Which anti-virus for Windows at home, and why?

[Paul Adams]

I'm interested to see what peoples' take on anti-virus on their home systems is...
Did you get AV bundled with your PC system when you bought it?
Do you use free AV software?
Did you buy a different AV product?
Do you not use AV at all because you don't think it is needed if you know what you are doing?


I've had experience in corporate environments with McAfee VirusScan & NetShield, eTrust and Sophos.

I've also tried these free products at home: AntiVir, Avast!, AVG 6, AVG 7 Beta.

As I built all my PCs from components, I've never had any bundled AV software, and tend to hear only complaints from people that got things such as Norton or Norman AV (bloated, intrusive, too much of an impact on system resources, etc.).

[myth]

I am using Symantic Corperate... I never have to pay for updates!



Its interface isnt as nice as Norton, however it works very well!

[unrealrocks]

McAffe Anti Virus ... more effcient than Norton and takes up less resources.

[Atomic]

McAfee ViruScan v7 Corp.

Work licensed so nice and free

[r1zeek]

I used to use McAfee 6/7 on my rig but it decided it wouldn't want to work when installed so I am using AVG at the moment

[LWA]

I use Panda Titanium, simply brilliant. Updates itself everyday, picks up every virus!

[Apex]

Am using AVG 7 Paid for.

tbh for a few years i didn't both with av sw or a fw has i didn't need them. I still believe that with correct computer use you don't need them.

[chrissatchell]

I use Norton 2005...because someone bought it me...cant complain, they got me the whole Security set-up...

[eldren]

Currently don't use anything, relying instead on my firewall and the fact that I don't use client-side email. Don't download programs in general, so I feel relatively safe. I do plan to install something with my next reinstall (Which will be as soon as I get my new hardware later this week), and switch fully to Firefox (Although it has a few niggles, I might just get the source and try fixing them myself. Major one is the one-line tooltips vs. IE's multi-line ones, which I use heavily with the "New Posts" search page on Hexus).

[chrissatchell]

norton seems a bit intrusive for my likings

the worst bit of software is zonealarm, no wonder it stops internet attacks, it stops me connecting fullstop

hmm, its a pain sometimes but its better than nothing

Currently don't use anything, relying instead on my firewall and the fact that I don't use client-side email. Don't download programs in general, so I feel relatively safe. I do plan to install something with my next reinstall (Which will be as soon as I get my new hardware later this week), and switch fully to Firefox (Although it has a few niggles, I might just get the source and try fixing them myself. Major one is the one-line tooltips vs. IE's multi-line ones, which I use heavily with the "New Posts" search page on Hexus).

Some pages dont appear properly in Firefox so i tend not to use it much

[directhex]

whats firefox written in?

XUL.

XUL is written in something C flavoured, if i recall correctly.

[directhex]

Some pages dont appear properly in Firefox so i tend not to use it much

HTML compliant pages display in Firefox.


perhaps you're trying to view poorly written pages coded by monkeys?

[chrissatchell]

HTML compliant pages display in Firefox.


perhaps you're trying to view poorly written pages coded by monkeys?

Hmm its sites that have that have CSS styles or something i remember someone saying....or maybe they are just coded poorly, but they appear fine in IE

[Ceefer]

I've been using AVG free for a couple of years and like it very much. Also been using Zonealarm free for the same period with generally no complaints. However, now I'm hooked up to broadband with both my PC's going into a router I'm finding Zonealarm is causing problems so I'm looking for a good (free?) firewall recommendation.

[chrissatchell]

I've been using AVG free for a couple of years and like it very much. Also been using Zonealarm free for the same period with generally no complaints. However, now I'm hooked up to broadband with both my PC's going into a router I'm finding Zonealarm is causing problems so I'm looking for a good (free?) firewall recommendation.

Kerio Personal is free i think and its highly rated!

[Paul Adams]

I'm using AVG 7 Free (beta), of the free ones I have tried it is my preferred one.

AntiVir looks like an old Windows 3.11 16-bit application, the interface is nasty.
Also my personal firewall seemed to think it was constantly generating a low volume of network traffic.

AVG 6 Free has a fantastically small footprint, but the interface is also a little ugly.

Avast is pretty, and looks like it has a good configuration interface, but on my system it ate a hefty chunk of memory with its 5 processes.


Not sure I would bother paying for one, given the wealth of freely available ones that work perfectly well, and a lot of the time corporate AV products don't licence employees for home use so it's not worth the hassle.