Antivirus program Poll

What antivirus program do you use and/or recommend

  • AVG

    Votes: 30 23.1%
  • Avast

    Votes: 43 33.1%
  • Avira

    Votes: 14 10.8%
  • Bitdefender

    Votes: 4 3.1%
  • CA Antivirus

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Clamwin

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Eset/nod32

    Votes: 7 5.4%
  • Kaspersky

    Votes: 12 9.2%
  • Mcafee

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • Microsoft Security Essentials

    Votes: 39 30.0%
  • Norton/Symantec

    Votes: 14 10.8%
  • Trend Micro

    Votes: 4 3.1%
  • PC Tools

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • Panda

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • F-Secure

    Votes: 1 0.8%

  • Total voters
    130

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
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.
 

PCunicorn

Active Member
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.
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
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.
 

MyCattMaxx

Active Member
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.
 

PCunicorn

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

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
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.
 

DMGrier

VIP Member
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?
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
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.
 

Reton

New Member
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
 

PCunicorn

Active Member
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.
 

lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
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.
 

PCunicorn

Active Member
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.
 

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
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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