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Possible Duplicate:
Free antivirus solutions for Windows

Why was this question closed

  • Although the duplicate question relates to free, it is a CW question and can be edited by the community to indicate otherwise.
  • If it work on Windows 7 there is a good chance it will work on XP.
  • The answers in this question is almost exact duplicates of the answers in the duplicate.

Let's say I'm a home user running Windows XP or later. I want antivirus software and I'm willing to pay for it.

What should I get?

List software you have experience of, with brief pros/cons. One per answer. Vote up those you like, vote down those you dislike.

(free solutions are listed here, but not commercial products)

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not again :) – Molly7244 Sep 11 '09 at 2:10
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use search button please :superuser.com/search?q=anti-virus – Michael B. Sep 11 '09 at 2:13
I did. I found a question dealing with Windows 7, and a question dealing with free antivirus. Nothing for commercial products. – John Fouhy Sep 11 '09 at 2:14
Question Closed. Nothing to see here. Move along now. – Diago Sep 11 '09 at 8:42
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closed as exact duplicate by Molly, joshhunt, Troggy♦, Diago Sep 11 '09 at 8:37

This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question. See the FAQ.

8 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

NOD32 for sure if you're putting any money into it.

Pros:

  • small footprint
  • scanning doesn't bog down entire computer
  • daily updates, sometimes multiple

Cons:

  • not free? but this thread is for commercial products anyways.
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up vote 4 down vote

Avast Antivirus.

Free Version Advantages:

  • Has received VB100 ratings (100% detection, 0 false positives).
  • Not hugely resource hungry (I've used it to replace Virus Scanners on computers and all of a sudden the computers were usable again).
  • Will scan peer to peer traffic, email, web traffic, files (on access) etc...

Disadvantages:

  • You need to get a new licence key each year (free

Professional Version Advantages:

  • More features.

Alternatively ESET Nod32

Advantages:

  • Popular in many organisations
  • Not a resource hog
  • Has received VB100 ratings on all platforms in recent testing
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up vote 2 down vote

Your brain.

Pros:

  • Doesn't hog system resources.
  • Puts you in control.

Cons:

  • You need to be computer-literate and web-literate.
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You still need a firewall, though. :) – muntoo Mar 8 '11 at 3:23
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up vote 2 down vote

Kaspersky and Eset Nod 32 are pretty much tied get one of these depending on preference and price.

Kaspersky:

Pros:

  • Runs fast and includs spyware so I don't have to buy a second program. Updates frequently for the latest updates.
  • It can save the day when nothing else works.

Cons:

  • Resource Hogger.

Eset:

Pros:

  • Active internet thread monitor for programs that run in the background ( like a weather app etc. ), regular updates, thorough cleaning.
  • Fast

Cons:

  • Long scanning.
  • Poor to non-existent customer service
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Sorry but Kaspersky drains your resources. – idursun Sep 11 '09 at 5:55
Maybe I should add it as one of the cons – Kevin Boyd Sep 11 '09 at 8:41
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up vote 1 down vote

Microsoft Security Essentials. Still in closed beta (although you can get it from various sites, such as Softpedia), but I've been using it for about 2-3 months. Rock solid antivirus, free, no registration required, low memory and CPU usage, simple interface, never intrusive.

The last 2 points are rally important to me; I've used antivirus applications where the interface was unresponsive, it was hard to figure out what to do with it; it was a mess. The other problem with a lot of antivirus programs (Kaspersky, ZoneAlarm, BitDefender come to mind) is that they want to tell you everything they're doing, which is really a bad idea. Leave me alone and do your job! That's what MSE does right, among other things.

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up vote 0 down vote

Vote me down since I'm not generally following the request for a product... this is primarily because they all stink... some less than others, but they all stink.

I just answered a similar question you might want to review: http://superuser.com/questions/38471/lightweight-virus-scan-for-win-xp/38486 (In the link is a link to a February report on Vista compatible products... The report seems accurate based on all my prior experience and discussions online... except for the norton listing... which makes me think they funded the report or something).

For home use... I probably go with Kaspersky... but only because SOME antivirus is better than none... But antivirus products have gone the way of the politician - you don't vote for the one you like (there are none you like), you vote for the one that disgusts you the least.

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up vote 0 down vote

I personally like Panda cloud antivirus. It runs from the cloud, so it isn't much of a system hog. Site

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up vote -5 down vote

Name: Norton Antivirus

Pros:

  1. Probably came with your computer.

Cons:

  1. Slow.
  2. Hard to remove, if you decide you don't like it.
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I wanted this on the list for completeness. If you know more about Norton (good or bad), please edit. – John Fouhy Sep 11 '09 at 2:12
there is about a half dozen threads like this on SU and a gazillion more on the interwebs :) – Molly7244 Sep 11 '09 at 2:17
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Norton Antivirus (and pretty much any yellow-box product generally stinks, at least in my opinion. I never recommend it and almost always recommend removing it. In my experience, Norton/Symantec products are among the SLOWEST to provide definition updates (all three major virus infections I've helped clean up were "protected" by Symantec/Norton products), and they are all hugely resource intensive and slow your system down. Plus, as hinted at, their programmers can't seen to figure out how to write an uninstall routine... should that inspire confidence in their ability to code a virus scanner? – Multiverse IT Sep 11 '09 at 2:34
Why is this being downvoted? It's a legitimate answer. – Breakthrough Sep 11 '09 at 2:35
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It's being downvoted because people don't like Norton. – John Fouhy Sep 11 '09 at 2:38
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