What antivirus software is everyone using?

After being exposed to too much Mcafee and Norton antivirus software, I've used several free antivirus software through the years, like AVG, Kaspersky, Avast, etc.

Right now I'm using Bit Defender (until the trial version expires, anyway)... should I consider purchasing the full version, or is Avast good enough?

What antivirus software are you guys using and how has it worked for you?

- CL

Personally i use Avast, and have never had a problem any virus. Another reason i like it is because it really is light weight on the resource's.

Any personal computer i fix usually ends up with avast on it, unless the person has an active subscriptson with some other antivirus.

I would stay away from Norton and McAfee. Simply because they don't offer a good performance to price ratio. AVG and Avast are the best free options, but not the best scanners out there (in my experience).

I use Kaspersky and just disable everything except the anti-virus and anti-spyware. I also use this mainly because it's the top rated stuff (best detection rates, most frequent updates, etc). Consumer Reports rates PC Cillin's Trend Micro highly, but it can take up a bit of resources at times (specifically on 64-bit OS's).

That being said, I prefer Kaspersky especially on a 64-bit OS.

None at all

I usually recommend AVG to family and friends, though.

I get free McAfee for being a Comcast customer... unfortunately, nobody told McAfee that 64-bit systems are the future and they have nothing better than 32-bit... :-/

PrevX 2.0

It detects rootkits and a craplload more than anything else... Worth the money...

Anyone used BitDefender at all? I was using Avast before I tried out BitDefender... I might go back to using Avast (mainly coz it's free) once the BitDefender trial version runs out.

I tried BitDefender specifically because there were some trojan viruses that Avast couldn't remove, as well as a rootkit that won't go away even after the startup diagnostic done by Avast.

I have to agree that Avast is very light on resources though... I might just consider going back...

- CL

I am using at the moment Kaspersky IS and Kaspersky AV seeems fine.

Avira AntiVir

Never had a problem with it and it always has worked perfectly for me.

I've heard good things about AntiVir. I haven't used BitDefender in a long while, but I remember it being pretty good in the day. I'm not too sure about BitDefender, so I would probably go back to Avast. Or try out Kaspersky. (I know, I seem very high on Kaspersky... haha).

hey if it matters anymore, i use trend micros pc-cillin, it not only acts as a virus protection but also a internet security program, its extremely useful

Eventhough mcafee and norton eats your computer's resources I think there's a lot of things that you can get from the two antivir mentioned compared to those free ones on the net plus your guaranteed there's no adware or spyware that will be installed on your system(who knows everything being downloaded on the net seems to have a spyware or adware attached to it and sends your computer info to whoever owns it, in general)... well that's my opinion though... but for free one's I can suggest the latest AVG(free edition, latest) paired with Ad-ware 6.0 works great but it won't heal some of the trojan/worms but at the very least it will detect it and you can find a way to irraticate the criters before it spreads out on your machine...

I've been using Avast and its working great for me..

I would recommend SOPHOS.

They have an anti-rootkit program and a free anti-virus scanner which can be used even if you already have an anti-virus installed on your computer.

Despite good anti-virus you might also need anti-spam software and these are the ones I've tested and which have worked good:

CounterSpy
Web Root Spy Sweeper
Ad-Aware 2007
AntiSpy 2.13
SpyHunter
Spyware Doctor

CounterSpy is my favourite for realtime scanning, works good when you play games at the same time. No big slowdown.

Spy Hunter works really great and I've personally bought a registered key and I can say that it's able to detect things that my other programs can't. Some people has said that Spy Hunter is no good compared to other anti-spyware agents. Don't listen to them! :-)

Ad-Aware 2007 works good.

AntiSpy is good if you want to clean cookies in your browsers but cannot undo what it removes, unfortunately, so it's a bit dangerous but removes things efficiently.

Spyware Doctor also is to recommend.

By registering you get scheduled scanning possibilites which is great to turn on while you are sleeping at night. For instance Spy Hunter takes several hours on my system and when I wake up in the morning I can see the report of the scanning process.

F-Secure has good anti-virus and I use this in combination with Sophos Anti-Virus check tool and sometimes I use online virus scanners which I can link to if it sounds interesting.

I personally is a bit paranoid when it comes to computer virus and malware and stuff and because of this have lots of programs which deals with this stuff. One cannot be too careful these days. Keyloggers and password sniffers is 2 examples where CounterSpy is very eager and competent to deal with, thought I would mention that too.

So, as I was saying at the top: test Sophos free products and see if it can find anything. Highly recommended!