"I don't use anti-virus and i've not had any problems ......."

[SeraphX]

ouch thats a fair few infections,

i am one of those that dont bother with anti virus, i scan my system weekly with malwarebytes anti malware and spybot search and destroy and get tracking cookies at the most

ya just have to be careful where and what ya download obviously and where ya browse

 

[NathanE]

I stick by my statement - there is next to no overhead from resident AV these days.

That's just sheer stubbornness in light of the facts presented.

If you want an up to date report, see here: http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/performance/performance_aug_2010_en.pdf

There's tons of info on Google about the impact of anti-virus software on performance. Tons and tons of it.

I would hazard a guess that you've become so used to the impact of AV on performance that you no longer notice it on your own PC's. But maybe if you did a fresh install and never installed AV you might then notice...

I also fully question their results - 177% disk increase....umm......no.

Umm, yes? Ever seen what an I/O Filter Hook kernel driver looks like? Ever compared a good one and bad one? Some of the bad ones don't even support asynchronous I/O. Forcing the entire stack to operate through a synchronously bottlenecked driver...

 

[w33tab1x]

I haven't caught any in years still run a anti-virus though you never know someone could use it that isn't you and screw things.

 

[Ratbag]

I'm one of the heroic few who don't use a resident AV, and I haven't for 9 years or more.

I manually scan once in a while with Hitman Pro [ideal for the job - cloud based using 5 top AV engines]. I've never had a virus in 12 years of PC ownership.

Frankly, I'd love to know how people get malware so often. I can only assume that normally rational, sentient beings become gibbering buffoons when sat in front of PC's.

I do use the fabled Admuncher - which is like a hyper-intelligent combination of noscript and adblock. Better than AV software, without a doubt.

 

[AJK]

Why is it considered reckless for informed users (as one might expect to find on a forum like this one) to run a PC without resident AV software? Over the last 10 years or so I've run at least six different personal PCs as full-time machines, not one of them with resident AV. I do run an AV scan every 2-3 months (basically when something reminds me to do so, such as a forum topic like this one), and I've never had anything on my machines AT ALL. I have always-on internet connections, and in the past (though not so much now) my PC(s) have been on for the best part of 18 hours a day. I do keep all my PCs updated, both Windows and software.

So am I unusual in some way? :-/

 

[Eddie]

Ah this one again - comes up every so often - haven't read any of the thread but usually it ends up with people who use AV telling the people who don't that they're stoopid, and the people who don't use AV telling the people who do that it is in fact they who are stoopid.

Rinse & repeat in a couple of months.

 

[bells]

In my own opinion just use something and even free as from what we all know is there are Chinese labs working 24/7 creating viruses to steal our money information etc

It's a no brainier people ! use something.

 

[Pygmyshrew]

Its a personal choice surely!?

No one is right or wrong here it's a matter of risk vs reward, reward being generally better system performance. NB I don't believe its possible for a proactive AV to NOT have an impact on performance, would need to see the benchmarks to believe it and if that were really the case surely everyone would be using that scanner by now.

I've always had AV software and have never had a virus but that doesn't mean I'm willing to stop using one, I'm happier having something running just in case (Im not the only user of the PC so have to consider my Mrs doing something stupid) but on the flip I can understand why some might choose not to run AV software, I've seen it myself 10+ years and not a single virus I could have been fine all that time but at the end of the day I'm prepared to take a slight performance hit in return for added security and safety of my system and if you want to run with that added risk then fine good luck I hope you don't get anything I'm certainly not going to label you an idiot for it.

 

[AbsenceJam]

I've noticed my resident AV stop quite a few nasties that even with safe practice I would NOT have expected. In addition it often catches malware extracted from 'dodgy' downloads but sometimes those are false positives; and with those sorts of files I always upload to virustotal and check on other user experiences before execution anyway.

 

[Bleek]

I've not run AV in years and I've not even had any malware, I work for a bank so we're extremely strict on what machines get on the network, they remotely scan my drives and find nothing.

I don't download dodgy apps, I don't allow any scripts or java to run and I use a browser (firefox) with noscripts so it turns off all advert code and the like. Works wonders. To be fair, I have 12 years IT experience but still, you don't 'need' AV if you know what you're doing and I've yet to see an AV product that doesn't hinder performance.

 

[Bleek]

I stick by my statement - there is next to no overhead from resident AV these days.

Yeah right, you tell that to our security team who are inundated with complaints.

We had the problem with Sophos, moved to Mcafee. We had the problem with Mcafee and moved to Kaspersky. The performance issues still exist.

I think 1,000 PCs and laptops are a better barometer than yours and your wife's.

I've experienced the same issue in other organisations over many, many years, AV does have a negative effect on performance.

 

[Mp4]

Win7 in admin mode/login - why is an admin login bad? isnt Win7 secure enough?

Nod32 - always scaning
Malwarebytes - paid - Scaning in background
Windows firewall
Router firewall
Ccleaner
S&D
Windows defender

I just let these do their job and load S&D / Ccleaner when i feel that the pc needs a clean

If people come to me with virus issues i always bung on MSE / Malwarebytes and say it would be better in the long term to get a dedicated anti-virus such as Nod32/Kaspersky

 

[bledd]

On the flipside..

When is the last time you actually had a virus warning that wasn't a false positive?

 

[CaptainCrash]

Why is it considered reckless for informed users (as one might expect to find on a forum like this one) to run a PC without resident AV software?

I suppose the counter-argument is that, however smart and well-informed you think you are, you can't anticipate the nature of every possible future attack. There will always be some even smarter people out there and not all of them have good intent.

Obviously an AV can't provide foolproof protection either, but it's just swinging the odds a bit more in your favour. If someone empties your bank account via some fiendishly clever exploit that no-one could have predicted, at least you can console yourself that you did everything within your power to prevent it.

 

[AWPC]

Never used to for over 15 years but now I do! Java & Active X are now being used in very creative ways to deliver malware onto your PC which may sit dormant until you visit a website then it activates on its own. The things which trigger it are just visiting a website not even clicking on anything which is pretty scary As long as you have Java installed the new viruses will find a way to infect your PC

 

[stoneman]

this is why lone realtime scanners are not enough and some people (not all) think they havnt been infected just because there av aint found anything.
http://malwareresearchgroup.com/category/malwareproducttesting

 

[No-One]

The other ones that wind me up are the ones that have to pop up bubble in the system tray pop up saying that security updates are available, and they just leave it sitting there. It's the equivalent of getting into your car, having someone come up to you say "excuse me, you've left your front door wide open" and still just driving off

 

[bledd]

Never used to for over 15 years but now I do! Java & Active X are now being used in very creative ways to deliver malware onto your PC which may sit dormant until you visit a website then it activates on its own. The things which trigger it are just visiting a website not even clicking on anything which is prtty scary As long as you have Java installed the new viruses will find a way to infect your PC

I wish MS would allow certain 3rd party vendors to use the Windows update system to deploy their updates.

For Flash and Java specifically, they could just use the MS update for a placeholder and download the files from the Apple / Sun servers.

Everyone is a winner

 

[stoneman]

lol,Aint that the truth "NO-ONE". i think some people would rather do what they want on the web at all cost rather than be safe,it only takes one real nasty
(ive been there) to ruin your day!

 

[BananaDunka]

I've never had a nasty virus or issue and I don't............use Norton