Need new virus software... sick of Norton

Sage

Well Nortons slows down my machine and it takes it sweet time to fully load my OS, cause it 's norton.

I like to reformat my drive as needed and I'll buy need drives as needed. Norton acts like it's a separate pc if you activate on a new drive even if it's in your same case. Sick of this BS. That's not too bad because All I had to do was have Symantec reset Norton so it let me reactivate, but I don't like it, and Norton is slow. Is Norton 360 just as slow or worse, slower? I had 2005, then 2006 then bought subscription, I won't be doing that again because of the activation BS. I was very unhappy with 2005 and later. I didn't have the issues I had with the earlier versions of said software and I could just update my subs without being told I have to upgrade.

So what else is good, doesn't slow down your PC to a crawl, isn't intrusive, works and it's quick and safe.

Thanks.

Alex

Michael Knubben

Avg has always worked well for me, and is a lot less resource-hungry. I've always had absolutely terrible experiences with Norton anti-virus, so I haven't used it in a while, but sounds like you're having the exact same problems I was. There's another anti-virus that's popular with the tech-crowd, but I can't remember its name. I think It's avast. This link has the results of a poll on free options: http://lifehacker.com/software//free-antivirus-roundup-035683.php

Japhir

avg is great, but it updates a lot and then keeps complaining that it wants me to restart the computer so the update process is complete . i believe it came out best at some tests also ?.

leilei

I use ClamAV because when I know it's open source it's got no nonsense. It actually found a few (new and old) though sometimes its updater doesn't function. It also doesnt hinder my machine and you can also run a Linux version incase you need to scan but your windows is totally broked. (It scans for Windows and DOS viruses). The big drawback is that it doesn't scan "on the fly" in real-time. You will have to manually provoke the program to scan.

Norton ew, that thing eats up like 99% of my CPU and treats priority and system memory no mercy.
I used to use Avira but I got fed up by the background popunder ads that pop there unexpectedly advertising some pro or enterprise edition of their product
AVG was never consistent and kept flipflopping between Free and Trial versions on the site.

The best most valuable virus protection is advised cautiousness (I can not stress this enough, this awesome program saved me from lots of virus situations), and no p2p for executable binaries.

Michael Knubben

Japhir: that sounds like either a bug, or you're running an old version. Have you got the latest?

edit: to clarify, it needs to reboot when it updated the program itself, rather than the virus definitions. And even then it only needs to reboot itself, not the pc, I believe.

RustyFranks

i used avg free up until the latest version. don't like 8 so much. switched to nod32 awhile back and have really liked it.

Wej

I use Avast. Works great for me. Free for home use. Doesn't effect much of your performance...

It does have an annoying update thing every time it updates. But you can turn the voice off, so nothing that bad at all...

Eric Chadwick

Great summaries of freeware AV, among other things.
http://techsupportalert.com/dr/all-freeware-detailed

Japhir

MightyPea: it asks me to reboot my computer once it is finished updating. it works properly the next time i start up my pc (e.g: reboot ). i don't have to do it immediately though. I have the latest free version.

Super

NOD or Kaspersky

PolyHertz

NOD32 is what I use for both my machines, and haven't had any virus or speed issues.

Mcafee and Norton both have alot of problems from my experience. AVG is ok but back when I used it it seemed to miss some viruses (its free though).

Avast and Kaspersky are good too.

timwiese

avast works very well. I use it after using AVG for a while. I got sick of AVG because it would slow down my startup process.

D4V1DC

No one Likes TrendMicro?

Here are some ratings I don't know the validity of the site or the review but it gives some insight to what might be the best overall.

[URL="http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com]Protection Software Review[/URL]
http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
Hope this helps!

pliang

Trendmicro's pretty well known to some...but Zone Alarm topples most of them out there...

Option

I use TrendMicro for my bootcamp windows partition on my Macbook Pro, it works a charm.

jpgourley

I've been using AVG over the last year, and have really liked it. No problems so far. At work my boss uses Nod32 and has had unbelievable virus problems since installing it. I don't know that this is a widespread problem with Nod but I won't go anywhere near it myself.

Marcus Dublin

I've been using AVG "paid version" and so far it seems to be doing a good job. The only drawback would be the hit to your internet browsing speed, it seems to me that AVG likes to take it's sweet time scanning page after page which can be quite annoying at times. That being said I was willing to take the slight hit on my internet speed for the extra security though I'm not sure how many others would, I guess you just have to try before you buy.

dUb

Avira AntiVir was what I used until I recently switched to Mac.

Best antivirus I ever used (free and leightweight). There is a nag-screen to upgrade to a paid version every time you update... but you can get rid of it with some registry editing.

I recommend it to anyone asking for a good antivirus. It also comes out on top on the website EricChadwick posted.

Sage

Cool, I'll go take a look at these and see how it goes. It just seems that a lot of developers are getting more intrusive with their apps and making them less effective and worse slower and memory hogs. Thanks for the feedback.

Alex

hawken

hah I almost forgot about anti virus software woes.

no. actually I forgot. good luck