Antivirus for Vista

[Zarquon]

I'm looking for an Anti-virus cum Internet Security suite for Vista, any ideas?
I've tried Kaspersky and AVG, but not been satisfied. Kaspersky charges too much, AVG is not well-performing and prone to overreact; same with Avast!.

[Lily]

I've been using Kaspersky for years, now. Yeah, it costs some money, but I think it's worth it. I've never had a problem with it conflicting with any programs and it does the job.

[Americano]

This should probably be in the computer forum?

When it comes to anti-virus software, our house PCs run commando. Over the years I've tried most of them and decided, for one reason or another, they just weren't worth it. Norton was by far the worst nightmare. It seemingly burdened every registry file in the system and dramatically slowed performance.

I use only online email services, external HDD storage, am not an online gamer and do periodic clean OS installs. So far, so good, only one infection three years ago (it only affected one PC on our home network) and a HDD wipe and clean OS install isn't that big a deal for my limited applications.

[Michael]

I just moved these posts from the Random Thread to this forum which is more appropriate for an inquiry about anti-virus software.

[drgoodtrips]

If I use anything, I use AVG, but more often than not, I just use nothing. If you're relatively careful about downloads and not visiting the back-alleys of the internet (i.e. dubious file sharing, online gambling, warez, etc), you'll probably have problems so infrequently that if you do contract the odd piece of malware, manual removal is worth the opportunity cost of not hassling with virus software.

What I'd advocate as a better solution is making a policy of re-installing the OS periodically. This will cause you to set up your personal data and programs in a way that you separate what you need from the OS. Any time you have a virus or even just performance lag, blast it out of the water and re-install.

[heavenponting]

KsperSky is one of the effective Internet Security Antivirus. It is good for Vista. It is easy to use. Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 has everything you need to stay safe while surfing the web. It’s not only the very latest innovative technologies such as the ‘sandbox’.

[drgoodtrips]

KsperSky is one of the effective Internet Security Antivirus. It is good for Vista. It is easy to use. Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 has everything you need to stay safe while surfing the web. It’s not only the very latest innovative technologies such as the ‘sandbox’.

Kaspersky isn't a personal AV choice - it's something your IT department forces on you as an unfortunate tradeoff of productivity for the illusion of security. With anti-virus, less is more and none is fine.

[jamshedpur543]

You can also use norton but if you want antivirus with speed performance you can go with avast i am also using it currently.

[WFCY]

Just use linux, solves all your problems. It makes you look l33t too as a side benefit.

[drgoodtrips]

Just use linux, solves all your problems. It makes you look l33t too as a side benefit.

For that approach to security, I'd suggest a desktop version of Ubuntu or some other Linux designed not to be a server by default. If you install something like Slackware, and make a few wrong selections during the configuration process you won't need to worry about things like viruses because other people will simply have remote access to your machine any time they please. :lol:

If you configure it correctly, Linux tends to be fairly bulletproof. It's hard to have things running on Linux that you don't want running, unless someone gets out of their depth with the configuration. That's why I'd suggest a "secure by default" installation of Linux.

As an interesting aside, one of the (anti-Microsoft) comments about viruses is that Mac computers are similarly bulletproof - no need to worry about security. I just read about a 0-day exploit of Macs through Skype that can be used to gain access to the machines or even to replicate as a worm. I was surprised to read about that since Mac is a BSD derivative.