Best Antivirus Software?

[Qwurty2.0]

Hello, Escapists! I am a relatively new member who creeped on over from the Off-Topic section to ask for some friendly advice.

I was wondering what the best/most effective antivirus out there is. I would like to know what the best paid antivirus is and what the best free antivirus is.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Personal Preference.

For me Paid wise its Kaspersky and Trend Micro, Free-wise the only one I trust so far is MSE(Microsoft Security Essentials.). People might like Avast! but from the years I've used it, it's nothing more then a smouldering piece of shit that doesn't protect anything, causes many bugs and is outright annoying.

Probably worse then Nortons, at least their's can clean a computer right. :\

 

[DreamaSkylar]

For a free anti-virus, I use "Avast!".

 

[JCD2k4]

I am pretty happy with NOD32 or Kaspersky. Statistically you might want to consider Kaspersky which has been chosen Product of the Year over at AV-Comparatives [http://www.av-comparatives.org/].

Looking for free software? Try Avira Personal edition.

 

[DoPo]

Free antivirus: Avast!, Avira AnitiVir, AVG. In that order. There is also Microsoft Security Essentials which is free (for Windows obviously) but I have absolutely no experience with it. However it's supposed to be really good.

If you want paid - personally I'd stay away from Norton. I have bad experience with that, although it's supposed to be better now. I'd probably get ESET NOD32 as it's lightweight and efficient. Kaspersky is awesome but resource heavy. It's a bit of an overkill for a PC - it's like getting a safe for the pocket change you normally keep on the table. It's useful but under specific circumstances.

 

[Palfreyfish]

Microsoft Security Essentials is actually pretty good. Norton is BAAAAAAAAD. If you want to pay, like the above posters suggested, NOD32 or Kaspersky(which is a bit OP for a simple PC but w/ever) are both great.

 

[requisitename]

I use ESET (Cybersecurity for Mac and Smart Security 5 for Windows) on all the computers I own and/or maintain for other people. I've never had a problem with it, it gets rid of things that other programs either don't see or see and are unable to remove, and it has a VERY small footprint.

The last free one I used was AVG, but from what I understand it's mostly bloatware now.

 

[Qwurty2.0]

Thanks for the advice, guys/gals. I'll do some research on my own, then make a decision.

 

[evilneko]

The best antivirus software is the one you will tolerate and use. One may score well in tests, but be a complete pig on your system to the point where you end up disabling it all the time just to be able to function. That's not a very good antivirus, now is it? Better to have one you'll actually use.

All of them have trial versions. Take advantage of them.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

If you want paid - personally I'd stay away from Norton. I have bad experience with that, although it's supposed to be better now.

Yes it is better now, it was shit a few years back but now it is good. Just look at recent reviews, they are consistently good.

Norton is BAAAAAAAAD.

Let me guess you heard this 6 years ago and have been playing the same tune since then?

it is bad. The detection rate is top notch, but it just DEVOURS resources and on laptops, brings them to a turtle speed.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I use AVG and love it. It scans every bit of data that comes from the internet and locks it away the second it detects anything.

 

[number2301]

Microsoft Security Essentials is all you need unless you're running a server. It's lightweight and effective. I really don't know why anyone uses anything else anymore.

 

[Palfreyfish]

If you want paid - personally I'd stay away from Norton. I have bad experience with that, although it's supposed to be better now.

Yes it is better now, it was shit a few years back but now it is good. Just look at recent reviews, they are consistently good.

Norton is BAAAAAAAAD.

Let me guess you heard this 6 years ago and have been playing the same tune since then?

it is bad. The detection rate is top notch, but it just DEVOURS resources and on laptops, brings them to a turtle speed.

Basically what [user]Ziadaine[/user] said. Unless of course that's changed since I last used it, which was 2 years ago or so.
Also this:

Microsoft Security Essentials is all you need unless you're running a server. It's lightweight and effective. I really don't know why anyone uses anything else anymore.

 

[OneCatch]

For a free anti-virus, I use "Avast!".

Yeah, if you need free antivirus I'd use avast [http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download].
In fact, I'd use free-avast above a fair few paid ones (Norton for example - I fucking hate Norton*).

AVG gets an honourable mention too, but personally I prefer avast.

---

*No, I'm not one of those people that mindlessly hates on it without reason. I got a trial recently and it was appallingly irritating to use, om nom nommed my system resources and it doesn't even have that great a detection rate in antivirus competitions anyway, from what I remember.

 

[renegade7]

The free version of Avast has been on my computer for the last 5 years and has so far blown any paid antivirus software I have yet to use away in terms of quality and effectiveness.

Spybot Search&Destroy is free as well and has been very useful to me.

 

[Sabrestar]

My main job is cleaning virus infections off of students' computers, so I deal with this a lot. I used to use Avast a whole lot, and recommended it to a lot of people, but in the past few years it's seemed to become a lot more bloated and over complicated than necessary. Likewise with AVG, which I feel has gone even further downhill in a similar way. On a Windows machine, I think you'd be very well served with Microsoft Security Essentials. It may be free, and it may be from Microsoft, but I've found it to be excellent. It's a very lightweight program that takes up comparatively few system resources, it scans quickly, and it finds many things that others struggle with. The rest of my IT department colleagues feel the same way, enough so that we've recently switched our entire company contract to the corporate version of it (Forefront).

The best recommendation I know for MSE? All the computer geeks I know put it on their parents' computers.