Poll: *** The All New Windows AV Thread - Keep All AV Questions in Here ***

What AV do you use?

  • Total voters
    812
Come on guys play fair, you are starting to patronize him a bit now. I'm sure he'd be aware of some dodgy files sat on his PC by now that had covertly managed to download on to his system without his browser even notifying him of a download. Of course I don't know his set up, but lets give him the benefit of the doubt at least.
 
Can't say I endorce any anti-virus software , however I used to be a big supporter of AVG or Avast , but with there latest versions , they seem to cause more problems and false positives then anything else .

For elderly family members , I run them scheduled scans via AVG as my grandad seems to want to reply to everyspam mail , download every software from popups and install things because they say he needs to renew. He however does basic browsing and word processing so the flaws of the Anti virus never appear for him , which is great.

For any power user all you need is to be pro-active . Legit sites do get entrenched in crap on a regular basis to I might addd and can be topped to the hilt with malicious code and malware/adware/virus to the hilt . However using windows built in defender seems to Find anything that I may miss. But scheduling malwarebytres to run every night befor bed keeps content knowing all my data is safe and sound.
 
i use AVG use to use Norton but found it was sucking the life out of my machine (not a powerful machine mind you)
Im a careful person when it comes to downloading etc but i guess you cant be too safe?
Dont even know if avg is any good it gives me a piece of mind anyway.
 
I do not use AV and don't see the point of them.

People don't really understand what a virus is they appear to group malware/spyware and so on into this virus bracket.
 
edGfaCTor said:
I do not use AV and don't see the point of them.

People don't really understand what a virus is they appear to group malware/spyware and so on into this virus bracket.
Click to expand...

The point of an antivirus is simple. It's an added layer between a virus and the machine, just like UAC and the user. It's not supposed to be a false sense of security, just like a lock on your front door isn't. An antivirus is only ever as good as it's signatures. The signatures are updated regularly by the company who maintains the antivirus, and uses the signatures to match files, if a signature happens to be from a non-infected file, you get a false positive. Antivirus companies are ALWAYS behind the newest viruses, as they need a sample first to make these signatures. A key logger for example that has been found will have a signature, which an antivirus will match with it's database, hence an alert and it putting the file into it's Vault.

Malware/Spyware is different to a virus, but some Antivirus programs include protection from Potentially Unwanted Programs, meaning they should help protect you from installing those by issuing a warning. The best way to avoid these are by keeping an eye on Setup programs which you freely download from the internet and not installing any extras.

The user is the most important factor when it comes to protecting yourself against Viruses, but Viruses will not usually be obvious that they are on your system. A good key logger (again for example) will only log your key presses, it won't shout to you it is there by causing your computer to run slowly or open web pages randomly, as it is instantly useless for the writer. With a good Antivirus you at least have the chance that the Viruses that HAVE been found can be matched and removed by your antivirus.

This is why I use an Antivirus program. Not because I feel I am likely to click on any dodgy links and not because I think I will instantly be safe, but as an extra layer. I also leave UAC on and run Malwarebytes once a month. If you want to run an antivirus free system that is entirely up to you, but the above reasons are why it would not necessarily be the brightest idea.

As far as recommended anti-virus programs go I would recommend not using either MSE or AVG as although they are better than nothing, their detection rates fall quite far behind other Antivirus companies such as Avast Eset and Avira. Personally I use Avast and ESET, but other people may recommend others.
 
Avast vs McFee or another anti virus

Hi what is the best FREE antivirus .
My friend uses AVAST another friend uses AVG but right now when I got the PC I got McFee

which one do u recommend
 
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