com.virus

[David2011]

I've been an IT professional for about 25 years. All computers made in the last 10 years started out as pretty good performers. Today's ultra fast will be an also-ran in 5 years and not everyone can afford to upgrade constantly. For the vast majority that don't upgrade regularly Norton makes decent computers into pigs. Just my professional opinion. Avast! and Malwarebytes can run concurrently and both have free versions for home use. Their definition files are the same for free and paid programs so they will detect the same intrusions. The paid versions offer more ability to configure but don't always offer more ways to intercept intrusions so I've gone with the free versions on my home computers for years.

We use Symantec Endpoint Protection at work and it's pretty effective but I think Avast! and Malwarebytes are more agile in their response to new bugs and in their predictive programming that detects new undefined threats. We often have to wait 24-48 hours to get patches for newly discovered threats with SEP.

AVG seems to be about as effective as Avast! I am not a fan of Norton because it does slow down otherwise perfectly operating computers that may not be top of the line, latest and greatest with tons of RAM and SSD hard drives. I put Norton on my home desktop computer a few years ago and took it off within days because of the performance issues. Avast!, Malwarebytes and AVG don't consume a lot of resources and have had no perceptible impact on properly operating machines even if a few years old.

Running multiple antivirus programs is always a bad idea because each will likely detect the definition files of the other as viruses. One antivirus program and one anti-malware program can be run concurrently.

Apple products are not immune to bugs and as they become a larger portion of the market they are also a bigger target for virus and malware authors.

These are my favorites from the past few years:

Antivirus: www.avast.com


Anti-Spy/Ad-ware:

Super Antispyware: www.superantispyware.com

Malwarebytes: www.malwarebytes.org

Spybot Search and Destroy: www.security.kolla.de

Lavasoft Ad-Aware: www.lavasoft.com




David

[gwpercle]

Download for free at www.timpc.com or www.filehippo.com
Three utilities, CCleaner , Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and SUPERAntispyware.
Follow the instructions to install, I went to Tim's Computers site and downloaded, use for computers at office and at home. This stuff seems to work.
Gary

[xs11jack]

I am trying a new one called Avira Free Antivirus 2016, even recommended by Consumer Reports. So far so go.....
Ole Jack

[farmerjim]

+ 1 for Linux. Both Debian and Ubuntu Free and 6 years with no virus.

[oldcanadice]

Bitdefender: the free version. It is not a resource pig and is always rated very highly for protection.

Used to use AVAST, but it was becoming a tracker and resource pig. Cannot recommend it.

[DougGuy]

While on vacation in Florida last week, my gf's father's HP laptop was really sick, slugged to the hip in malware so bad it couldn't even run.

I installed Eset Nod32 64bit version and let it run. It found 135 instances of malware and suspect applications and cleaned it up pretty good. 43.6gb worth of temp files deleted let it start breating easier, and a defrag with Piriform had it running better than it was when new. Of course we uninstalled a few proggys he never used, and neutered the startup tab in task manager that had everything and it's brother loading and running on boot, ugh...

Give software engineers a fast dual core/quad core processor, and they find a way to slug it down to the speed of a 486 every time.

Just for kicks I d/l the Jan 2016 Microsoft Anti-spyware removal tool which is usually pretty good, and after running Nod32 the M$ tool did not find one suspect file.

[Rockydog]

I use Trend Micro. I bought a 20 year no cost update for less than $50 a couple of years ago. I can add up to ten computers to it. I get regular updates on the latest threats and month end reports with the number of tracking threats tuned away, viruses and malware threats addressed etc. It even tells me which sites they come from. They keep updating services too. Recently I got a free update that allows me to hover over a link before I open the page in 3-5 second it tells me of there is a danger within the link. It's effective enough that it recently became the main provider at my place of employment. RD

[GL49]

Thanks for the advice, David2011

[Digger]

Linux "Mint" user .... using a linux system , it goes on and on and .........
Oh , did I mention "versatile" ? , such a variety of systems to choose from ....

[454PB]

Reminds me of "who makes the best revolver?"......

I've used about everything previously mentioned, I've never had a problem, but some (like Norton) really suck up resources. I've been using Bitdefender for the last year or so and hardly notice it's installed.