Antivrus in the background or on demand?

jimsteranko · 6 Jan 2010 at 16:41

I use Photoshop (CS4) quite a bit and have noticed recently a lot of "not responding" events. I've installed quite a few malware, etc. programs and most seem to want to run in the background. I've now disabled all these but am worried about not having an antivirus prog running constantly. Necessary or not?

Your thoughts? - give them to me.

Greenlizard0 · 6 Jan 2010 at 16:42

Are you on the internet at the same time?

Duke · 6 Jan 2010 at 16:45

Which AV / antispyware applications have you installed?

AbsenceJam · 6 Jan 2010 at 16:53

Resident protection has been the norm for years. By the time you do an on-demand scan you're infected already and can't do a lot.

theheyes · 6 Jan 2010 at 16:57

If you're just working on Photoshop and doing nothing else then I don't see anything wrong with disabling the antivirus temporarily.

jimsteranko · 6 Jan 2010 at 17:02

I was using Norton 360 v2 but the uprade price was about £10 or more over just nipping into town and buying the newer version from a store with a name reminiscent of Ulysses' dog.

Currently using Avira.

No Star Trek: The Motion Picture fans here? Thought someone would have caught it?

NathanE · 6 Jan 2010 at 17:23

Resident AV shouldn't be relied upon to catch all infections though. In fact, it should be the last line of the defense because it is, unfortunately, the least likely layer in any security system to actually do its intended job.

CurlyWhirly · 6 Jan 2010 at 18:46

NathanE said:
Resident AV shouldn't be relied upon to catch all infections though. In fact, it should be the last line of the defense because it is, unfortunately, the least likely layer in any security system to actually do its intended job.

Crikey, I thought that resident anti-virus was a major factor in protecting your PC ?

I thought that a firewall was less effective ?

DJ Prem · 6 Jan 2010 at 19:06

I've ESET and it runs in the background but never had a similar problem and I ran a full scan once a month or so.

CurlyWhirly · 6 Jan 2010 at 19:20

DJ Prem said:
I've ESET and it runs in the background but never had a similar problem and I ran a full scan once a month or so.

I also use ESET (NOD32) and have never (touchwood) had a problem here either.

I run a weekly scan as opposed to your monthly scan though.

Duke · 6 Jan 2010 at 19:24

jimsteranko said:
I was using Norton 360 v2 but the uprade price was about £10 or more over just nipping into town and buying the newer version from a store with a name reminiscent of Ulysses' dog.

Currently using Avira.

No Star Trek: The Motion Picture fans here? Thought someone would have caught it?

Norton is slow, so it is probably causing part of the issue. Avria should be okay but it would be worth trying the NOD32 trial - www.eset.com.

theheyes · 6 Jan 2010 at 20:08

CurlyWhirly said:
Crikey, I thought that resident anti-virus was a major factor in protecting your PC ?

I thought that a firewall was less effective ?

It depends how the computer is configured. Antivirus is a useful tool for dealing with malware but it's no silver bullet, not by a long shot (no pun intended)

NathanE · 6 Jan 2010 at 20:28

CurlyWhirly said:
Crikey, I thought that resident anti-virus was a major factor in protecting your PC ?

I thought that a firewall was less effective ?

No. If anything it is one of the least significant layers in a decent security configuration.

Of course, you won't hear "self-appointed security experts of the world" Symantec, McAfee, ESET etc admitting this.

Duke · 6 Jan 2010 at 20:47

The most (in?)significant layer is the end user