My experience...

For the past 4-6 months I haven't been using an AV solution. I used to always use the complete internet suites from Eset/Kaspersky/Norton because I liked the peace of mind they provided. I wanted to see if they actually did anything besides provide a placebo effect. Well, in my particular case, they do nothing. This coming from someone who goes to some shady sites on the internet...but doesn't press "OK" to everything he sees.

Every week or two I run a scan with Malwarebytes and I use Windows firewall and that's about it. I even have Windows Defender turned off.

I wanted to run a scan to see if I have any viruses so I was going to d/l an AV, but I came across Norton Security Scan, which is just an on-demand scanner, perfect for me. It scanned everything on my drive and came up with nothing.

I use Firefox, I don't have noscript...
Use some common sense... and haven't been infected or anything of the like. And again, I go to some shady sites, not like I'm just using google/yahoo. But with a bit of common sense.... I mean, try it. You might get surprised at how little your AV is doing...

 

Anti-virus software is like a comprehensive insurance policy on your car.

The average driver makes bad moves now and then but won't often cause an accident. After time paying the extra money for comprehensive insurance seems like a waste. However, you keep paying it because you want to be protected if you ever make a mistake that causes damages. You are reassured knowing that the comprehensive plan gives you a rental car the same day of the accident, letting you continue with your day.

Now extend that to computer use. The average computer user visits the wrong site now and then but won't often get a virus. After time, expending the resources to run a virus scanner seems like a waste. However, you want to be protected if you ever encounter one. You are reassured knowing that the anti-virus program will catch threats immediately, letting you continue with your day. The last thing you want to learn that you spent the last four days with a trojan on your computer that wasn't detected until you ran the on-demand scan.

That said, it sucks running a resource hog on a relatively slow computer. In that case I'd prefer work within a sandbox as well as run the on-demand scans every so often. Using a program like Sandboxie, you can keep yourself much safer than you would be with only the on-demand scanner. Delete your sandbox routinely and you'll reduce the amount of damage that can com from an unknown virus.

 

Really wouldn't equate it to a car...lol
To each his own I suppose. I mean, I know where you are coming from, I was in the same boat as you not too long ago. For the average user who is click-happy I agree, but I would think "some" of us on these boards are slightly more knowledgeable than the average bear.

Sandbox? The VM? lol. Seems like you're a tad too cautious.

I see both sides of the argument, as I've been on both sides. My only point is check out the other side, it's pretty cool. Some of us read guides and disable services left and right when there is a pretty huge hog sitting there churning through resources, regardless of the machine... if you use some logic and don't click on "CLICK HERE FOR SUPER SECURITY SOFTWARE NOWWWWW" you really should be good to go.

 

The only reason I have an AV is to scan downloads. Or for particularly suspect downloads, I just open them in a VM.

Otherwise I turn off real time protection.

 

I just keep it on anyways, it really makes very little difference to me. Also, I travel a bit so I like to not need to remember to turn on stuff at hotels.

@nu_D: Yes, some users are advanced enough that it decreases the need/usefulness of said programs. However, the average user is often dumb (or would it be better to say ignorant/naive) enough to click on a link just because a friend sent it, even if the url is absolutely ridiculous if they even check that (see AIM and Facebook viruses). As such, for the average computer user, having AV/Firewall and such is probably a good idea

 

AVs are the same thing as viruses IMHO. They binds to your OS, harasses users with popups and slow the computer down. I haven't been using them for years now and never had any problems. Just don't download from websites that you don't trust, get the torrents with the most seeders/leechers/comments, enable Windows Update, set up normal user account for daily use, and you are all set.

edit: make good use of UAC too

edit 2: use chrome or FF as main browser..

 

Kirtar:

Ya well, that's my point. I'm not talking about mom and pops... I'm talking about the people ticking off services and undervolting their CPUs... you know.. like us.

 

uggghh. I hate UAC, so I just disabled it. I also use FF with Adblock+. If for some reason I'm not using FF, I'm either using Opera, Safari, or testing compatibility of a website I work on with IE.

EDIT: Unless you mean smartUAC or the norton UAC replacement, which I haven't looked at yet.

 

Odd, I haven't ran into a UAC prompt all day. Or all week.....

 

Dunno, I might turn it back on and disable dimming, because that was the real problem that I had with it.

 

kirtar, 'dimming' is the major thing that makes UAC effective against malware, if you disable that, you may as well not turn it on.

 

orly, thought it was just to draw attention to the dialog box. whenever it dims my entire screen goes blank for about 1.5 seconds before coming back, and does the same after I click on the freaking dialog box.

 

nu_D,

I too have left Win 7 x64 RC without A/V for 3 or 4 months and no infections, but when MSE came out, I installed it and actually forgot it was running - that's how efficient it is. This is now my new 'norm' of A/V protection and has no drawbacks but very large benefits as pointed out by Gregory above.

As a heavy CS4/LR2 user, I do notice it's (small) effects, but they are in line with the peace of mind offered, and, all for free.

 

Yeah, some display drivers don't play well with the dimming.

The dimming is a feature that malware can't duplicate cause it is a secure function. A lot like pressing Ctrl Alt Del to login.

 

yeah, just googled it. I doesn't help that the UAC settings don' exactly say much about what the dimming does. Dunno, I haven't had UAC on for a while because I turned it off in Vista and kept it off after I upgraded to 7. I'll set it back on and see how that goes with my card (Quadro FX 770M).

edit: huh, UAC doesn't seem to like malewarebytes (doesn't whine on any of my other security programs though)... doesn't like HWmonitor either since it's unknown publisher.

 

The dimming of the desktop is something malware cannot duplicate. Thus if malware tries to duplicate the UAC box you'll know if it is a fake if the desktop does not dim.