Virus Protection

[Bill*]

Microsoft Essentials is free and does a decent job.....as stated by another poster, do yourself a huge favor and remove norton before you install any other anti-virus software.

+1 on MSE. But it's a good idea to D/L (free) a copy of Malwarebytes Anti-malware and run it once a week or so.( Yes, they get along as they're "different animals" )

[Moonie]

I do UNIX/Linux admin/security for a living. On windows machines I use either Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG free, both are free and work well.

[mtnman31]

I use both Norton and McAfee on different machines. I like Norton and have never had any problems with it, personally. I like that it is fairly intuitive to use. I don't like that it is a resource hog and on an older machine can really slow it down.
McAfee seems to work well also but I don't like the user interface at all. I have a heck of a time managing it and doing basic tasks such as setting up scans.
My wife's computer has AVG and the computer is such a piece of junk that I had to buy her new laptop for Christmas. Honestly, the computer (Toshiba) has always been a problem and I can't say for certain how well the AVG works or doesn't.

The key to making any virus program work for you is to keep it updated regularly. Also a little regular, basic housekeeping on your computer goes a long way towards system longevity. One of my laptops was purchased in 2004 and has seen hard use, including two Iraq deployments, and is still running strong. Only issues I have had with it were a dead wireless card (I killed it with ESD when I upgraded RAM) and a battery that no longer holds a charge for more than 15 minutes. I attribute its long and useful life to regular upkeep and a solid anti-virus program.

[GabbyM]

Avast Free version.
Will perform a boot time scan. Runs before windows starts. You don't need to know how to clean boot a system Just set Avast to run a boot time scan. Then re start. This will find and remove viruses that hide when Windows is up and running. Zone Alarm Free runs pretty good. Comes with a two way firewall. At first they pop up plenty of offers to upgrade. Offers to clean your computer of trash if you purchase software. It gives up after a while.

[dragon813gt]

AVG or Avast. Norton and McAfee are memory hogs that bog everything down. I get a kick out of Mac users that say they don't have to worry. Maybe not now. But they become a bigger target w/ every new one that goes online. If you think they won't be targeted you are fooling yourself. I honestly worry about my iPhone. They are such a big target that I'm surprised no one has hit them yet.

[sleeper1428]

Another vote for AVG. I happen to use the three (3) machine paid version and have been quite satisfied with it for the past several years. Besides doing everything that McAfee and Norton will do, it also has what I consider to be two essential features of any anti-virus/firewall program. Specifically, the firewall is comprehensive and easily configurable for actions to take on incoming and outgoing data for each and every one of your programs and secondly, it is quite simple to suspend TOTALLY all functions of the program. These are features I want in my anti-virus/firewall program, especially the second one which I use whenever I install a new program and indeed most programs suggest that you do just that, suspend your anti-virus program, while doing the installation. Having used McAfee in the past, I know for a fact that it is essentially IMPOSSIBLE to suspend that program and all its functions and Norton is much the same, or so I've been told. Also, as someone has already mentioned, totally removing either McAfee or Norton from your machine can be quite frustrating - they seem to have 'hooks' in so many places that even their own removal function tends to have difficulty getting rid of all traces of the program.

sleeper1428

[blackthorn]

Good morning all. Thank you so much for your helpfull suggestions. From the replies I find the AVG got the most votes with Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials tied for second place. We will likely try AVG based on the replies.

MaryB---What did you mean by "a Norton remover"? Does this mean to just remove Norton through the controll panel? Or is there a specific process to get rid of it? Thanks!

[David2011]

Computers are my day job- systems analyst for a very large company everyone has heard of. Norton uses so much of the computer's resources that you need an upgrade in hardware just to maintain the same preformance. I've used Avast for many years. It does a good job on junk e-mails and websites. AVG is also very good. Agreed that multilayer protection is good but don't install more than one Anti-Virus program.

Suggestions: All have free for home use versions

www.avast.com
www.avg.com
www.malwarebytes.org
www.superantispyware.com
www.safer-networking.org This is the real Spybot Search and Detroy website. If you just run a search for "Spybot" you may end up with worse problems than you already have.

David

[CGT80]

Eset Smart Security. It doesn't slow the computer down and is supposed to have a very high track record of catching things that norton or mcaffee miss. My neighbor is an IT guy and writes programs for police communications systems. He recommended it to me. You can get a trial download from the eset web site, and you can buy and renew the program on the web as well.

[scarry scarney]

Another AVG user

[M-Tecs]

The computer geeks (paid) at work all use Microsoft Security Essentials so that good enough for me. We get Norton or MacAfee’s free but they still recommend Microsoft Security Essentials.

[uscra112]

Do AVG and MSE offer the firewall functionality the McAfee has? I've run McAfee for years and years, just out of habit since that's what our IT dept required up to the time I "went Galt" (i.e. early retirement) in 2009. But as posted above it is a nasty memory hog, and I'm getting sick of that. Also sick of how much bandwidth it latches onto every time it updates. And the new user interface does indeed suck rocks. Designed for tablets, not real computers.

I'll probably be switching to Linux soon, since WinXP is going to lose support from MS in a few weeks. My five old Dell 640s don't have the memory or processor speed to run later versions of Windoze.

Absolutely NOT an Apple fanboy, after watching the rate at which my friends' Apple hardware breaks down.

[smokeywolf]

I run both Avast and Malwarebytes.

[Lead Fred]

AVG is free, but not great, Avast is free and has pop-ups.
The best protection is a program called The Shield Deluxe.
Sold 100s of copies when I was in the PC business.

[skruske]

Looks like everyone has an opinion.

I'll offer this. I install these four programs on every computer I own and recommend them to all my customers. Most take my advice & use them.

All are free at http://www.filehippo.com/

Avast - least memory hungry available currently, daily auto updating
Ccleaner - flushes away all the **** that gets downloaded, plus it cleans up the registry - run it weekly
Defraggler - defragments your hard drive down to the file level - run it once per month after running ccleaner and rebooting
Malwarebytes - catches things that Avast might miss, though lately it hasn't found anything Avast hasn't already crushed

When using Ccleaner, I recommend running Windows 'Disk Cleanup' as well to be completely thorough.

One last thing, periodically, you will notice your PC slowing down. That is a clue that Avast needs a version update.

[6bg6ga]

Kaspersky - them Russians know all about security. You don't see many of their spooks looking for asylum here these days, do you?

I used AVG and ended up with problems. I then purchased Kaspersky and it stops everything

[rbertalotto]

I went through virus hell for the last 3 months. One after the other. Using all kind of virus software I could find. I finally bought a Mac and I'm done with it. After using a Mac for a month or so I finally get why everyone so excited about this product.

[GabbyM]

Ran Security Essentials for a while. However when I did get infected and when the teenagers of the family would show up with really messed up putters. Security Essentials wouldn't clean them up. So far Avast running the boot time scan has cleaned p every mess I've gotten into. Currently am running Zone Alarm for the two way firewall. Do not know much about it though. Still have Avast installed but active shields are disabled. I run the boot time scan once a month or more.

Back several years I used to keep a Linux system CD ready. When I'd get a computer that wouldn't even run. Boot it up on the Linux CD and run the system off the CD. Then run virus cleanup on the HD. Usually would take a windows system disk to repair the windows op system after. Since by default if the thing wouldn't even run the virus had corrupted windows.

[Bill*]

Looks like everyone has an opinion.

I'll offer this. I install these four programs on every computer I own and recommend them to all my customers. Most take my advice & use them.

All are free at http://www.filehippo.com/

Avast - least memory hungry available currently, daily auto updating
Ccleaner - flushes away all the **** that gets downloaded, plus it cleans up the registry - run it weekly
Defraggler - defragments your hard drive down to the file level - run it once per month after running ccleaner and rebooting
Malwarebytes - catches things that Avast might miss, though lately it hasn't found anything Avast hasn't already crushed

When using Ccleaner, I recommend running Windows 'Disk Cleanup' as well to be completely thorough.

One last thing, periodically, you will notice your PC slowing down. That is a clue that Avast needs a version update.

My only input would be about running the CCleaner registry option. If you visit any of the tech support sites, they almost always recommend skipping that as it seems to cause more problems than it fixes.

[sljacob]

I use Kaspersky, I have had good luck with it.