Thinking about running Anti-Virusless

Dapman02 · Sep 8, 2008

I recently reformatted because of constant crashing of games, not due to instability. It came from Avast crashing everything. So I reformated and it runs a TON better. Question is, should I worry about installing anti-virus again. Should I be good if I don't really download much besides Drivers, cpu-z and the kind. Are there any virus scanners that don't install.

Trap05 · Sep 8, 2008

Your machine is on the internet so it requires antivirus. Avast has not interfered with anything on any of my machines - ever. I'd go with Avira Antivir or Avast or NOD32 as running without is asking for trouble.

EmAn · Sep 8, 2008

I have run many machines w/o anti virus and for the most part they all do pretty well if you keep the windows updates up to date and be sure to be careful downloading things.

dribblesnort · Sep 8, 2008

Don't believe the hype. You do NOT need anti-virus software IF you are using common sense.

I have been surfing the web since the 90s and have yet to be infected.

Trap05 · Sep 8, 2008

Funny thing about common sense though is that it isn't that common

Automata · Sep 8, 2008

Trap05 said:
Your machine is on the internet so it requires antivirus.

Not sure why you would think that. If the computer is "just on the internet", there is no way (short of security holes) that it would get a virus. If you know what you download and who uses the computer, you can keep it virus free with effort. I have done this for a year or so with no issues at all.

dribblesnort said:
Don't believe the hype. You do NOT need anti-virus software IF you are using common sense.

I have been surfing the web since the 90s and have yet to be infected.

Exactly

Bal`thzar · Sep 8, 2008

will will generally do a scan of downloaded files but I do not user active antivirus protection.

Dapman02 · Sep 8, 2008

I forgot to mention I'm using Vista x64 SP1

hellzarmy · Sep 8, 2008

i have to agree witht he guys above.

you dont need AV software installed.
as long as you know what your DL-ing or where your surfing too, you should be good to go.

i havent used a virus program on my personal computer in over 9 years now.
i also have image back ups for days when i want to DL somethign from Kazaa or whatever and know that there is a 95% chance ill get infected after that. but i just restore my image and im back to where i was.

it really is common sense. dont even need alot of it, just some.

Trap05 · Sep 8, 2008

You might try clamwin then just to manually scan things. I still think its a bad idea considering how many decent free AV programs are available to run without. Maybe I'm just more cautious than some but if you do any email, p2p, or porn surfing on this machine no AV is not a solid plan.

oakstave · Sep 8, 2008

Anti-virus software is the biggest source of crashes and conflicts on my PC. It's always on, it interferes with the operation of some programs, and demands the rights to update itself anytime it wants. (My prog doesn't allow 'manual updates'.)

I've considered running without them myself.

If, like me you tend to hit the same 12 websites every day, the chances of infection are nil.

Just make sure you have a good firewall!

ziggo0 · Sep 8, 2008

I've run Antivirusless for more years than I can count now...here is a quick lesson.

Windows Vista Ultimate w/ ACTIVATION CRACK BLAH BLAHB BLAH.iso.zip.exe - 36kb - 900 users

^On Limewire, that's a virus. People contract viruses this way so easily it's gross. Also sometimes game cracks will be viruses in disguse, or install something behind your back (i.e. trojan). I personally found it hard to infect a computer, I was making a VMware computer infected on purpose to see why people get viruses/spyware/malware so easily.

Dapman02 · Sep 8, 2008

So what I'm getting, is that I should be good.
The websites I visit are
Woot
OCforums (of course)
Engadget
and maybe some big chain retailers

No porn
no p2p
I do play online games though.

johnz · Sep 8, 2008

Dapman02 said:
So what I'm getting, is that I should be good.
The websites I visit are
Woot
OCforums (of course)
Engadget
and maybe some big chain retailers

No porn
no p2p
I do play online games though.

and hope none of the advertising servers get hacked... ;^)

Thomasj · Sep 8, 2008

I run the free version of bitdefender. Works fine and does not slow anything down at all. It VERY basic

darkcow · Sep 8, 2008

I would never think of installing an Anti-Virus on my Windows Server 2008 machine. Hell, I don't even have the firewall turned on. Anything that even has a slight chance of taking up ram I get rid of it.

Worse comes to worse go here http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/ (best virus scanner you can get your hands on)

-LandShark[/COLOR][/B]

Neuromancer · Sep 8, 2008

dribblesnort said:
Don't believe the hype. You do NOT need anti-virus software IF you are using common sense.

I have been surfing the web since the 90s and have yet to be infected.

But how do you know you do not have a virus if you do not have anti-virus software?

I installed AV software at work and my boss complained saying they never had a virus (mind you I removed 5 manually from a single PC before installing AV software on all the machines).

I do have AV software on PCs that I let other people use, and periodically take my HDD and pop it in and scan it.

Despite all that...

I do agree that you can run without AV software, if you are smart. (run 64bit OS, if using IE run in 64bit mode not 32bit mode. Setup your security settings nice and tight. Preferably use a good browser, and use some common sense). I tned not to install AV software on mine, but still do sometimes, it depends on what i intend to do

Dapman02 · Sep 8, 2008

Neur0mancer said:
But how do you know you do not have a virus if you do not have anti-virus software?

I installed AV software at work and my boss complained saying they never had a virus (mind you I removed 5 manually from a single PC before installing AV software on all the machines).

I do have AV software on PCs that I let other people use, and periodically take my HDD and pop it in and scan it.

Despite all that...

I do agree that you can run without AV software, if you are smart. (run 64bit OS, if using IE run in 64bit mode not 32bit mode. Setup your security settings nice and tight. Preferably use a good browser, and use some common sense). I tned not to install AV software on mine, but still do sometimes, it depends on what i intend to do

I have a quick question, how is 64 bit more secure?

meionm · Sep 8, 2008

johnz said:
and hope none of the advertising servers get hacked... ;^)

And what are you implying. Most of the time people get spy ware, ad ware, malware off internet which antivirus does not stop in many cases.

johnz · Sep 8, 2008

meionm said:
And what are you implying. Most of the time people get spy ware, ad ware, malware off internet which antivirus does not stop in many cases.

I'm implying that using A/V, especially one with decent heuristics will help protect you against 0 day exploits a la ani exploit. A/V companies had definitions out before MS patched Windows, and though I don't know it for a fact, they may have picked it up heuristically. Just because something doesn't work 100% of the time, doesn't mean it's useless to use.

Thinking about running Anti-Virusless

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