So I will prob ditch Antivirus, suggestions?

I recently reformat my notebook for performance reason, nothing wrong with it, just that instead of uninstalling unneeded apps, I like to start fresh.
This time around, while trying to performance tune the laptop, I am struggling over if I should install antivirus. I am leaning towards not to.

Here is why I would do that, I, like most, use free antivirus out there. I am not sure how effective it is. For the past, say, about 5 years, I have not had a single virus malware problem, not one, partly because I think I am fairly educated about protecting myself. It then makes me wonder the effectiveness of having an antivirus on my system. I read somewhere, that there are many many many viruses that are unable to be detected by any scanner. There are even websites where users can submit such viruses for testing. I am thinking, for any malware that pass my defense will most likely pass my antivirus as well. If I get a virus, I don't believe in removal, I believe in reformat.

Therefore do I still need to have antivirus installed? The antivirus that is installed on all my machine has not been doing what I install them to do, detecting viruses. Mainly because I have not had a virus. I for good measure did an online virus scan last week just before I reformat my system, and it found 2 viruses. I was shocked, because not only the antivirus on my system did not detect them, I was shocked because I am infected. It turned out to be false positive on my ati driver.

Antiviruses in my case caused me more problem than it solved me, do I still need them? I need some opinion because I used to think not having an av is not wise.

cheers

 

i think that it is essential for any computer to have an antivirus installed on it just to make sure nothing bad will happen. if you dont want to pay for antivirus, check out the free antiviruses like avast and AVG. they are free, you just have to register them every year or so. i know that when you think "free antivirus" you think that they are not very good, but in fact they are quite good, and they prevent viruses, unless of course you go looking for viruses.

 

If you had the same attitude about your jimmy, you'd end up with syphilis... Never go bareback even if she tells you she's clean!

 

don't do it. instead, get a lightweight antivirus. I personally like using NOD32.

think about it... if you do get a virus... everything will become infected even the stuff you're planning to back up b4 u reformat. or your computer becomes infected and is rendered unusuable, making it impossible to retrieve vital data that you were planning on backing up b4 u reformatted.

 

LOL@Mikeoo17

I think avast is pretty good. Doesn't weight your system down, unlike the dreaded norton.

Not having one is a bad choice.

 

I would just get a bit more RAM and run the free AVG.

I havent had any issues since running AVG with Windows Defender.

 

FWIW, I have not used an AV program on a couple years. Never had a single problem. I am behind an industrial strength firewall as well as ZA (free version). I use HOSTS file blocks to keep crap out of the system. Plus I never read mail in anything but text mode. You can read about how to setup your HOSTS file here:

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm


As long as you watch where you browse and are judicious as to which programs you open/download then there is little reason to use AV software. For the most part AV software evolved from needing to protect companies from idiot employees who used computers at school (before internet was common and even pre-email era.)

If you really wanna browse safe just setup a VirtualPC and browse from that...not a chance in the world you can infect your computer. If it gets whacked by a virus just kill the virtual session and viola all better and it does not cost $50-$100/yr.

Every now and then I will run one of the online scanners just to be sure all is fine...like I said no issues in 2yrs since I dropped the AV junk.

If you have kids or cannot stay aware from the porn, torrents, and cracking sites then yeah AV protection might be a good idea...otherwise it is not really needed if you do a bit of research.

 

"grumpy" has some some very good alternatives and I'll definatly give him a rep point for them.

BUT If you have just one 11 year old niece using your computer while you are entertaining your adult friends, imenent destruction is one download away. Although it was said about children, you still can't avoid it. The first thing a child says when they enter your apartment is "where's your computer"? Besides, it's a great educational babysitter.
Get a light weight AV software is my suggestion.

 

Nah, for that problem just learn where the Windows Key is, and how to press that plus L at the same time...

Locked...

 

valley:

RIGHT...them kids or derlict BIL can wreck havoc on a computer... I am luck in that I am the only person who is allowed on my laptop. My better half has her's and she knows to leave mine alone. Mostly as it pays the bills and she likes shopping!! BTW, it's a standing joke around her that she is not "allowed" to use my computer, yeah, like I realllly have a say in that!!

Something else I do is lock down the internet zone and have a custom trusted zone for sites that I use which need more system priveledges...

For me it works but for a computer shared by several people it might not work as well. One especially has to watch those BIL's...

 

Try kapersky, I have it on one of my older systems that has a P4 with 512mb of ram and a slow 4200HD, even when kapersky is running a scan I can hardly tell. There is a free trial so give it a try and see what you think.

 

I thank goodness every day that my S.O. is a geek as well. Almost got her running Linux, but she likes Quickbooks too much.

And instead of locking down the Internet zone, just use Firefox. Get a real browser instead of something that opens you to every kind of malware under the sun.

 

Yes, you should run antivirus.
I can think of two straightforward reasons:
1: It doesn't cost you anything in general performance (It just sits in the background, checking incoming and outgoing files. But in games, for examples, it does nothing at all, and so, costs nothing)
2: No matter how educated you are, it's fully possible to end up with a virus. I've got a few over the last few years, and I consider myself educated too. Tim, the moderator around here found one only a few days ago.

 

pitabed:

hehehehe...I am getting her better all the time. There was a time she could hardly turn the thing on.

As far as FF...am too conditioned to IE and for many purposes I am sorta forced to use it.

Jalf:

I must be a lucky guy because in all these years (more then 6 and less then 100...the same answer I give my better half... ) I've never had a single virus infection...at least I am lucky at SOMETHING it sure ain't cards. But you are right that most folks w/o some tech knowledge should run some form of AV. The thing is I feel AV create a false sense of security in those people. Better to leave them with a sense of fear. Nothing is more motivating to people the fear of failure.

I think more important then AV software are good pop-up blocking and as mentioned already blocking out sites via HOSTS file entries. Also setting keyword (especially certain norty words) blocks on a router/firewall helps protect people from themselves.

 

I am also not very keen on running antivirus software. If you know exactly what you are doing then you don't need one. More than a year ago, I also used to run a virus guard all the time, but I have never got any surprise warnings (I am not saying that I have never come across an infected file, I have; but always anticipated it). Therefore I decided not to run a real-time AV.

But I have one installed only to be used when installing / opening a potentially unsafe program or a file. Rest of the time it is disabled (not even the tray icon). It has been a long time since I got infected. So I agree with grumpy3b.

Then there are those ppl who run 24/7 virus guards, firewalls, spyware and 10 other security tools but still somehow they manage to get them selves infected

 

Personally for me:

I want to read my mail in HTML.

I do surf all kinds of sites.

I browse from my home office network. and use remote sever via my PPC.
My network is always on. And always atleast one PC on.

I do test some apps. I do stream.

ETC: ETC:

I rather have my, Autoback up sync, Firewalls, antivirus, etc etc: Than to restrict myself the full usage on web/mail use.

Don't get me wrong I am careful. Like having blocked all third party cookies & prompt all site cookies, promt on all active X, Disabling some or most script, Defaulting Firewall settings frequent, I do watch what I download, and my E-mail client only downloads headers first. ......ETC: ETC:

But I'll be ****ed if I have to view all my email in text or shutdown half the web. ETC:

 

X2.. haven't used antivirus in 3 years, never a problem, every once a while I download an antivirus and run it just to be sure, then system restore the sucka.. My roomate in the other hand, I installed kaspersky on his notebook, and still every 2 weeks, his notebook is full of viruses, then again he's a limewire user so. If you know how to avoid viruses, I don't think you need an antivirus.

 

that's a great idea to go ahead and ditch it. One day when you get a virus you would know what it's like. If I were you I would use deep freeze.

 

using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to write these message are so easy and fast. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the best.

 

You could use bitdefender 8 free; it uses the same detection as the new bitdefender (one of the leading pay anti-viruses) but it's just an on-demand scanner, so no real-time, but no slowdown. Though it's possible it auto-starts anyway (been a while since i've used it), you can disable it from msconfig or other startup manager, and the program still works fine.

 

Yes a bad virus or malware can do terrible things. I have had only two very bad experiences in six years ; once my ISP informed me that my computer, without my knowledge, had been hijacked and was being used to get information from others and on another occassion a virus almost wiped out everything. I learned and added a firewall and additional anti-spyware programs. A good friend has been to the computer shop twice for major repairs due to viruses. She allowed a visiting relative to use the computer and he went p2p.