A good antivirus program??

Avast works great for my desktop and laptop, but as has been said before it is no substitute for safe browsing. ( stop putting a condom on your Ethernet cord.)

I use Avast! antivirus. It's free, really effective and the bootscan utility has saved both my PC's and my laptop's lives at least once. I've never had a virus since I began using it way back in 2008.

Avast is Great.

LOGIC:

Free Antivirus = Many users
Many Users = Many virus submissions
Many virus submissions = Updated Virus Definitions
Updated Virus Definitions = Efficient Antivirus
Efficient Antivirus = Trusted by many users
Trusted by many users = less persistent antivirus (less BUY NOW!!! ads)

wow I never heard of those program before, they must work great if alot of people downloads them. I got a question, I have my anti-virus program on my laptop and in a couple of months my subscription will end. For starter, I'm worry that the minute my subscription ends, the viruses, trojan, worm, malware, etc will infect my laptop. So Should I download those program before my subscription ends?

Using the same logic Microsoft Security Essentials should be a good program too... guess what? It is. For a free anti-virus product it's pretty decent.

Well, I recommend you to download free antivirus before your own antivirus trial period expires.

Just avoid downloading anything from untrusted sources until you get a good antivirus system. Most viruses, if not all, infect your computer through the downloading process. What sets some viruses apart is that they can download silently and without your knowledge.

As I said, avoid downloading anything from unreliable sources and you should be fine.

I'm recommending AVAST and NOD32 for everyday computing - you SHOULD disable windows AUTOPLAY feature by using registry keys that really worked even when you double-click the infected drive icon and your AV doesn't work.

Read this article http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/889747 written by US-CERT team

ain't using one these things eat RAM like rice

So you're antivirus-less? You're like basically running naked then o.O

Actually, it seems quite a few people do this. Some guys think antivirus software make your computer less stable. Maybe there's a basis for that, maybe not.

Just interested... Does anyone know how much ram an average antivirus software uses? It can't use that much, right?

Anyway, I've used Nod32 before, but now can't be bothered used AV with paid subscription, because I'm too lazy to punch in my credit card details or go to a electronics/computer store. Now, I use Panda cloud on my laptop and AVG on one of my desktops and Avast on the other. I use different ones because it's fun to play with different things.

well i never had problems without one i just avoid going into strange websites and such, but will consider using one if problems arises.

That's like getting meds after you fuck a aids whore. Avast and avg uses like 3mb of ram space while in sleep mode.. like 15 in search and attack. My firefox uses more while i not doing shit then any normal av while not scanning. Which my server has avg now since avast banned me from their product.

i used different av's. my fav though is avast. If you're using Windows, the base windows defender is probably one of the better ones, only downside is that it doesn't have background scans and has to be manually updated. upside of it though is that it usually updates a day or so before the rest of the other programs.

Coming from a White Hat Hacker (previously Black Hat) I can easily say that if someone wants to get into your system, they can get by any antivirus. Most mainstream antiviruses all get their info on new encryption for viruses from the same sources, so if one anti can detect it, usually with in a week, all antis can detect it. In my experience, NOD32 is very fast at getting their updates out to their customers, but that comes with the price of heavy CPU usage, cost for subscription, and high false positive rates. A good free alternative is AVG now days. AVG had a rough spot a few years back but they have shown MUCH improvement in 2010 and even more in 2011. Best of all, its not a CPU whore!

However, for the most security i would use a program called Malware Bytes. It is a free program with extra paid features. Ive never used the paid version, so i cant really review it, but the free version can catch some viruses even if their encryption bypasses all other antiviruses! The free version, however, is not an active scanner, so you will have to to a full scan for best results.

In short: For a casual computer user that just needs some security form common viruses, get AVG free. You can also install Malware Bytes while AVG is installed for a secondary scanner.

** IT IS NEVER RECOMMENDED TO HAVE MORE THEN ONE ANTIVIRUS. THIS CAUSES CONFLICTION AND FALSE POSITIVES. ONLY A FEW PROGRAMS ARE AN EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE!***

I would recommend Malware Bytes. Saved me a great deal of trouble against trojans. Or get a Mac.

Not even mac is safe - remember that Trojan masquerading as CS4 keygen?

eset is great

too bad its not free

My top 5 list is:
1. Avast!
2. Eset
3. NOD32
4. Avira
5. AVG

I use Webroot, but that's only 'cause it came with my laptop when I bought it at Best Buy two and a half years ago. It's decent, I suppose, but not for the money I've been paying for it. When I buy myself a new laptop, I'm gonna cancel my subscription.