Which is the best anti virus for a personal computer and not an expensive price?

thanks

EDIT: Moved to more appropriate forum

I use Avast, it's free and can be found HERE. I've had it for over a year and had no problems.

Is kaspersky a good anti virus program ?

Kaspersky is good but get avira.It's free and the better of the three free ones.If you want to pay I suggest drivesentry or GDATA both are very good.

A questionable statment.
All depends who`s rankings\test`s you read, believe. The top one changes almost monthly.
The best "ONE" is the one that runs well on your machine and helps you to feel protected all at the same time.

I knida depend on Norton 360 (altought i had to buy it)

But i think theres a 90-day free trail for norton standard.


Plus If you have windows, Windows live OneCare is useful.

Well AntiVir has been consistently higher than Avast and AVG on all the reputable tests I've seen.

Has anybody heard anything good or bad about Vipre Anitvirus/Anitspyware?

I have used ZoneAlarm Antivirus (not ZA pro or full suite) for many years and am very happy with it. It includes the regular firewall as well as the operating system firewall that I love. It now uses the Kaspersky scan engine and for me it was well worth the intitial 30 bucks and is well worth the 20 bucks for the yearly renewal.

Best Antivirus is usually a personal decision, it is what works best for your needs and works best on your system. An AV program that works well on one computer can cause problems on another so it is usually a matter or trial and error. Most AV programs do offer a free trial so you can make sure it is compatible with your system before you buy it.

Nope, I haven't heard of it. I used Kaspersky for a year or 2 and it worked good, but I got tired of paying yearly for it. The Avira Free does not cover email. You have to pay for the not free program and a yearly fee for that.

There is no such thing as the best virus protection. Most of them are good at one or two things. MalwareBytes is very good at finding and removing Malware and some Trojans. It does not work for Prefetch of rootkit viruses, and most time will not even find them. Trend will find about 3/4 of them but cannot remove a lot of them. I loaded viper and tried it, but it was less effective than Trend. Norton is your best at the moment, but it sometimes is hard to load and upgrade. Right now, I am trying SuperAntivirus and the free version seems to find most viruses, but still cannot clean rootkits or prefetch trojans.

seems to me that theyre all pretty rubbish.i currently have norton 360 but wont be renewing when subscription runs out.it let antivirus 360 through and is quite expensive

best thing to do probably is to use a free one and dont visit dodgy sites especially p2p

Yes they are. Im not paying Avira for more than 1 year either. Im really not a MS fanboy but are looking forward to this old question circulating around: why is this better than the free AV I can get from Microsoft? May be time is up for certain old companies? Who will cry? If it goes like I think they will focus even more on extras and try to make potential users/buyers believe they are needed. Same procedure as last year...

SteveIT. Removal experience is something else. You can evaluate infected or not but be careful judging too quickly on removal. Why does Avira, Dr. Web and others make a rescue/live-cd? They are aware of problems with removal. Sometimes impossible without those cds. Ease of use? Forget it. They are all more or less the same? If you disregard the best and the worst then you are probably right.

Perhaps no antivirus at all. Yes you say I may be crazy but I have seen it for more than 1 year plus.

All the time while I have asked these same questions in this thread and reloaded my os 2 or 3 times my son has a machine with vista and it has NO antivirus software installed - windows constantly and annoyingly reminds him and at times myself that there is no antivirus installed - and in the same time I have had to reload XP on my machine his has been flawless. Yes when I run Super AntSpyware - once or twice - it flags things however his system has never been overcome.

I am puzzled however a friend of mine who subscribes to the same DSL provider that I do mentioned without any knowledge of my sons machine with no antivirus that he as well does not run antivirus either.

His theory is that the provider offers antivirus optionally for a fee and believes that it is more work to delienate who pays and who does'nt and therefore does not run any of his own and claims to not have any problems as well.

Out of all the Anti Viruses out right now, I would say Kaspersky is by far the best. However, if you would like a free Anti Virus (like me) I would reccomend either Avira, or avast! (I personally use avast!). Both have constantly received praise in reviews and tests, and both have an excellent detection rate. Hell, you could even upgrade to the paid versions if you would like.

No need to wonder. Send him links to malware sites, email with funny attachments, send him an infected usb drive, with one of those that jump straight on to his hd. Lets hope he forgot about autorun If he laugh and say good try he probably dont need AV. Depends on user and usage, question of know-how and awareness - not so much rules since there are none. Some can drive very fast safely while others should not be driving at all. For most people AV is a standard tool, why Vista nags and MS is making their own. Less is better but too little is no good either.

"Depends on user and usage, question of know-how and awareness - not so much rules since there are none."

I am not buying that. Both my children are all over the internet. Downloading this cheat for this game and that cheat for that game as well as youtube and music sites.

I have a rule that since I bought my 2 dependants pcs mine is off limits so my pc does'nt have problems. My pcs os has been reloaded 3 - 4 times in the last 18 months and theirs only 1 time each. In the last year theirs have been stable - no problems whatsoever and I have reloaded at least 2 times if not 3.

Both my wife and I remind them about the risks involved in downloading screensavers and games and such from the internet and the problems that arise from doing such things and kids as they are do what they want at the time. Both machines are rock solid.

Could Vista be more secure vs Xp?

Well rules are not always understood or followed. What determines risk is user and what that person is doing with computer. If you and family follow rules to the letter then good but not so simple in most households I think.

If nobody does something stupid nothing bad will happen. Does not matter if on XP or Vista. If you trust rules because rules have proven to work then do that. Still the actual user and usage that decides, but if all follow rules then yes your rules are cool

Reloaded? You should not reload Windows 3-4 times in 18 months, but other type of risk perhaps? Make a new rule of not reloading then it will never happen again ;)

I agree with you 101%. I have no anti virus running and no problems at all. I have been without an anti virus about 1 year.
Now your asking "so why did you opened this thread about what is the best anti virus?"
Heres the answer: My friend asked me what is the best anti virus, for sure i didnt knew cause i dont use one, so i asked here.

Once when I had AVG 8.0 (I had bought it) I got a virus called 'Privacy Danger' (I have a copy if you want, lol im joking but yes i do have a copy) From the time a had that virus, I formatted my pc and I didnt used any other anti virus.

Question is if you can exclude you get into problems or not. What his friend said is not convincing. Just saying BAH dont say much.

Ive run without anything for months, no problem, magic or luck... but you need absolute control of what goes on to "agree" such an approach is an option. For most it is not. Installing a simple free AV, soon from MS btw, is not the same as stuffing computer with security products. Takes few minutes so not a big deal really. Can still believe less is better with AV

Within the last month I got a nasty bug and nearly had to reload my OS if it were not for the help of Romeo29 and was running AVG 8.5 at the time as well as scanning with SPYBot,Adware,SuperAntiSpyware,an Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Here are the details:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic249421.html

After Romeo29 was kind enough to help me out I decided to uninstall AVG 8.5 and load a copy of McAffee available from work for free. At this point I made a decision to see how things go and if there was another snafu that led to reloading the operating system I am going to the anti-antivirus approach as the 2 other machines in the house are at with no dramatic problems.

I do not want to jinx myself so I am not commenting on how things are going - if you know what I am saying.

Well here is where we separate lurkynot. Let me be an idiot and say: If you run without AV and believe that is redundant, then you will not need help from internet forums You dont live up my "full control" requirement. Dont matter to you, may be you are more "safe" than me, but as I said you need to be able to exclude risks. Be very convincing not reload Windows every now and then. All that about prevention and safe computing, and the big one COMMON SENSE, really is true but requirements are not low. Full control or get help.

Kaspersky, BItdefender and Eset are the best paid. For free get avira or Avast. NOT AVG!!!!!! Look up detection rates and more at av-comparatives.org and av-test.org.

Bambo, not agreeing or disagreeing with you or anyone else. Lets just put that to bed from the get go. I am simply stating the facts and trying add to the discussion and learn and more importantly share information.

Your posts are more confusing than anything else. Your posts and replies are off the chart compared to the discussion I and Delta16 are having. This may be more of a language barrier thing so I apologize in advance if that be the case.

Well you are not putting much meat on claiming that AV is not really needed. I might not disagree but certainly depends. What you have said up to now is not convincing. Your facts are nothing bad as happened up this moment. So what about tomorrow or next week? My rules still applies! ok but rules are not enough I think. Full control can be enough but do you have it?

To avoid confusion, full control also means control over Windows. Security is not separated.

"So what about tomorrow or next week?"


dude you have to read the entire post. as I have said earlier my 2 kids are all over the internet and it has been at least 1 year for both of their pcs without ANY antivirus protection and NO problems or drama to deal with.

Am I totally convinced NO antivirus is the way to go? Can't say I am if I am using it on my pc as we speak. I am wondering why I have been having problems and they have not and I practice much better internet surfing measures than do 2 kids.

They never and I mean never scan for malware and both pcs have the little windows shield alert in the task bar prompting to load an antivirus product.

Seems kind of strange if you ask me.

I can be an idiot again. If you dont have full control and is just wondering then you should probably not avoid a simple AV. To start with...

Just saying there are no problems as of yet speaks very little of anything. Refering to calendar also. If your rules are brilliant and followed then much is done. But without any deeper understanding of risks, Windows, internet, malware I still think you and family is taking an unnecessary chance. Especially since question is more why not? than why? There is no logic in your arguments besides rules - they are needed but relying on those is not foolproof. I also said this is a local matter but your info is not convincing. Just saying. You dont really talk about security but that nothing has happened = why the fuss? And besides you have a friend with same experience. Meaning what? Go to removal forum and get inspiration to stuff computer with products. Counting heads dont mean much. Well good luck but I really think you should reconsider.

You dont install AV and then sit and wait for it to pop up a window. May be you never see it at all. Does not make it redundant.

"If you dont have full control "

what do you mean by full control.

Not all viruses\trojans\worms\root kits make themselves known. Depending on their purpose, if they are caught, or show signs of themselves, whether it be through slowing of the machine, disabling programs, services, what ever then they can be removed.

People forget that it is`t just script kiddies setting in their bedrooms writing the scripts just because they can. It has become big business. Let`s not forget Bots. They set dormant on machines until their marching orders are sent. Usually to perform a DoSA on a major site. Or they can be as simple as spam bots.

Then there are key loggers and screen captures used heavily in identity theft.

An ill protected machine is a threat to the Internet and other peoples PCs as well.

"An ill protected machine is a threat to the Internet and other peoples PCs as well. "

when you put it that way it makes sense. anything I can do to help thwart these tools I am in.

An unfortunate but true fact of the World Wide Web these days.