virus protection for home computer

[vulcannomad]

whats a good anti virus for a home computer?

[highlife4me]

I have used a few. Norton, Mcaffee, Kaspersky, but beleive it or not the one I like the best is AVG - Free. I use my computer for mostly internet browsing and have had "0" problems. Cost is free and a lot less problems than the others I had to pay for.

[upnorth]

I have been using Avast for a few years and have had good experience too. And free to boot.

[vulcannomad]

I tried the avg, it seems to working decently but it seems to take forever to start up and shut down. dont know whats goin on there

[upnorth]

The AV software or the computer?

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I like eset nod32. It runs super fast and does a great job.

[vulcannomad]

that would be the computer, i think i have defraged and debugged the stuff im familiar with. Im not real familiar with workin on these that much

[ottertailguy]

Kaspersky works great. You have to pay for it but I believe you get what you pay for.

[upnorth]

Not sure what stuff AVG installs as part of the downloads. But a lot of the free software even the good stuff installs other krap as part of the install. Over on the right side of the task bar you should see a list of what is running and maybe a little up arrow, click the up arrow and take a look at what is all running. Might have installed a few items than think they are so important that they need to startup at boot. You can go to "start, run, key in msconfig and it will open up a dialog box. There should be a tab named start up. This is where most the things that start up get the nod to start up at boot. There things like your avg and a few others that do need to start, but you can do a google lookup on most the rest and see what they do. If it seems unimportant uncheck it. After a restart it won't start up any more.

[BobT]

I've been using AVG for about 10 years. It has been working fine. Never had an attack that I am aware of. But it has blocked some things. So in that respect, its doing its job.

[JeremyCampbell]

AVG is pretty good.I been virus free for a long time

[James Edwards]

Hey pal, I have been using Immunet Plus on my PC and it works great. [Post edited. Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]. Some other good options can be Avast, AVG, Avira, Comodo, Norton, Bitdefender etc.

[Nick Kuhn]

AVG works great. But always remember the best antivirus is the computer operator.

[BobT]

But always remember the best antivirus is the computer operator.

You got that right!

[upnorth]

AVG works great. But always remember the best antivirus is the computer operator.

I just spent a few hours cleaning up a neighbors laptop( I really hate Windows 8) because somebody went install some cute little software. Be careful of where you install any "free" software from, a lot comes with a mass of junk. Even the good stuff tries to push Krapware along with the good stuff too. When installing be careful of just accepting the defaults.

[vulcannomad]

sorry i havent been checking this ,Just got back from working moondance festival. I see what you mean about extra dump, now that i downloaded avg theres this tune up program that keeps poping up and if i dont just hit ask me later and try to close it my computer basically freezes up

[vulcannomad]

And also now my computer doesnt remember my user names and passwords when i go to sites, I have to re-enter info every time

[upnorth]

Go through the add/remove programs and delete the app that is prompting you.

[PurpleFloyd]

I have used AVG and Avast several years ago but for probably the last 4 I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials/Windows Defender.

[mainbutter]

nod32 and kaspersky have both been on various machines of mine with great results.

[Whoaru99]

Microsoft Security Essentials has been working fine for me.

[BobT]

Microsoft Security Essentials has been working fine for me.

Not pointing at your post in particular but it did bring up a thought. You indicated that MSE has worked fine for you, I mentioned the same about AVG, Avast was mentioned, and so on. If we really think about it, how do we know they work fine? I don't remember the last time I was informed by my AVG software that a thread was blocked or removed and in fact the only thing I do recall is that one time it thought one of our application files was a threat and removed it. I had to restore it again manually.

So in reality, has AVG really worked fine for me? Yes if not causing serious problems to my system is working fine but I wonder if I would be happier if I didn't have the software running and slowing my system down?

Probably my best antivirus has been my habits???

[SkunkedAgain]

I think that if you check the logs, you'll see that these programs are constantly warding off minor attacks and threats.

I just switched from paying $70/year for Norton to the free AVG. So far so good. I've had several folks in the IT industry tell me that especially if you're just cruising the web here and there, the free programs work just fine

[Whoaru99]

So in reality, has AVG really worked fine for me? Yes if not causing serious problems to my system is working fine but I wonder if I would be happier if I didn't have the software running and slowing my system down?

Probably my best antivirus has been my habits???

The best anti-malware is always the computer operator.

I've received an occasional info message from MSE that something has been quarantined. To your point, not often because I'm careful where I go, but it has happened on occasion that a notice has popped up.

[upnorth]

Using avast I get blocked pages etc. I run Malware/spyware checks now and then so you would see stuff show up. Believe me you usually know when your PC has been compromised.