Help me settle a debate, how many of you actually use anti-virus software on your own personal machines?
AVG free, mainly because I've had problems with USB sticks getting infected when I use them in other people's computers...
when i boot into windows i use Avast free due to it having one of the lowest system resource requirments and one the the highest detection rates as shown on the AV comparatives site other than that no i dont use one because i use Linux the rest of the time
Norton Internet securities got a 3 user version for free after i mailed in the rebates. Cant complain about free. Also i have Norton 360 Beta on the wife's computer as she got a nasty trojan while using McAfee.(Norton did away with it while McAfee just couldn't)
AVG 2011 on my folks machine, Microsoft Security Essentials on my own. A few years ago I didn't bother with anti-virus at all and I never got a virus during that time. When MSE came out though I gave it a go and as its no hassle at all and barely uses any system resource... I decided to keep using it.
NOD32 for me. I find it a bit funny, to be honest, that people not using any antivirus software claim never to have had a virus. How would you really know without any software at all to probe for them? Especially with the types of vira common these days. It's not like the old days where you got a funny message on the screen or the virus did something visibly destructive to your pc. Now, your pc "merely" gets taken over to be used in a zombie network or your bank account details get stolen. You don't even have to visit any particularly unsavory site. *Any* site, including bit-tech, can be misappropriated. Simply because not all components on the site need to come from the same source (think ad servers etc.). By the way, even though I've used antivirus software and firewalls for a lot of years now doesn't make me believe that I never have nor ever will be hit by a virus.
It's been said many times if you know what you're doing you can get away with out anti virus, I probably could but I still like the security it gives me by having it installed. I've got AVG on my laptop and MSE on my 2 PC's and the kids both have MSE on theirs.
I would have agreed with that some time ago, but malware can spread through advertisements these days without you being aware of it. A decent ad blocker should be enough if some people still want to run without AVs.
AVG 2011 free, Avast free and Microsoft Security Essentials (also free) spread around 2 PCs and a notebook. O/Ss are XP, XP MCE and W7. Also use Malwarebytes (free) on all 3. I just hate paying.