35

adamcpennington said:


> AVG is okay. They did me dirty a few years ago, a glitch they've most likely solved since. After an hour or two of reloading a fresh XP installation I ran AVG- not that it needed it- just to let it do it's thing. After the scan it reported that it had found definitions that could cause harm if deleted. Was it a virus? Was it a trojan stuck into the torrent copy of XP I was using? IDK. It bsod on reboot after I decided to give it the go ahead. I've since turned to PC Tools Dr Spyware offered free from Google. That along with MS Security Essentials. That's not all I use, just the ones I leave to run on a customers computer. Other anti-viruses have different strong points.



Yeah, most likely you had malware in your torrented copy.  An antivirus program is your first line of defense, however, you will find out that malwarebytes/superantispyware will be better at detecting todays infections.


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## kurby

Avira
Bitdefender
Eset
F-Secure
Kaspersky

Best anti-virus products of the year.

Here is the Report.


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## OvenMaster

I like Avira Free version. 
AVG always manages to flag and remove Windows files, and Avast gives a lot of false positives.


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## Punk

I used to have Norton for a while, it was great. I used to go on some grey area websites and never got anything past Norton.

Then I went to Avast because it was free, been using it for about three years now and never got any virus either.

I recommend both of them, if you want to pay, Norton is great. If not, Avast free is good enough!

EDIT:
In order to have a full protection, I suggest you add a anti-malware software such as Malwarebyte


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## spirit

I agree with the comments regarding AVG, it used to be brilliant, especially AVG Free 7.5, but then after 8.0 and 8.5, it started to become a bit rubbish. Takes an age to install and yes it does ask you to reboot after every single update.

I use Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security (a mouthful I know) at the moment, it's pretty much the best I've ever come across if you can afford it (it runs off our server and is on all our computers at home), so I voted Trend in the poll. If you want a free anti-virus I'd recommend either Avast, for it's features, or MSE, for it's ad-free and simple-as-you-like user interface. I have used Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, 2010 and 2011 in the past, but I preferred Avast Free in the end as it was so much faster, had the same sort of features, and of course it was free. I especially preferred Avast Free Anti-Virus when Avast Free 6.0 came out about a year ago now.


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## turbodiesel

voyagerfan99 said:


> I use MSE and Avast myself.




me too thier definatly the best i like the added features in avast


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## WeatherMan

Right now, Nothing (I'll be switching to an SSD soon)

But usually Avast! 

Although I remember 4ish years ago, when it was a piece of absolute junk!


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## turbodiesel

Bootup05 said:


> Right now, Nothing (I'll be switching to an SSD soon)
> 
> But usually Avast!
> 
> Although I remember 4ish years ago, when it was a piece of absolute junk!



me too thought it would never become as good as it is now


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## ayan

Avast is doing an wonderful job considering it's a free antivirus. I expected worse of it, but it's doing great. Kudos to avast :-bd


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## bconover93

I used to use AVG, but MS Security Essentials stays out of the way and does its thing while using up barely any RAM or CPU.


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## lucasbytegenius

I've been turning almost everybody I know away from AVG, Norton, McAffee, and Avast to MSE. They're much happier


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## snorkyller

Last year I had to clean the hard drive of my friend who was full of malwares and viruses. I used Superantimalware, Malwarebytes and spybot, and at a point, I couldn't find any others but the problem was remaining.
Then I tried Avira Antivir and it found many infections that were in the "System volume information" folder. Since that time, I use Avira but I suppose that Avast should also be good since most of people are using it.


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## voyagerfan99

Spybot is really an old piece of software that has never really worked that great.


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## DCaudill

I use Webroot along with Malwarebytes (Paid). I have Comodo also as a backup firewall as it seems to catch a lot of activity on my system and lets me inspect it. 

SpyShelter is something that I am looking into as it detect keyloggers and screenshot captures and unauthorized webcam and audio recording. 

I have Eset NOD32 on my other machine, but they have went downhill the past couple of years.


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## Gun

I'm about to get a new AV, what do you think, MSE or Avast?


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## lucasbytegenius

s3and3 said:


> i'm about to get a new av, what do you think, mse or avast?



mse.


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## spirit

S3AnD3 said:


> I'm about to get a new AV, what do you think, MSE or Avast?



Yeah I vote for MSE too. Less annoying than Avast.


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## PCunicorn

I use MSE also, but I have heard that it's not detecting threats as well as before so I might switch.


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## Havoc

Comodo should be on that list, it has a higher detection rate than most of those..


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## spirit

Havoc said:


> Comodo should be on that list, it has a higher detection rate than most of those..



It's just a firewall isn't it?


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## Punk

I need to change my option to Avast... Used to have Norton...


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## spirit

The free stuff is miles better than Norton.


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## lucasbytegenius

spirit said:


> The free stuff is miles better than Norton.



This.


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## PCunicorn

Thinking of trying out Panda when i go to Windows, or maybe no AV at all. I don't visit malicious sites (contrary to my mothers beleifs lol), and if I run a Malware bytes scan everyonce in a while I should be fine. But MSE isn't annoying or resource intensive so I might as well keep it.


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## CorruptHawkeyez

I'm not one to usually tell people I don't use any type of anti-virus program, but I don't; and haven't used one in quite a long time. When I was younger and still to this day, I follow along with the virus and trojan scene, so I know what to look for and how to get rid of most virus's/trojans and have also reversed a few cd key stealers to find where the info was being sent and even logged into these FTP's to see how idiotic some kids are.

You wouldn't believe how many people back then were having their CD key stolen from various programs. These programs would grab a lot of the well known game CD keys and also grab the Windows version and CD key for that too. I had a lot of FTP's, from various websites, shut down due to these CD key stealers.


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## PCunicorn

Yeah, I never used AV on my old lappy as it had bad specs and i didnt want to have the load of AV on it.


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## PCunicorn

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/artic...ir_own_security_essentials_anti-virus_package

That's pretty bad. I may still use MSE 'cause its lightweight and I'm pretty good about not downloading or going to malicious content and I do a MWB scan every other week. Might switch to Panda though, it's lightweight. I use Lookout for Android which I just got my own recently, and have been installing it on relatives new androids for several years now.


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## voyagerfan99

I don't care much about getting infected since I can take care of a lot of stuff. However I did hear from Bobby that MSE will probably soon be dropping MSE. It hasn't had good detection rates. I just switched my laptop and desktop over to Avast! myself.


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## johnb35

YES!!!  AVAST for the win!!!  lol


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## voyagerfan99

johnb35 said:


> YES!!!  AVAST for the win!!!  lol



And as soon as I installed it I shut the stupid voice noises off.


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## johnb35

voyagerfan99 said:


> And as soon as I installed it I shut the stupid voice noises off.



Yeah, I always do when I install on clients pc's.  Also make sure you do a custom install and do not install the software updater.  If you forget to do that then go back into add/remove and just change it.


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## PCunicorn

Avast! looks lightweight but doesn't it have annoying popups? That is the biggest reason I use MSE, you only get popups when you need them, no asking you to get a paid version, etc.


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## spirit

Not used Avast for a long time. I used to use it on a lot of customer's PCs and even my own but I started to use MSE and Malwarebytes instead because of less stupid popups. We have Trend Micro software at home so I stand by that.


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## MyCattMaxx

I've been using Comodo for quite a few years.
I can't complain, took a little getting used to but I haven't caught a virus with it (never have before).
Just don't use their proxy server for browsing since that is feeding them your surfing habits.
I had used Avast before Comodo and have no complaints with it either.


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## PCunicorn

I might go with ESET NOD32, it supposed to be lightweight and great. But it's probably overkill for me.


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## voyagerfan99

SWAG said:


> Hmmmm, what do you guys think of kaspersky ??



It's okay. I've seen issues where it causes issues on a system.



SWAG said:


> Comodo ? i swear that's a VPN  ;O. so. what the hell.



No. Comodo is a firewall and internet security.


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## johnb35

voyagerfan99 said:


> It's okay. I've seen issues where it causes issues on a system.
> 
> 
> 
> No. Comodo is a firewall and internet security.



You do know that was fluffy right?  Lol


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## voyagerfan99

johnb35 said:


> You do know that was fluffy right?  Lol



No I didn't


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## spirit

I've just installed the new Avast Free on my secondary PC. Not used Avast Free for a couple of years now. It seems quite nice actually and since MSE's detection rates have apparently been going down I may start recommending Avast instead of MSE again.


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## PCunicorn

Yeah but it's still fine as long as you don't do stupid crap on the internet.


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## Geoff

I never run AV


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## DMGrier

So if MSE is having a low detection rate then wouldn't this mean that Windows Defender in Windows 8 also be having a low detection rate as well since from my understanding that Defender is basically MSE?


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## spirit

DMGrier said:


> So if MSE is having a low detection rate then wouldn't this mean that Windows Defender in Windows 8 also be having a low detection rate as well since from my understanding that Defender is basically MSE?



I never bothered with Windows Defender anyway. I would always run another AV and Malwarebytes too.

And yes, it probably is being affected by low detection rates.


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## DMGrier

spirit said:


> I never bothered with Windows Defender anyway. I would always run another AV and Malwarebytes too.
> 
> And yes, it probably is being affected by low detection rates.



Good to know


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## Reton

I use a combination of things to keep my computer running clean. I have been using this "system" for years with no infections of any kind to date. I use Avast in combination with spybot as well as Firefox running no script and Adblock plus.

Using the above programs works. It's easy on system resources and keeps things running smoothly. Now the important thing is getting family on board with using no script....

Cheers

Reton


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## PCunicorn

MSE is defender so anything that happens to MSE happens to Defender. And, now that MSE us defender, guess what I use? MS Defender. Its more light than ever, and I use MSE every week or so. Its plenty for my needs, I never really understand why some people just dont touch Defender, it works fine and now it works better than ever.


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## lucasbytegenius

PCunicorn said:


> MSE is defender so anything that happens to MSE happens to Defender. And, now that MSE us defender, guess what I use? MS Defender. Its more light than ever, and I use MSE every week or so. Its plenty for my needs, I never really understand why some people just dont touch Defender, it works fine and now it works better than ever.



Depends on which version of Windows you're using. On Windows 7 and below, Defender is just antispyware protection, on Windows 8, it protects against malware in addition to spyware as well. So you do need MSE on Windows 7 and below.


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## PCunicorn

Yeah I know, doesnt really matter too me cause I'm on 8. I want to buy Nod 32 or whatever its called next time its on sale, occasionally newegg will have AVs for $5.


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## Agent Smith

I see so many people use MSE despite its low detection rate and I just laugh. I'm just using Windows Defender, but I use Sandboxie and scan files I introduce to the computer. Autoplay is off.  I had Bitdefender Free, but it didn't work with a game mod I had so I had to uninstall. But Bitdefender is pretty good. You just have to create an account. 

Anyways... If you have MSE see if it detects this simple virus test file. http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com

This is what it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EICAR_test_file

Windows defender couldn't even detect it and did NOTHING!

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerab...ntials-loses-av-certification/d/d-id/1107614?


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