Which AV you all use?

Hey all...

I've been getting spikes in my CPU due to McAfee... Yeah I know, it's rubbish, just been lazy.
When it spikes I get sound distortion.

So, which AV you all use and do you ever encounter CPU spikes due to it?

 

Microsoft Essentials is good and free.

 

+1, all you need is microsoft essentials.

 

avast here
nothings got through in 2 years. had 2 false positives tho but still very good.
or you could try avira, avg, mse.

 

On my laptop with Windows 8 RP I have Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 Beta installed.
My sons laptop and my daughters desktop use Kaspersky Internet Security 2012.
My fathers desktop runs Kaspersy Antivirus 2012.
My mother in laws laptop runs AVG free.
My other relatives use Panda Cloud Antivirus.
I'm thinking about replacing AVG free and Panda Cloud with Roboscan Internet security Free.
All desktops and laptops have HitmanPro as second opinion on demand scanner.
It helps the performance with almost all av's to do a full scan after being installed to populate some kind of cache
(that means that the to be found safe files do not have to be scanned again).

 

nod32 from eset

 

Kaspersky Internet Security, Five years plus no problems.

John.

 

Bitdefender Internet Security 2013 here...

light as hell and one of the most secure

 

MSE + Malwarebytes on 2 computers, Avast + Malwarebytes on another. MSE is lighter than avast, but overall avast has better protection.

Right now if someone had to write commandments for AVs, the first one on the list would like be:

Thou shall not purchase nor install McAfee.

 

I also use MSE + Malwarebytes.

 

Pandacloud
Hitman Pro
Comodo (had to spent 30 minutes configuring the software, still better than other firewalls as far as pop ups).

 

Avira on all my XP and Vista computers and MSE on my Windows 7 computers. I also use Malwarebytes and Superantispyware on all of them as on-demand scanners.

 

I think that you'll find the number of responses you get are going to be about as varied as asking "what's your favorite sports team"?

Personally, I use Norton Internet Security 2012. I also happen to work for Symantec (how's that for full disclosure ), but that said, I would absolutely still use it even if I didn't. Why? Because I have NEVER had a virus get through on any of the systems that were running Norton since I switched to it back in 2008. Plus, it uses very few resources (it'll actually tell you how many it's using). The drawback? It's not free...or it usually isn't free.

I've also heard good things about Microsoft Security Essentials, and it is free.

You may also want to see if your ISP offers any free antimalware software (Comcast/Xfinity does in the states, for example).

PM me if you have any questions about any of the Norton products (I don't work for the consumer group, but I've used the product long enough).

 

Hey all, thanks.
Sorry for the late response, this thread was moved and then the forum was rebuilt... and been busy.

I'm thinking AVG, I've heard good things and a friend with a similar setup hasn't had any issues.
Either that or Kapersky.

Sorry evil_mike, but there's no way that I'm ever going near Norton again!
I had it on an old laptop and it used that may resources it wasn't funny! It slowed the system something terrible, more so than McAfee, but hey, maybe that's just my experience, maybe yours has been better.
And hey, that's going back 5 years ago, so i'm sure it's gotten better. But since then it just hasn't been one of my choices.

I may see what MSE is like, but I prefer the use of third party software.

Thanks for all the help though guys/girls.

 

AVG wouldn't be my top choice - for one thing its a bit bloated and resource intense.

Rather pick between these: Avira, Avast, MSE, or Panda (just pick one). All 4 are excellent, efficient and effective (the only difference is that MSE was designed to integrate into Windows better than the others).

 

Not only has it gotten better, it was completely rebuilt from the ground up. I know exactly what you mean about the resources - it was a pig. But it's TOTALLY different now.

Tell you what - download the free 30 day trial and test for yourself. If you like it, PM me and I'll see about getting you a 1 year license for up to 3 computers. If you don't, no harm, no foul.

 

Bitdefender, it's so quiet that sometimes I have to double check it's still running.

 

There are now 2 interesting others to choose from:
Check Point ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall, using Kapserky's AV engine and got good results in the latest test of AV-Test:
AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: May/Jun 2012
Free ZoneAlarm Antivirus and Firewall Protection
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=323189
Roboscan Internet Security Free, using Bitdefender's engine and their own Tera engine:
Roboscan
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=311803

 

MSE on the laptop. I was using Avast on my desktop, but it kept messing with STEAM, so ditched it for MSE.

 

MSE+Bi-weekly C-drive scan using Malwarebytes

 

Avast. Never got infected for three years and got a few false positive.

 

I use Avira free edition. As for me it's a good antivirus.

 

Try using a light AV program. I think Immunet or Nod32 would be fine.

 

MSE definitely. It's lightweight and free for genuine Windows.

Norton has always been very slow for me.

 

MSE all the way. Super lightweight and free. I also have MBAM on hand if something goes really wrong, but MSE works fine for "always-on" protection.

 

Do you guys remember the old days when Norton would start of a complete system scan out of nowhere? ahha and then your whole computer would start freezing while you'r in the middle of something

I tried MSE but im an "advanced user" so I switched to kaspersky. Pretty powerfull and rated in top 3 in every recent AV detection tests.

 

I've had great success with Avast! so I'm sticking with that. Two things: 1) it's become increasingly more annoying 2) it's become increasingly more functional. I suppose I'll take the good with the bad as I've never had an issue in 4 years. Set it to silent gaming mode and to run in the background to minimize annoyances.

Whatever you use, I will suggest four things that are equally important:

1. Make sure windows is updated. Keep abreast of updates and force install them ASAP.

2. Only install/run trusted software downloaded from trusted sources. Even so, keep in mind that everything you install is a potential attack vector.

3. For really important information transfers like internet banking and even credit card numbers, I suggest working from a Linux installation with a secured browser. I run a dual boot system precisely for this reason but working from a live cd or live usb is even better (you can access your windows files through Linux btw which makes recovery a breeze if your system has been severely compromised). After clearing a keylogger of my exgf's computer in the wake of identity theft, yeah, I'm that paranoid. I'm not a Linux ideologue but it's an extremely useful tool sometimes.

4. Never use internet explorer. FF and Chrome have extensions like user agent switcher that allow you to access websites that require you to use IE.

There are lots of other things I could add but one cannot be too paranoid at this time.

 

I honestly found MSE to be quite cpu heavy. Unless the coding has improved dramatically, I don't think I'd recommend it.

I just run Comodo Firewall - probably the best free AV suite available, but I just leave the firewall on, disable everything else, and run Malware bytes on demand.

Extremely light set up (which I think is paramount!!), 100% free and safe as well.

 

I run MSE. It's been reliable, it's free, it doesn't give too many false positives, and it's also non-instrusive enough that I leave it on most of the time.

Once in awhile it's slightly CPU heavy, but it's rare that I find it actually noticeable. On a single-core CPU it might be a problem, but even on my dual-core laptop from 2007, it usually isn't.

By comparison, Norton 2006 was indeed a pig, and tended to cause slowdowns with both the CPU and hard drive. It was from that that I learned just how much an anti-virus can slow down a computer. I've read that Norton 2006 was pretty much the worst in terms of performance, and indeed when I've seen newer versions on other peoples' computers it's much less bad than it was, but as long as MSE is decent I see no reason to switch, especially to a non-free option.

 

I've never had a problem with MSE nor has it appeared to me to be cpu heavy, though this probably depends on the chip.

Do you mean you turn off real time protection or minimize the program? I agree that it's effective, though.

 

Microsoft Security Essentials here

 

Avira Free

 

MSE and NOD 32

 

MSE no reason to pay for anything else, it does a fine job.

 

MSE here as well.

Its quite efficient actually... no issues with 'cpu hogging' (nor have I ever experienced except perhaps on single core cpu's of older designs, but even then the impact was relatively minimal).

 

MSE. It's cheap as free and does a good job.

 

I use Windows Defender in Windows 8, which is MSE + Windows Defender (in previous Windows editions). It's confusing but works great. I use Malwarebytes as a secondary,however.

 

This was just the information I was looking for, thanks! New computer expected soon and wanted to see what was being used out there.

 

The lightest one I can find. Lately I've been switching between Avast! and MSE. Used Avira for ages, but got bored with commercials and bloat.

 

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013. A good all rounder.

People argue no point in buying an AV license. I disagree. It doesn't cost alot. The average guy on here probably spends more on beer in one week then I spent on it for a year

 

I was using Avira on one system and Norton on another. Although Norton ran fine (the new version is actually pretty good), and I was able to get a good initial price on it, the renewal cost was too high, so I switched to Avira on the other system as well.

 

I'm also using Norton Internet Security. Works great. Renewal cost is very high so better to look around and buy a new licence every year.

 

Using MSE (combined with Malewarebyte's) for my computers. Though I never really feel a need to use them much lol.

 

Same here.

 

Avast (free version) + Malwarebytes.

 

Am I the only one noticing that Avast has become more and more intrusive? IMHO version 6 was the best. In version 7 it's always warning me with false positives. I also had the forced installation of Chrome browser issue.
What about version 8? I haven't tried it yet.

 

MSE. Does what it's supposed to well enough and with sufficiently few false positives. Though I don't really get enough virii to give it a good test.

It's also not too bad on performance. Of course I'd prefer it to be lighter. But I've seen a lot worse.

 

MSE? Seriously? ROFLMAO!

Congrats for using the worst AV on the planet that catches no viruses, can fix nothing, and needs to be updated manually via Window Update everyday rather then update automatically

You *think* you have no viruses because you never know they are there duhhh

Microsoft Security Essentials and McAfee Fail Security Certification - Dennis Tech



I pity anyone who uses that POS

 

Works well enough for me, and running Malwarebytes after a MSE scan turns up nothing.

Also note that "Dennis" is testing only using XP, and won't test AV software with the more commonplace Windows 7 until Q3 2013. So for anyone with an updated OS, I don't see any meaningful conclusion from their testing.

 

QFT

MSE + MBAM is all I need. I also run Spybot S&D, but only for their tools.