What antivirus do you use on your Windows?

[Alex009988]

What antivirus do you use on your Windows?
Why do you (not) recommend it?
With which one is a system work faster?
Which one is safer?
I think many of us have a Windows in spite of we are very fond of Mac. It is obvious, for comfortable and safe work, antivirus sometimes is necessary. Frankly I very rarely catch a real virus at windows.
But I think I can assert that Kaspersky is the worst antivirus that I've ever seen. Because a computer is though to have been created only for antivirus. It slows the system and booting down in dramatic and powerful way. Super, a lot. But even worse, I remember that it blocked my Chrome. I didn't want to look it into.
As a consequence, I moved on Nod32. As a whole, I'm satisfied with this Antivirus.
I also using Norton 360 before. And I think it is quite good either. These antiviruses are more tolerant to the system that allows to do what you want without superfluous interruptions of a system caused by working of an antivirus.
And what can you say about your Antivirus?

[TheEnthusiast]

I use Microsoft Security Essentials because it is really light on system resources, it's free and works well, and does everything simply. AVG and Avast aren't bad options either, especially the free versions, but they use slightly more resources than MS Essentials. Kaspersky isn't bad, from what I've heard, but I've never used it. Mcafee, Norton, etc. I don't rate highly and have never used them other than as tests. Overall, no virus protection can really offer complete protection; it's up to the user to be smart about using the computer. 

[Alex009988]

I've just forgot about MSE. But so many knotty opinions are in the internet. Some people tell that it is not enough safe(catching ability is low)

But perhaps they was made up by paid anti-viruses.

And one more time about Kaspersky, it's very good antivirus. But it consumes many system resources. And blocking of my Chrome was the last straw to move on to the other Antivirus.

[Rampage Dev]

Norton Internet Securities which I have used since 2005 and have only had 1 virus while using it and that was in 2007. 

[TheEnthusiast]

I've never had a virus using MSE, but as I said before, I browse smartly. I just use it for scans. 

[Derty]

many blogs says Kaspersky is the better, I really like to much avira.

 

for strange things, I use combo fix from hirens boot

[ham4ever]

i recommand norton , because i used it for loong time and still and never had problems ,, i also used eset, avira , kaspersky... and more but just felt save with norton and is  light on system

[artur_pt]

hello

 

i use MSE.. is from microsoft.. is free.. 

 

like i use to say.. where windows come from ?

 

if microsoft don't know the security breaches in there OS.. who knows ?

 

kaspersky

 

macaffee

 

norton

 

and the others ?

 

so many

 

rssrs

 

no problems with viruses.. i'm not use pirate software..

 

good hack

[3.14r2]

Avast (free version). Cos' it's free. Don't really know how effective it is, but anyway it's better to have one then no antivirus at all. I prefer to be really careful when using Windows (knowing how popular it is amongst The Bad Guys (I don't mean Tony)).

 

No antivirus can protect you from your own stupidity IMO.

 

P.S. @Alex Auditore

How about adding the poll option to your topic?

[TimeWalker75a]

I've been using kaspersky software since 2005, ever since I had my P4 machine and I can say it was sluggish with it. Then I switched to using Norton for a year and a was completely disappointed as it turned the machine into a complete snail-pc. In 2008 I've switched back to Kaspersky, just the regular antivirus on my E2160 machine (which was not fast by any means) and it still felt snappy, so I've kept renewing the licence until 2010 hit and then I've tried Kasperky Internet Security on my Q6600 machine and it didn't feel any different from KAV 2008. I've purchased a 2-PC licence for my desktop and laptop in 2011 and haven't had a slightest hiccup with kaspersky on either of them (the laptop was a C2D with integrated graphics). When I first bought my new Dell laptop I used the Norton that came preinstalled for one month and immediately recalled why I hated Norton in the first place, so I switched back to KIS2010. When Windows 8 hit it was not happy about me having KIS2010 installed, so I had to buy a 2-PC licence for KIS2013 instead, which was supporting Windows 8. Running KIS2013 on both my home machines and they feel snappy as they should. The old stereotype of Kaspersky slowing down the system dates back to 2005, when it really did, so people to this day seem to assume it does and falsely recommend stuff like NOD32 or Free Avast to their friends and family. During these year os using kaspersky products I haven't reinstalled Windows once due to a virus or a malware attack, it was purely my own decision due to it getting cluttered with temp files and unused software, which I wouldn't bother to hunt down.

[Avishadur]

I use Microsoft Security Essentials personally and manage quite well. When doing installs for others I simply put either that or AVG free, and they do their job.

 

On the other hand, Symantec and Norton are the complete opposite of a good idea in my books. The programs have in the past proven to hog resources and take over things that I really wish they didn't (especially when I want to change said things and I have to negotiate kindly with norton to do it).

 

All in all everyone you ask knows better than the last and tell you a different story, myself included, and no matter what you decide you should look towards smarter browsing to prevent heavily needing whichever you choose. Stupid mistakes invalidate all the protection in the world.

[CorpsdellaElite]

Kaspersky Internet Security 14 - It works perfectly for me.

[Gringo Vermelho]

My brain + MSE...and, very rarely, a full scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SuperAntiSpyware.

 

I've spent more time removing malware and viruses for other people than on any of my own PCs. Mostly on Windows XP back in the day.

HiJackThis saved the day over and over again, unfortunately the latest version seem to not work properly on Windows 7. One of those free utilities that can kill locked tasks and delete locked files are also useful. I found a registry editor once where you could import/export and edit the Windows registry off-line, that was super-useful too. I don't know where it is and I can't remember what it was called.

Sometimes combining the best tools can't kill a virus completely, but there are many sites out there that take you through manual removal of the most common ones, step by step.

Once you have identified the threat locally, the best way to work on virus removal is to connect the infected drive to another PC. For a particularly nasty virus, I'd connect the HDD exclusively to a disposable virtual machine running XP and work from there.
 

[PookyMacMan]

The brain is good, and I use it. But I personally have ClamWin. Excellent software, my IT bro installs it on client machines all the time. It's based on the Linux ClamAV engine, I actually also use ClamXAV on Mac (though I never have really used it.) ClamWin has extremely low overhead. The only other one I would use would be MSE. AVG, Norton, Avast, McAfee, and many of the other "big name" antivirus programs actually cause a lot more problems than they solve, particularly the free versions.

[Alex009988]

Some words to say about necessity of good antivirus. Recently, I noticed I can't get the access to my favorite sites namely vkontakte mail.ru and so on. And it asked me to send couple of paid SMSes. But there were exactly those sites and link coincided with original site in address line. Later I noticed it doesn't work for all my devises. Windows8.1/xp, mavericks and iOS. I was wondered, of course, it's not unlike to catch some bad virus on Mac, but to catch it on iOS, never. After I decided to disconnect my iPad from wifi and go to the internet via gsm.

What a miracle. It works, after that I realized that I catched a virus which "infected" my router. On the other words, it changed the settings of my router.

One important rule, never use a login and password such as admin admin on your router.

After as I make a reset of my router, the sites begun to work.

Even though I did safe internet-serfing, I catch a virus which cheat you and ask to send paid messages. And it looks so real as I was be able to sign in and see my name at the social web site. However it was a fake made by swindlers.

[PippoX0]

Avast Free is a good choice - fast, light and safe ... on my old Windows Xp .

[Guest AllanMax]

I use Avast a long time, and I got one malware.

never have problems with Microsoft Security Essentials, this very nice too.

[Chaitanya_cr8]

I previously used to use the free anti virus from Avast but since 2 years, I am using Microsoft Security Essentials in my Windows 7 Home Premium and it has not once disappointed me. Very light and non intrusive. Recommended!

[Alex009988]

After using Avast and Nod32 I had done full-scan with Kaspersky. It found nothing, zero of viruses.

it personally seems to me that it was easier to catch a virus earlier in 2000-2010.

But I managed to catch one virus on the fly with kaspersky when I was finding a book in garbage sites.

If you always visit the same sites, you have nothing to concern about security most likely.

You have more chances to catch a flue rather then computer viruses. But if doesn't mean that you have to refuse it.

[verdant]

I use Avast, MSE and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and minimal use of Windows for Internet surfing, for which I use Linux and OS X.

[aphex6b]

Firefox + NoScript plugin, and Comodo stripped down to the only useful component; an application level firewall

[Nobody15000]

None, I play dangerous 

[Promatics]

I use avast antivirus and it performs very good.

[Alessandro17]

Keeping in mind that I use OS X between 90 and 95% of the time, when in Windows I use BitDefender. I changed recently from Avast and Comodo. It seems good so far. Avast used to disable IDM, very annoying because I find IDM extremely useful.

I also use Malwarebytes free, extremely good.

With the 2 of them combined I can keep my Windows partitions clean.

[Fabio1971]

I use avast antivirus free version

 

Fabio