Antivirus of Choice?

Norton.. In the old dos days, I used all sorts of stuff... F-Prot, McAfee, etc, but they were all very very slow and bothersome.

I can barely remember the last time I got a virus... The last time I can remember is a bootsector virus off of a MOUSE DRIVER DISK.

My current computer has never gotten a virus/worm/trojan, and neither have my parents/bother's boxes. By "never gotten", I mean "norton hasn't really been needed". I use it because with little configuration, it just sits there in the background, you can even hide the icon, and scans everything actively, and keeps itself up to date.

I use ClamAV on my linux box for mail scanning... it's picked up several viruses, and only missed one so far (after it auto-updated later that day, it caught another email infected with that virus.. fast for updating once daily.)

Lappie have AVG, desktop has Mcafee until the subscription expires (and cant wait). Using Mcafee ISS6.0 on the desktop . Out of 4 programs fro it 2 work and Mcafee has no intention of fixing it.

NOD32. Seems lighter on resources than my previous AV, Norton.

None!

omg

norton and macaffe the only options

what a joke

Norton. Came with the Firewall bundle due to wanting IPS in a firewall, doesn't seem to be a big concern for other makers except hardware firewall builders.

I never liked using a AV. I've only ever gotten 1 known virus to this day, and that was my own fault. I keep a pretty close eye on what i'm downloading, and what's running on my machine. I know that's not full proof, but it's been good enough so far. I tend to format every 3-6 months anyways, so i really don't let that type of thing bother me. I don't do anything on my computer that i can't live without. I backup all my important files on 2 servers, and keep them on all machines. If they all get infected, well *hit happens, and i'll live

I used Trend Micro Internet Security. I like it because of low cpu utilization and frequent updates.

Been using Norton since version 4.5 on floppy

I currently use only Norton 2003 System Works, I do not like Norton 2004 I feel I wasted my money on it.

For my customers I use AVG since its free and Maximum PC rated them = to Norton and McAffee.

I use AVG. I've tried the rest.
I agree with Sucka. A virus needs to be just one step ahead of AV software, for me to put much faith in them.

Alright, I'm gonna make this short. I've used both Norton and McAffee. I didn't like the fact that every year I had to pay for the program over again, and with both programs they never caught one virus and I found my computer getting progressively worse, with lockups and random error messages, you name it. Eventually it got to the point where I just stopped using both.

Five months ago I heard about AVG from a site called Techtv and I figured I might as well download it, that I didn't have much to lose. I downloaded it and it caught two viruses the first time I ran it. After that my computer has been running a whole lot smoother, and AVG is nowhere near as big of a resource hog as either of those programs.

Ever since then I've tried out all manner of free antivirus software and have relied on them pretty much solely. Thats not to say that paid Antivirus software is bad, there are many very good paid Antivirus programs out there: Kaspersky, TrendMicro, ect....I've heard many good things about all these programs and for the most part they are less expensive then both McAfee and Norton.

I'm currently running 3 free antivirus programs (AVG, Avast Home Edition, and AntiVir) among other things. I know its a bit eccesive, but if I had one virus and one of the programs missed it in a scan then the other two might catch it. Thats really the only reason I've kept all 3 even though its really unnecessary. I only have the on access scanner on for Avast though and I've had to make some modifications to AVG so that it was able to run with Avast.

I think that Norton and McAffee are the most available, but by far not the best, that if you're going to pay for an Antivirus program then you should pay for a good one, like Trend Micro. There are so many good antivirus programs out there. You just have to look. I haven't been able to buy any of these programs yet, but thats what I do when buying anything. If you look you'd see how much better these programs are then Norton or McAffee.

One more thing about McAffee and Norton, besides the fact that they have caused me and countless others so many problems. They sit in your computer after you uninstall them. I still find old prefetch data and files from both companies in my computer and its been years since I've used either one.

I could go into why I think my free antivirus programs are better then either Norton or McAffee, but I think I've already made this post too long. I think just the fact that I can get a comparable antivirus program for no money shows how bad these programs really are. With the amount of money Norton and McAffee possess its really sad that they can't come out with better products and I can truthfully say that I feel safer with my free antivirus program then I ever did with Norton or McAffee.

Thats just my 2 cents on antivirus programs in general.

Btw, I think that this poll should include a lot more of the antivirus programs I and others mentioned.

I have tried Norton,mcafee and panda and i now use AVG(free) and it rules

I use norton at home... I work with mcafee and have seen it quit running so many times with virus infections I would never use it. I'd probably feel the same way about norton if I worked with it.

I have thought mcafee sucked for quite some time, but am suprised to see how drastically most people so far have agreed with that.

No wonder McAfee is trying to get someone to buy out the company ............... just sad that noone seems to want it ........

Keep in mind, the poll was designed primarily to see the preference between the biggest names. I think its very intersting.

I'm actually quite sorry that there wasn't a breakdown in the 'other' category .I think that names like NOD32 , AVG , Panda , F-Prot and PC-Cillin should be there as well.

It would be nice if we could get another more comprehensive poll .

I use fsecure on my home computer. Works just as well as norton that I had before, but is more intuitive to use. I get it free from work, so it was an easy choise. I can only install it on one computer and currently I have AntiVir on my notebook. Don't know if it's any good as I never actually get any viruses (one during the last 4 years), but people say it's the best free antivirus software available.

Here's a non-major AV poll.

I continue to use Norton simply because I've used it for about 7 years (different versions of course) and it's never given me a problem and has removed a couple viruses over the years. I know there are other good programs out there though, like AVG.

My tool of choice:

MY BRAIN

simple. works flawlessly. takes no system resources. No virus since 2 years.

what a waste. Otherwise for people with no brain I would recommend AVG.

and no you do not need a anti-virus program. I dont know any virus which is out which manages to install itself on the computer without user intervention if you have all windows updates + firewall. Do not give me any "YEAH BUT"... I run my computer 24/7 nearly and its always on the net. The last virus I had I installed myself and removed myself. Oh and dont use IE and Outlook.

and yeah I backup my work too every now and again... but there has been 1 virus this year which was big and acctually was destructive and it only affected people with firewalls from some big security company (hardware)