Kaspersky Antivirus

I would like to know what your thoughts on Kaspersky Antivirus are compared to Norton Anti-Virus which came with my Sony Vaio. I've been told Norton Antivirus can almost become a "virus" in itself and to just switch to a different program..

 

I know what people is going to say, norton sucks and takes a lot of ram and stuff, but judging on your processor, i would say norton is going to affect your processor very minimal. I have used kaspersky before and it was okay since it blocks most of my gamging, so i had to disable it everytime.. If both are full version, i would just stick with norton

 

They new Norton's, since 2010 versions really, have been great. They completely reinvented themselves...

I used Norton Internet Security 2010, and now 2011, and I couldn't be happier. Basically 0 impact on performance, don't even know it's running, and provides all the protection I could ask for, and more.

 

If it's the paid solutions you are sticking with, then remain with Norton (provided of course it's one of the 2009, 2010, or 2011 version - the latest the better).
Kapersky is a real system hog to my knowledge and not worth the trouble.

Or if you want to go the free (but equally safe) route, then simply use Avira, MSE or Avast (just 1 of those 3).

I use a free av because they are more than adequate for most users, including myself (plus I'm no 'ordinary/average' user).

 

Alright thanks. Much appreciated.
Looks like I'll be sticking with Norton then. I got the 30 day Trial, but I'll probably just end up buying it. Forgot I was using i7 Quad

 

You might as well switch to one of the free av's in that case.
No need to pay for anything and the protection level you get is virtually the same.

 

KIS is quite good - but you get pretty much the same (if not better) detection rate and a much lighter software from Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/Security_essentials/

If I were to pay for AV software I'd go for Kaspersky - heck, I get it for free from my bank, still, I moved to MSE - it has less "other features" though.

 

Why not try them both? Kaspersky has a 30 day free trial too, nearly all AV programs do. While you're at it, check out Avira and Avast, both light on resources.

I spent the past 3 months using 30 day trials of Avira, Eset and Avast. I've played with Norton 2010 a bit, it didn't seem like anything special. Neither did Kaspersky. Avira would be my first choice for a full blown AV but instead, I have a subscription to MBAM and free Comodo firewall.

You should also check out AV Comparatives.

 

I installed KAV 2011 on my dad's c2d vista pc and its slow every since. Previous installed KAV was 2009 version. Would anybody have an idea if 2010 would be a less resource hog?

 

KAV or KIS?

I went from KIS 2010 to MSE - the problem being that the Firewall slowed down my log on process by several seconds - annoying when you are on a SSD.

As far as I am aware, KIS 2010 is more resource intensive than 2009.

Now I moved my mother to 2011 - I don't think it has any significant impact on performance except again a slowdown at startup - but else I don't think it's a resource hog.

On that note - how do you define "resource hog"?

 

Hmm.. I define a resource hog as; whenever I use the program everything crawls... even if its by just navigating through its windows. (and no; a scan was not in progress)

From the way it looks; I think KAV 2011 is very graphic intensive. If you compare it to office 2007 which is also very fancy looking; its miles away faster and more responsive with the clicks and window transition.

License of KAV only (not KIS). Maybe its just because my dad's vista installation is bloated... I will do a fresh install of everything, install KAV 2011 again and update everything.

 

Well, on my mother's laptop definitely nothing crawls - so there is something amiss in your installation.

I've asked because some people start to whinge because their AV uses 50MB of RAM - but I think you have a valid problem.

 

MSE certainly has a tendency to use up to 80MB of RAM at any given time.
Granted, this is for the x64 OS, but it doesn't really slow contemporary computers (or those from 4 years ago) in any real capacity.

I was definitely under the impression that Kapersky is a resource hog because I witnessed what it did on my friends computer among other things (it wasn't really a 'crawl', however, the overall snappiness was radically improved by replacing it with one of the top 3 free av's.

You can easily switch to Avira, Avast or MSE (just pick one) and forget about paid solutions altogether.

 

Norton and Kaspersky are both excellent anti-virus suites; I have reviews of both coming up. You can't go wrong with either one.

One area Norton beats everyone is in parental controls -- their implementation is second to none based on all the suites I tested.

 

I like Kaspersky, it does exactly what I want, protects my computer and browsing quietly in the background, without me even knowing it is there.
I find it sill that there are two pages of posts and only one (charles) posted about the asked about software.

 

Done reformatting and fully patched a vista home premium laptop. Installed KAV 2011 and updated it. So far everything had been very responsive and speedy.

so I can conclude that KAV 2011 does not bog down your system.

 

This is exactly my case. I had 15 sec boot up and 5 sec shut down time with 50 processes loaded. I installed Kaspersky and shut down time increased to anywhere between 10 - 20 seconds.

I think this began to happen since KIS 2010. I'm switching to MSE on my next clean install despite I still have 300+ days of license left..

 

If you want a simple solution - switch off the Kaspersky Firewall and switch to the Microsoft Firewall - that should speed up your starup again.

 

But the problem is Kaspersky IS catches and blocks network attacks. I believe my dormitory network has some kind of infection. I receive 2-3 pop-ups from Kaspersky saying that they have blocked the attack.

I'm not sure if Windows Firewall will do that since it has no pop-up notification. If I turn on all Windows Firewall settings, would it do what KIS would do? I've been using Kaspersky since version 7 and I would like to remain loyal but at the same time, I've used a year of 2010 and thought I'd give it a try for one last year.. but not much improvement..

 

of course lately norton is good it's kaspersky rebadged ..... no kidding they bought kaspersky engine for the jump to window 7 i used Kav 2009 and 2010 they where awsome product but i gotta say 2011 whas deceptive but my trial is over and i'm considering living without an av for some time

 

Good question....

I think the best answer I can give is "it should" (on Vista or Win7) but I cannot guarantee it.
It's not the kind of problem I need to think about.